Gender on Stage: Drag Queens and Performative Femininity

Abstract

This article examines how the performative nature of gender is (re)produced by drag queens and analyses drag culture in Euro-American socio-cultural and political space. In this study, I provide an outline of a historical tradition of portraying femininity on stage starting from ancient Greece and until nowadays. <i>The aim</i> of this research is to investigate the evolution of female roles in European and American societies and the influence of these transformations on drag culture as well as to define the position of drag performative femininity within the framework of modern feminist and queer theories. The <i>research methodology</i> is based on a systematic approach to the study of socio-political and socio-cultural phenomena in their development and mutual relations grounded on the principle of scientific objectivity. In the course of writing of this work, I have applied comparative-historical, critical and chronological methods as well as feminist and gender approaches, based on the theory of gender performativity first articulated by Judith Butler – all of which allowed to conduct a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the phenomenon of drag culture. <i>Conclusions</i> of my study offer an overview of the development tendencies of drag cultures in the USA, Germany and Ukraine providing a new perspective on “staged” femininity, which appears as a result of intertwining gender, race, class and national identities and subverts gender roles imposed by society.