Drag Queens Research Articles

‘Harsh’ SoMa vs ‘Beige’ Castro: The cross-modal construction of contrasting femininities in queer San Francisco

The study of gender in sociolinguistic variation has long concerned the ways linguistic variables pattern with binary gender identities like male and female, with the implicit assumption that masculine individuals will use variants that index masculinity, and feminine individuals will use variants that index femininity. The emerging field of trans linguistics has built upon insights from queer linguistics and challenged the idea that there must be a one-to-one correspondence between linguistic variants and gender identities. Studies of transgender speakers have illuminated that indexing gender is a process of bricolage, where multiple variables collaborate, and only one needs to index gender in a particular way for the speaker's overall semiotic construction to carry that gendered meaning. Here, I investigate cross-modal bricolage, by exploring how visual gender presentation and three different linguistic variables come together to construct contrasting feminine styles among San Francisco drag queens. Linguistic patterns and aesthetic choices illuminate that bricolage involves a semiotic division of labor, in which only some signs (or modalities) need to index gender to give the overall style that gendered meaning. Concurrently, other signs can contribute qualia to a style's overall qualic cloud, that distinguish the style from others in the semiotic landscape. This exploration illuminates the role of the body in conditioning the indexical potential of linguistic signs, destabilizes monolithic essentializations of trans linguistic practice, and acknowledges the varied ways that gender non-normative identity can manifest across communities.

Drag Artists in Shanghai: Balancing Local and Global Influences in Queer Cultural Production

This article discusses a case study of a group of local and expat drag artists based in Shanghai, China. Theoretical perspectives of “global gay” discourse, queer temporality and Chinese-centric queer theories were employed to question how Shanghai’s drag artists navigate drag’s growing popularity, Chinese state restrictions and Western dominance. Through analysing semi-structured interviews and performance video samples of seven drag artists and one LGBTQ+ venue owner, queer cultural productions in China were explored to ask how they offer new possibilities for queer knowledge production, and propose futurities that are simultaneously transnational and rooted in China. While the influence of Euro-American LGBTQ+ discourse was documented and acknowledged, other perspectives revealed more nuanced conceptualisations of the binary between copy/original, the frictions inherent in cultural exchange, and diverse forms of resistance. Shanghai’s drag scene is evolving in distinct ways, incorporating both global and local influences and cultural traditions. With queer knowledge still largely attributed to the West, and non-Western experiences vastly underrepresented, it is important to recognise what underground cultural productions such as those in Shanghai offer global queer cultural exchange.

Troubles and Sweets: Reflecting Critically on Historical Offerings for Contemporary Issues

Implementing critical reflective practice, an art education professor details the design of a preservice undergraduate-level learning module to address troubling anti-trans legislation in their state. While centering contemporary art featuring a historically significant local hero, a drag queen by the name of Sweet Evening Breeze, and resisting a didactic or progress narrative, the author reflects on power dynamics, centering joy, and the importance of partnerships in art teacher preparation.

Child-Sacrificing Drag Queens: Historical Antecedents in Disinformative Narratives Supporting the Drag Queen Story Hour Moral Panic

This paper uses critical disinformation studies to analyze claims that LGBTQ+ communities “groom” children at “Drag Queen Story Hour” (DQSH). We identify anti-homosexual narratives in previous moral panics: the 1950s sexual psychopathy laws, Anita Bryant’s 1977 Save Our Children campaign, and the 1980s Satanic ritual abuse panic. Using critical discourse analysis, we find all disinformative narratives from previous moral panics present in the DQSH discourse, while new themes center transgender people and parental rights. We consider concerns over DQSH a moral panic responding to the gradual mainstreaming of gender nonconformity and increase in LGBTQ+ civil rights and social acceptance.

‘And All Is Semblative a Woman’s Part’: Japan’s All-Male As You Like It

ABSTRACT The practice of cross-gender casting, which has been a long-standing convention in Japanese theatre, has shaped the audience’s expectations of actors performing the opposite gender. Consequently, the audience’s lived experience in Japan is distinct from that of Western audiences. It is challenging to assess the kinaesthetic experience of viewers from different cultural backgrounds, given that the reception of a performance is influenced by culturally determined frames of reference. Traditional cross-gender casting relies on contrast, which may inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes. This may be how the Japanese approach to cross-gender theatre is perceived, but the current cross-gender theatre is not constrained by the traditional forms of stylisation in male or female impersonation. Surprisingly, gender stereotyping and gender ambiguity/fluidity appear to be able to coexist in Japanese culture, which is reflected in cross-gender theatre. Following a discussion concerning the impact of gender representation in subculture and culture on contemporary Japan, I examine Studio Life’s latest Shakespeare production of As You Like It. It is noteworthy that this production does not reinforce traditional gender norms but instead challenges them, presenting a reimagined portrayal of female characters through the male body.

Slang analysis of drag queen in the movie To Wong Foo, thanks for everything! Julie Newmar: sociolinguistic study

Slang analysis of drag queen in the movie To Wong Foo, thanks for everything! Julie Newmar: sociolinguistic study

Exploring the empathic potential of 360-degree documentary

ABSTRACT This paper provides an exploration of the creative and ethical challenges that emerged from producing a 360-degree documentary demo, focusing on two Greek drag artists who live in Athens. It introduces a new approach to understanding empathy at the level of practice and from the perspective of audiences, combining the production of the demo with a reflexive analysis of audience responses to the demo. Emphasis is placed on the potential of 360-degree documentary to develop emotional and cognitive empathy. The demo aimed to capture the drag artists’ performance as a form of resistance, using an innovative technology to portray this under-represented community. A reflexive methodology was deployed for analysing the data, which were collected in the form of 360-degree video and focus groups with participants experiencing the demo. The findings of this study provide insights into the possibility of 360-degree documentary to create change. During the production of the demo, moments of perspective-taking between the researcher and the documentary subjects were rare. The focus groups pointed to aspects which also hindered the empathic potential of the demo, including the diverging expectations of participants and the levels of participants’ familiarity with this technology.

Find Your Face: The Case of Gender Sociocultural Transformations within the Art of Drag Queens in Chile

Find Your Face: The Case of Gender Sociocultural Transformations within the Art of Drag Queens in Chile

Positioning sexual justice within social work teaching on human rights: countering contemporary sexuality oppression

ABSTRACT Access to sexual health, sexuality information, sexual expression and sexual pleasure is a human right. Yet, the sexual health and wellness landscape has become a battlefield. Recently large-scale sex-negative campaigns preceded the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. The use of the word ‘gay’ was restricted in public schools along with efforts to ban drag queen story time. Further reports of increased violence against people who identify as transgender have increased. Given social work’s roots as an anti-oppressive, practice-based profession focused on social justice, social workers are ideally positioned to challenge this attack on sexual rights, sexual pleasure, and access to related services. Sexual justice pedagogy is a warranted first step. A review of the literature establishes the rationale behind sexuality being a human right, examining social work’s missed opportunities for sexual justice. Next, the current sexuality assault landscape in the US is reviewed and sexual justice is defined within social justice. Activities are presented providing educators exemplars to introduce sexual justice content in human rights teaching. I conclude with recommendations to create a learning environment that will help facilitate the understanding and integration of sexual justice within the teaching of human rights to social work students.

‘KULTURKRIEG’ BEHIND BARBED WIRE: GERMAN THEATRE IN AN AUSTRALIAN FIRST‐WORLD‐WAR INTERNMENT CAMP

ABSTRACTThis article is the first in‐depth study of the ‘Deutsches Theater Liverpool’, probably the most successful non‐English theatre ever on Australian soil, selling out daily performances and mounting a new production each week. The theatre's success was due in large part to its location inside the ‘German Concentration Camp’, the largest First World War (WWI) internment camp in Australia. In contrast to most WWI internment camps around the world, its almost six thousand ‘enemy alien’ internees were a mixture of civilians – most of whom called Australia home before the war – merchant sailors and naval personnel. For this diverse group of men, the theatre was more than entertainment; it was an important way to spend their time meaningfully. We argue that this meaning was strongly connected to the (re)negotiation of identity through theatre, allowing the internees to contribute to the war effort understood at the time in German public discourse as a ‘Kulturkrieg’, a battle for the survival of German culture. Theatre‐makers and audiences (re)engaged with their Germanness through ideas of ‘Kameradschaft’, German diligence and the joint duty of ‘durchhalten’ – ‘making do’. The critical importance of female impersonation in the achievement of the theatre's cultural aims rounds out our analysis of the D.T.L.

Teaching is a Drag! Performing Gender as a Queer Secondary English Teacher

ABSTRACT In light of recent protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events, this essay offers a critical examination of the role of gender performance in secondary schools and English lessons through a personal exploration of how I perform gender as a queer English teacher. I show that schools perpetuate a model of gender that is binary and heterosexist; that teachers and students perform gender in complex ways; that reading in English requires queer performances of gender; and that the professional is always personal when it comes to teacher development.

Huysuz Virjin vs. the Law? Drag Bans in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey

Abstract: The renaissance of drag in the last fifteen years has coincided with the rise of right-wing populist governments and their efforts to regulate queer performances across the world. The career of Turkey’s most famous drag queen Huysuz Virjin [Cranky Virjin] demonstrates the complex histories of drag bans, and how conservative regimes employ not only the law and explicit censorship policies but also extralegal strategies to regulate drag performances. This case study shows that while drag bans may aggravate the precarity that characterizes trans lives and transphobia may harm drag performers, the careers of cis drag queens may remain unaffected by or even indirectly benefit from anti-trans legislation.

Stigma Resistance through Body-in-Practice: Embodying Pride through Creative Mastery

Abstract Stigma, as a process of shame, fosters social exclusion and diminishes bodily competences. Thus, stigmatized consumers often turn to the marketplace for respite. Based on an ethnographic study of drag artists, this study proposes a new understanding of the body that emerges from the mastery of creative consumption practices to combat shame. We theorize a novel “body-in-practice” framework to examine how consumers transform from an imagined persona to an accomplished body to embody pride. Six novel stigma resistance strategies emerged—experimenting, guarding, risk-taking, spatial reconfiguring, self-affirming, and integrating. Body-in-practice thus explains how shame weakens, pride strengthens, emotions stabilize, and self-confidence grows. This research contributes by explaining the hard work of identity repair, exploring stigma resistance across safe and hostile social spaces, and highlighting the emancipatory potential of embodied mastery.

(030) Troubles with a Tight Tuck - A Survey of Tucking Practices and Genitourinary Complaints

Abstract Introduction Tucking is a common practice within the trans-female community to align gender identity with phenotype, with one study finding that 74.7% of trans-feminine respondents engaged in tucking. Tucking is found in other communities that may not identify as transgender such as drag queens and cross-dressers. Tucking involves bringing the testes up into the inguinal canal and positioning the penis towards the rectum. The manipulation of the male reproductive organs is not a benign practice. Complications include urinary tract infections, testicular pain, and issues with urinary flow. Reproductive function is affected with significantly lower total sperm per ejaculate, total motile sperm, and a change in morphology among transgender women compared to cisgender men. Research examining tucking and genitourinary complications has been sparse, and healthcare professionals may not be well informed regarding these complications. Objective To assess common tucking practices and associated genitourinary concerns. Methods An anonymous 30-question Qualtrics survey was administered on Reddit, an anonymous online forum, from Oct 2022 to Dec 2022. The survey included questions regarding demographic information, tucking procedures, and genitourinary symptoms associated with tucking. Inclusion criteria included those over 18 years who engage in tucking. This survey was posted on discussion forums that target those who practice tucking, including r/drag, r/asktransgender, r/truscum, r/crossdressing. Categorical variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Fisher’s Exact test. Results There were 50 responses with a 52% completion rate. The analysis included 20 surveys, and 6 surveys were excluded for not meeting the inclusion criteria. Demographic information included transgender status and age. 45% of participants identified as transgender females. 75% of participants were between 18 and 40 years old, and 25% were older than 40 years old. This cohort had significant experience tucking with 45% stating that they’ve tucked for over 5 years. 50% tucked 3 times or less per week, 15% tucked more than 3 times per week but not every day, and 30% tucked daily. When tucking, a majority (55%) tucked for 1-5 hours, 20% for 6-10 hours, 10% for 11-15 hours, 5% for 16-20 hours, and 10% for 21-24 hours. Regarding tucking materials, 5% reported using medical tape to tuck and the remaining 95% reported using a tight undergarment to tuck, such as shapewear, pantyhose, gaff, and underwear. All participants stated they did not feel uncomfortable seeking medical care. Complications included changes in ejaculation (30%), genital pain (22%), and genital numbness (17.7%). 75% of this cohort stated that they did not have any other concerns or experiences with tucking that were not mentioned in the survey. Approximately 22% stated concerns regarding fertility with tucking, and 27.8% considered fertility preservation. Conclusions This study is one of the first to investigate tucking practices and related genitourinary concerns. These respondents primarily used tight undergarments to manipulate the male reproductive organs. Most of the cohort did not have tucking-related genitourinary concerns. Of those with concerns, common concerns included future fertility and fertility preservation. More research is needed regarding fertility outcomes in tucking communities for physicians to adequately serve these communities. Disclosure No.

Madrid is Browning: A conversation with Gad Yola

Afro-LatinX drag artist Gad Yola was born in Lima in 1995, migrated to Spain in 2006, and began performing in Madrid in 2017, a year marked by the rise of Spanish nationalism. This interview acquaints us with Gad Yola's artistic vision and practices. It orients us toward the growing presence of “Brown art” in the Peninsula, taking a deeper look at the work of artists who declare themselves “migrants” or “Migrantas” and examining the use of LatinX’s X in Spain. Gad Yola’s career includes performances such as “El drag es marrón” (“Drag Is Brown”), the exhibition “Hypernariz” (“Hypernose”), and the music videos “No exotice” (“Don’t Exoticize”), “Aguanta Migranta” (“Hang in There, Mx. Migrant”), “Travesti del Perú” (“Trans from Peru”), and “Problemática” (“Troublemaker”). The analysis of these works focuses on the use of pop-reggaeton-cumbia rhythms, the politicization of Gad Yola’s fashion, and her references to colonial history and Spanish, Peruvian, and US pop culture. LatinX’s transatlantic “X” emerges on social media and webs across these geographies, accompanying Gad Yola’s oeuvre and the work of other artists from the Spanish capital with whom she has collaborated, including Chenta Tsai Tseng, Samantha Hudson, and the drag families Casa Drag Latina and House of Gad. From Madrid’s bars, squat houses, and museums, Gad Yola reclaims, invigorates, and re-conceptualizes such referents like Peruvian artist and philosopher Giuseppe Campuzano, while also coming up with characters like “Gad Bunny” and “Gadyoncé,” thus embodying a Global South LatinXness. Gad Yola’s queer, anti-racist art evokes a Global Iberian LatinX that bridges these terms and expands them, reconfiguring the cultural scene in Spain and beyond.

The Drag Queen as Cultural Critique: Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity through Performance

The Drag Queen as Cultural Critique: Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity through Performance

Intersectional Microaggressions and Implications for Health Inequities and HIV Among Latino/x Sexual Minority Males in Puerto Rico.

Latino/x sexual minority males (SMM) continue to be disproportionately impacted by health inequities. This study aims to understand the lived experience of Puerto Rican (PR) SMM related to how intersectional microaggressions influence health-related risk and protective factors. Young adult (ages 21-30) PR SMM from San Juan, Puerto Rico, completed a bilingual in-depth individual interview (14 in Spanish and 1 in English). A thematic analysis based on the original language of the interviews was conducted using NVivo. Six prominent themes were identified through the data analysis: (1) religious microaggressions, being gay is bad because God doesn't like it; (2) gender microaggressions, gay is not good because it's not for men; (3) sexuality microaggressions, this one is a homosexual, coming out as a sexual minority; (4) trans microaggressions, drag queens create an illusion; (5) internalized microaggressions, battling with internalized homophobia; and (6) mitigating microaggressions, establishing a supportive community. Findings suggest that multiple forms of microaggressions based on the intersectionality of sexuality and gender manifest from straight as well as gay communities. PR SMM demonstrated their resiliency by assessing interactions with others to mitigate risks and enhance supportive networks.

The Prevalence of Children’s Programming Related to Gender Identity in North Carolina Public Libraries, Including Drag Queen Story Hours or Other Drag Events

ABSTRACT This research study consisted of a quantitative descriptive survey of collected historic data based on the dual, corroborative approaches of an attempted census of North Carolina public libraries via a survey data collection tool and an examination of publicly posted data. Evidence was found of a very small minority of libraries holding Drag Queen Story Hours or events related to or restricted by gender identity in North Carolina public libraries. Despite the widespread attention being placed on these types of events by the media, these results suggest that theories of gender or sexuality non-normativity being suppressed or excluded.

Queens of Color: What It Means to Be a Black Drag Queen

Queens of Color: What It Means to Be a Black Drag Queen

Uma Amazona de Barba

ABSTRACT A Bearded Amazon – The text grounds its methodology in Discourse Analysis. To do so, it mobilizes signifiers with the aim of discursively analyzing the artistic performance of a drag queen. The thesis presented argues that dressing up is a discursive mechanism that creates a symbolic punctum that conceals the traumatic reality of growing up unable to associate with the feminine. It concludes that the drag’s position, as a tension between masculinist formation and its opposite, represents a liminal, dissenting space of hybridity and transfiguration of pain, repression, and loss. The contribution lies in the fact that it is through this artistic practice that the subject of discourse resists and authorizes oneself to act, to signify.