Christine and the Queens, Chris, Redcar, and navigating gender identity

Abstract

Gender identity expression continues to be the subject of public discourse. In the past few decades, scholars and members of the general public have questioned the idea of a stable and binary gender identity, which has caused debates in both the anglophone and francophone worlds. Redcar, also known as Christine and the Queens, as well as Chris, is a particularly interesting public figure concerning gender identity and expression because his relationship has evolved throughout his career. The artist has been remarkably open about his relationship with gender throughout the last decade, which has been in the public eye. Redcar is also someone who has found himself between the anglophone and francophone worlds – he expresses a cultural identity that is neither altogether French nor anglophone, but hybrid. As a musician whose journey with gender has been more or less public, it raises the question: How does Redcar use his music, videos, and persona to navigate and express his evolving relationship with gender? Through the use of gender and queer theories, this article demonstrates how Redcar has used these elements to examine and redefine his own gender. This essay will look specifically at the construction of his celebrity persona, followed by a lyrical analysis of the song “iT” from his first album Chaleur humaine (2014) and a scenic analysis from the music video for “5 dols/5 dollars” from his second album Chris (2018) to demonstrate how Redcar’s public experience of gender exploration works to deconstruct the idea of a static gender and instead demonstrates how gender is always in a process of renegotiation.