Barbette

Who is Barbette?

Barbette is the stage name of Vander Clyde Broadway, a groundbreaking circus artist and female impersonator born in 1899. 

Vander became fascinated by the circus at an early age. He was particularly enamored by the spectacle and the glamour of it.

By the age of 14, he auditioned to be part of an aerial act by the Alfaretta Sisters (one of the sisters succumbed in an accident).  

What?

In his solo act, Barbette combined various circus techniques, like trapeze and wire-walking, with female impersonation.

For Barbette, this female impersonation wasn’t a ‘shtick’. It wasn’t supposed to be a campy or clear act of a man performing as a woman. Barbette, fueled by his love of glamour, wanted his impersonation to be credible, to be graceful and beautiful and mystical.

He wanted everyone in the audience to believe, by the way he composed himself, that he was in fact a woman.

Performing acts in drag itself wasn’t new, but the way Barbette did it, was. What set Barbette apart, is that he would reveal his gender trickery at the end of his act. He’d reveal his wig, showcase his muscles and take on exaggerated masculine poses.

By overdoing this performance of being a ‘man’ at the end, the contrast with the earlier grace and beauty with which he had performed his ‘female act’ was overpowering. Barbette seemed to be able to (de-)transform into a man, or woman, at will.   

‘Barbette’ was one of the first performances to subvert gender in such an obvious and overt way. It highlighted the constructed nature of ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories and it shocked people into questioning these categories.