T-shirt Modernism and The Performance of Masculinity: The Theatrical Refashionings of Tennessee Williams and William Inge

Abstract

Something of a dandy, drawn to the tuxedo life, Tennessee Williams unleashed a gritty, working-class modernity with his theatrical revolution in which undergarments grew emblematic. Williams's images of post-War masculinity would resonate with his protégé, William Inge, continue on the stage, into the iconography of film and further extend through the youth rebellion of the 1950s and 60s, into the tie dye era of the 60s and 70s and the grunge of the 1980s and 90s generating a general shift in American public appearance from suits to sweats. What is here called T-shirt Modernism became acceptable public dress and an emblem of masculinity. Such a tectonic shift in haberdashery and its concomitant exaggerated hyper masculinity owe much to the theatrical revolution unleashed on the Broadway stage by Tennessee Williams (and his collaborators) in December of 1947.