The performative nature of social interactions was taken to new levels by Shakespeare, displaying for anyone who would watch, a dramatic or comedic mockery of a society preceding our own. His irreverence for categories and hierarchies, touched by fantastical articulation of a possible reality created an outlet for frustration and a mode of challenging societal norms. His characters ranged from kings and queens to rebellious teens, and then from men playing women to women playing men...or men playing women playing men. Still following? Good. What's the point? Here it is! These convoluted gender situations paved the way for an exploration of sexuality that defied boundaries and rebelled oppression. Females gained agency and prominence, burst out of the societal roles thrust upon them into these characters who embraced irrationality, seized control of kingdoms and wrought the hearts of men. And that was just the beginning...
So what does that have to do with feminism? Well, it has to start somewhere. Women surpassed their circumstances or embraced their chosen fate, real or fictitious, it was a start. And the ball hasn't stopped rolling since.
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