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Article: New Orleans Mardi Gras and Gender in Three Krewes: Rex, The Truck Parades, and Muses
- Article from:
- Western Folklore
- Article date:
- July 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright California Folklore Society Summer 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Mardi Gras thus provides a case study of the complexities of cultural change. Carnival was not merely a diversion, or even a simple reflection of society. Cross-dressing, racial disguise, and manipulation of carnivalesque symbols reveal a struggle over the meaning of masculinity and femininity in a racialized society.
Karen Leathem
To perform also means, though often more secretly, to reinvent.
Joseph Roach
Multi-faceted and dynamic, despite its reliance on core traditions, Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a complex series of events that illuminates struggles over class, gender, and race.1 One of the few studies of New Orleans Mardi Gras asserts that, "while there is community-wide maskery and ...