Queering Drag: Redefining the Discourse of Gender-Bending [Paperback]

Theatrical gender-bending, also called drag, is a popular form of entertainment and a subject of scholarly study. However, most drag studies do not question the standard words and ideas used to convey this performance genre. Drawing on a rich body of archival and ethnographic research, Meredith Heller illuminates diverse examples of theatrical gender-bending: male impersonation in variety and vaudeville (18601920); the sexless gender-bending of El Teatro Campesino (19601980); queer butch acts performed by black nightclub singers, such as Storm? DeLarverie, instigator of the Stonewall riots (19101970); and the range of acts that compose contemporary drag king shows. Heller highlights how, in each case, standard drag discourses do not sufficiently capture the complexity of performers' intents and methods, nor do they provide a strong enough foundation for holistically evaluating the impact of this work.Queering Dragoffers redefinition of the genre centralized in the performer's construction and presentation of a queer version of hegemonic identity, and it models a new set of tools for analyzing drag as a process of intents and methods enacted to effect specific goals. This new drag discourse not only allows for more complete and accurate descriptions of drag acts, but it also facilitates more ethical discussions about the bodies, identities, and products of drag performers.

Meredith Heller is Lecturer of Queer Studies in Women's and Gender Studies at Northern Arizona University.

Among the many contributions this [book makes] to various fields is its delineation and mapping of the ways in which different forms of gender-bending have helped to create new gender categories of identity, and alternative forms of gender articulations and expressions, which have implications for both how gender is made and enacted, and how gender is lived in the everyday. Marlon M. Bailey, author ofButch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, andlã"