Walk Like a Man

Abstract

SUMMARYWith this chapter, I explore the potential of drag king performance as a tool of deconstructing gender. I begin with a brief examination of the ways that gender is constructed as natural through the repetition of a set of norms, noting the pervasiveness of these norms and their location at the center of cultural imagination. I then turn to the idea of drag as a practice of subverting these norms through breaking their repetition. I argue that drag king performance, through its failure to approximate the “natural male,” draws attention to the very constructedness of the category, and thus of all naturalized categories of gender. Using the budding Edmonton drag king scene as a case example, I discuss some of the ways that drag kings take queer theory and gender deconstruction out of the classroom and into practice. I speculate as to the effectiveness of such practices in the realm of queer theory, pointing to the ways that these performances may be read to reinforce rather than subvert gender norms. I also look at the complexities of “passing” gender performances, such as transsexual or transgendered practices, and the ways that these practices align or do not align with performances intending to fail. I propose that the emergence of these practices is in itself a beginning step toward a reevaluation of normative gender, and toward a radical reinvention of new gender possibilities.