A Familiar Tune in the Factory: The Roles Capitalism Promotes in Kinky Boots
“I’m not homophobic. I have a gay friend!”
How often has this excuse been used as an “argument”? As if having a queer person in a friend group negates the fact that one can be homophobic and heteronormative. Similarly, in Kinky Boots (2012), a Broadway musical by Cyndi Lauper, capitalism has set heteronormative roles for men and women, and the introduction of a queer person does not change fact that the characters follow these heteronormative roles.
The character Charlie, a businessman, tries to save his father’s failing shoe company by making high heeled boots for drag queens. He acquires the help of a drag queen, Lola (she/her), and in the musical number “Raise You Up,” they have a successful showing of the boots. This paper addresses how the musical shows how working with people of dissimilar backgrounds and minds can help make a better product, but also how people can often stay in their heteronormative roles even when exposed to queer culture. I argue that the men of this musical stick to their heteronormative and capitalist role as the businessmen and product managers while the women stay in their roles as the experts on aesthetics and love interests.
Charlie and Lola’s enterprise begins when Charlie saves her from street thugs. As she describes how uncomfortable her drag queen stage shoes are, Charlie has the idea to go into the niche market of making shoes for drag queens. While there is tension between Lola and some of the factory workers, the shoes are designed and production begins. However, Lola starts making decisions without asking Charlie, sparking an argument and causing Lola to storm out. Luckily, Don, one of the workers, convinces the other workers to finish the boot while Charlie calls Lola with a heartfelt apology. In the beginning of the number “Raise You Up,” Lola is nowhere to be found in Milan when it is time to model the boots, so Charlie has to model them. However, he can barely walk in them and falls. The lights go off, and when they turn back on, Lola in all her dazzling glory and the iconic red boots is standing over Charlie, ready to save the day.
Photo by Matthew Murphy
Even though Charlie and Lola create successful boots, Charlie, the main male role, was the one who came up with the idea for the boot and was the most involved in the production and business process. His portrayal in the musical number “Raise You Up” parallels this. In a black and white suit and tie with his hair combed nicely, Charlie is dressed from the waist up as a straight laced businessman. He stands, albeit shakily, in the center of a walkway. Behind him and all around him there are lights shining to cast light on him and frame him as he walks. In the article “Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex,” Heidi Hartmann, a feminist economist, analyses the implied by capitalism. She describes how, stereotypically, “in most trades men were the central workers and women the assistants” (Hartmann 2). Similarly, Jack Halberstam in his definition of “Gender,” says that gender “names a primary mode of oppression that sorts humans bodies into binary categories in order to assign labor.” (Halberstam 117). Charlie, taking the position of private owner, lives up to this stereotype of the “central worker”, which could be defined as a position like manager or factory head.
In contrast with his upper attire, from the waist down his whole image changes. He is only in boxers, modeling the thigh high red boots, leaving his upper thighs exposed. These boots are made of shiny material with no lace or zip, but a good four to five inch heel on them. Not used to wearing heels, Charlie stumbles as he attempts to walk in them, arms pinwheeling about. Some may question how this fits into his role of the heteronormative “central worker.” However, by him showing off his own product, he is staying in the most crucial role, both making and “selling” the boot. The Milan showing is a way to get his product off the ground, therefore he is also achieving the central task of marketing.
Lola, the main female role, contributed to the design and aesthetics of the boot, a “female” task. In “Race, Class, and Gender in Women’s Pathways to Occupational Gender Segregation,” Kennedy writes about a study on the gender segregation of jobs. She found that “most of the women… like to do a good job and make things look nice” (Kennedy 68). Her study found that stereotypically, women like to aesthetically contribute to a project at hand. Women in the work force “have” to look nicer than their male counterparts, so this could carry over to why women like to “make things look nice.”
Following this stereotype, Lola’s main role was to design the boots’ sex appeal. She gave them a high heel, without which the boot would have failed to be popular with drag queens. Lola’s dress and actions in the song parallel her contributions to the design of the boot. In “Raise You Up,” Lola is dressed very flamboyantly: she wears a glittering red top which matches her glittering red shorts, a shoulder-length blonde wig on and heavy makeup. However, the most eye-catching part of her outfit is her pair of thigh high red boots that are both fashionable and comfortable for a drag queen who has big feet to wear. She confidently sings and dances, showing off her creativity and originality. Her whole flashy outfit is matching, making it visually pleasing. Both her dancing and low cut neckline are provocative, displaying her sex appeal. Lola fulfils stereotypical the role of the “assistant” who adds on ideas about how to “make [the boot] look nice” by adding sex appeal to the product.
One of the only other female characters who appears in the play is Lauren, who only acts as a way to drive Charlie into a heterosexual relationship. Lauren, a factory worker, is by definition an “assistant” to Charlie’s “central worker.” However, she is even less of a help than Lola in the production of the boot. Her only contribution to the play is to be Charlie’s love interest, not stepping up to offer any ideas or model the boots when Lola was away. Her defining moments and songs are all in relation to her crush on Charlie. Her role in the celebratory finale song “Raise You Up” parallels this. She appears halfway through the song with her hair up in a professional yet stylish manner sporting makeup. As she is singing about how she believed in Charlie, she grabs his tie and pulls him towards her. Charlie then sings “I was a loose shoe but you need two to make a pair.” The music then stops as a shocked Lauren confirms with Charlie that he just asked her out. They kiss, and become a couple.
In “Capitalism and Gay Identity,” John D’Emilio, a professor of women’s and gender studies, writes, “Ideologically, capitalism drives people into heterosexual families, each generation comes of age having internalized a hetereosexist model of intimacy and personal relationships” ( D’Emilio 109). Charlie and Lauren fulfil the this role of “heterosexual families” with a man loving a woman. They meet at work, showing how it was capitalism that drove them into this relationship. In their work life, Charlie is the boss and Lauren is the worker, which parallels the “heretosexist model of personal relationships” wherein the man is the boss of the family and the woman subordinate. Charlie’s ex-fiancee, Nikola, broke up with Charlie because he was spending too much time working at the factory to perfect the boots in time for the showing. Therefore, it was also capitalism and its competitive nature that made Charlie available to Lauren, who worked at the factory and therefore still is able to spend time with Charlie as he poured work into his factory work. As a straight couple who are together because of work, Charlie and Lauren are a heterosexual couple who got into their relationship because of capitalism.
The other male factory workers also take the role of “central workers” at this factory, contributing more to the product than Lola or Lauren. After Lola shows how to make a boot have sex appeal, George, the factory manager, realizes a way to make her design practical, and without him the boot would have stayed a Drag Queen’s drawing. Don, an intimidating factory worker, drives the production of the boots when it seemed that they would not be finished in time, showing how he is a “central worker.” Don is able to convince the workers to work for a week without pay to finish the boot before the Milan showing, therefore helping control the “labor” part of capitalism
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In “Raise You Up,” Don’s arrival into the song parallels the leadership role that he took in the construction of the boot. Don appears on the walkway halfway through the song dressed in biker gear. As he sings, “here comes Don, and Don has brought some friends along,” some factory workers appear behind and beside him. Just as he got the factory workers to stay to finish the boot, he got the factory workers to travel to Milan to support the showing of the boot. While George and Don live up to the stereotype of men taking the role of “central workers” in a factory, the women’s stereotypical role of “assistant” should be undervalued.
Lola provides necessary emotional labor to the factory. As a drag queen, Lola’s biological sex is male but her gender while in drag is female, showing how “women’s increased propensity to engage in emotion work is not related to their sex but really their gender and the position that they have served in the family and in friendship groups, in society” (Erickson 12). Lola’s “position” in her “friendship group” is related to her “gender,” and so she fits the heteronormative expectation of providing emotional labor.
The exploitation of emotional labor is one feminist issue Clementine Morrigan, a writer for the magazine Guts, writes about.
I, as a woman, am often expected to perform emotional labour… Emotional labor is a skill set. It is work that is supportive, that lifts people up… Often invisible, emotional labour is always working behind the scenes… Sometimes emotional labour takes the form of educating others” (Morrigan 32).
Emotional labor, as Lola sings, “raise[s] you up” even though one may not see and appreciate it. Society places pressure on those whose gender is female to perform emotional labor. Those who do not perform this labor, commonly men, take advantage of this “skill set” by not reciprocating. Since emotional labor is “invisible” and “behind the scenes,” it is often overlooked in favor of more obvious forms of labor such as physical. However, emotional labor is still incredibly important since it “lifts people up” and “educa[es] others.”
Lola provides emotional labor for Don, a man, who then steps up from the capitalistic role of regular worker to a “central worker” for the factory. Originally, Don did not like Lola, so to prove herself to him, she decided to have a wager. Each of them would do something the other asked, and Lola asks Don to “accept someone for who they are.” Her emotional labor took “the form of educating others.” Don accepts Charlie and his decision to make boots for drag queens, which is the reason he convinces all of the workers to come back to the factory. Lola’s “work behind the scenes” is the reason that the workers come back and finish the boot on time.
In “Raise You Up,” Charlie, who sings about how he received emotional labor from his “assistant.” As Charlie stands up, he sings, “Never put much heart in anything before./You strut into my life and help me go for something more./ Now I stand up for myself./ Now I stand out from the crowd.” Before meeting Lola, Charlie never worked hard for in anything in life, but after meeting her, he is innovating and “go[ing] for something more.” He can “stand up” and “stand out from the crowd,” important requirements in the world of business. Lola provides emotional labor for Charlie, who uses that labor to become a more successful businessman.
The characters in Kinky Boots all stay in their heteronormative roles given to them by capitalism. In their capitalistic business, Charlie, George, and Don take the heteronormative role of “central worker” by having the leading roles in manufacturing the boot, while Lauren barely contributes, her main role being Charlie’s other half in a heterosexual couple. Lola also takes a back seat to the production of the boot, offering aesthetic tips and emotional labor. However, while Lola fits the stereotypically female role of “assistant,” this should not demean the importance of her work. Without her suggestions for how to give the boot sex appeal, drag queens, for whom the boot is designed, would not have been interested in it. Charlie would not have tried as hard if Lola had not come into her life, and Don would have never convinced the workers to stay to finish the boots. While people stay in their heteronormative roles even when exposed to queer culture like drag queens, each role should be just as valued as the next.
Works Cited
D’Emilio, John. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality, 1983, pp. 100–113.
Erickson, Rebecca J. “Why Emotion Work Matters: Sex, Gender, and the Division of Household Labor.” Journal of Marriage and Family, vol. 67, no. 2, 2005, pp. 337–351., doi:10.1111/j.0022–2445.2005.00120.x.
Halberstam, Jack. “Gender.” Keywords, New York University Press, 2014, Theater R1A Course Reader.
Hartmann, Heidi. “Capitalism, Patriarchy, and Job Segregation by Sex.” Classes, Power, and Conflict, 1982, pp. 446–469., doi:10.1007/978–1–349–16801–9_22.
Kennelly, Ivy Leigh. “Race, Class, and Gender in Women’s Pathways to Occupational Gender Segregation.” 1999.
Morrigan, Clementine. “Three Thoughts on Emotional Labour.” GUTS, 27 Sept. 2017.
