Reflections on Female Consciousness and Reality Carried by Musical Stage Images From the Gender Perspective

Abstract

The female characters on the musical stage embody artistic creation concepts and also reflect the evolution of social gender concepts. From a gender research perspective, this article uses text analysis methods to examine works such as Suffs, Hamilton, and Elizabeth, focusing on the changes in the narrative positions and identity construction of female characters. The research finds that since the 21st century, musicals have gradually loosened the male-centered narrative tradition: Six gives women the opportunity to speak on the stage, but its narrative still revolves around Henry VIII; Suffs focuses on the political differences in the women's suffrage movement and realizes the construction of women as historical actors; the German Elizabeth provides a spiritual path of inward exploration through "I Belong to Me". In addition, Broadway data shows that female audiences accounted for approximately 65% of the performances in the 2022-2023 season. Chinese theaters also show a similar trend, but local all-female productions such as The Butterfly on the Bund and Taibai: The Starry Poem indicate the gap between the on-stage roles and the composition of the behind-the-scenes creative team. This article believes that the development of female consciousness in musicals not only depends on the transformation of narrative perspectives, but also requires the substantive participation of female creators in the aspects of scriptwriting, composition, etc.