`` Drag Kings : Masculinity And Performance `` By Judith Halberstam Essay

The play focuses on three prominent stereotypical ideas that Western males hold concerning Eastern women: the submission of Asian women to Western males, knowledge in handling the female body, and their desires for masculine Western counterparts. Ultimately, M. Butterfly addresses culturally constructed stereotypes as powerful and limiting.

The movie “Paris Is Burning” is a documentary film exploring race, gender, and sexuality within the African-American and Latino gay and transgender communities of the ball culture of New York in the mid-to-late 1980’s. Ball culture is a term used to describe the underground sub-culture of LGBT people who “walk” or compete for trophies in events known as balls. The film chronicles the ostentatiously-arranged competitions in which participants, within a very specific theme, must walk while being judged on criteria such as the authenticity and beauty of their apparel and their dancing ability. Much of the film shows footage of actual balls interspersed with interviews of prominent members of this drag scene. The film shows people of different gender identities and their varied methods of expressing themselves while also exploring how they cope with racism, AIDS, poverty, and homophobia.

However, this show has recently taken over social media and has changed the way society views drag as well as what it stands for. Being able to get a first hand look at these men’s personal stories as well as being able to see their identity and what it means to them has given society a clearer and deeper understanding as to what drag really is.

Gender norms surround every person in every culture, even though they have variety in each culture, they are still real and still impact individuals who stand out from the norms. Leslie Feinberg's book “Stone Butch Blues” shows how hard it is to challenge gender in the 1960’s when homosexuality and the transgender movement was something that was just starting up. Leslie shows the reader that just by existing in a transphobic environment ze is challenging what it means to be a man or a woman, and more importantly, what’s in between. Leslie shows that gender isn’t just black and white, it’s a spectrum of colours.

Valentine on the other hand in seeking out so many conflicted and widespread views of gender and self creates enough fragmentation of gender labels for his argument of individualism and self-identity to shine out. In presenting the reader with individuals such as Mona(Valentine 116) plagued with alternating bouts of confusion and zealous certainty regarding herself and labels, Valentine practically invites the reader to conclude that certain gender bound labels cannot be on good faith placed by the reader on such individuals. Additionally in interviewing Sheryl who is not part of the typical subjects found at the meat market, the argument on its own is lent credibility by further enlarging the representation of the gender queer segment to both drag queens and individuals from different ethnic and financial

The “princess phase” is first up for debate as Orenstein discusses the concept with fellow mothers at her daughter’s school. Each of the mothers justify the princess epidemic in a different way, one stating that it’s simply about dressing up and that the stories are not permitted in the home while another says that having a princess ideal gives her daughter a strong identity as a woman and as female -- a place were 1960s feminism erred, according to this same mother.

In this paper, I will examine how women of color who deal with the lack of acceptance growing up because of their lesbianism help shape and/or will shape them to be future role models for LGBT people around the world. I will be using the coming of age drama, Pariah, directed and written by Dee Rees, as a primary source in order to argue how the cinematography in this film portrays Alike being the epitome of embracing one 's sexuality. I chose this film because it reminded me of a similar story that touched me in the form of a book written by Audre Lorde called Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Standing up in what Alike believed in and taking a stand by fighting back against so many in the community deal with on a everyday basis is the driving force I will use to show how she took a big giant step

Marlon Bailey’s “Butch Queens Up in Pumps”, examines the drag ball communities of Detroit. Bailey uncovered how a specific group, the Black LGBT , are separated from or pushed out by their communities. According to Marlon Bailey , “Black LGBT people in Detroit exist within a marginalized

Clare Croft’s article talks about the physical responses to prompts, as she removes the word “girl” from rehearsals and gives them words such as “bossy” or “scarred.” With this she achieves a less hetero-normative performance as it removed the idea’s of femineity and gender. She also talks of the loudness of the male actors in comparison to the females, and how it draws the eye away. This is one way in which IF THERE’S NOT DANCING AT THE REVOLUTION, I’M NOT COMING… achieves feminist goals. By removing the male from the stage, directing the focus to the Julia Croft and paying attention to her representations of gender.

Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.

The idea of masculinity, which is socially constructed, can be thought as a constant change. Men were forced to adapt in order to maintain the masculine supremacy expected of them from society. Dance, due to its nature and relationship to the body, is a way to express gender roles that may not be what society considers the norm. Dancers and choreographers take their outside experiences and exposure and use that to portray gender in their work. Audience members outside experiences and what they see on a daily basis also contributes to how they interpret the piece. However, the way the audience views dance is up to how the dance is shown to them. During a live performance, there may be moments where gender defiance occurs and the men dancing may challenge the way society views masculinity. That is why when it comes to dance, there are moments that conflict and defy the way modern society views masculinity.

For queer theorists, identity has been constructed through performativity, which is based on the opinion of Judith Butler. Butler (1990, p.25) believed that “ there is no gender identity behind the expression of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results.” In other words, there is not any factor to produce the identity, but identity creates itself through performativity. One should imitate and repeat the gender expression again and again according to norms, then the identity will be constituted, which also shows that identity is fluid and constructed. Moreover, Jenkins (2000,2004) stated that a dynamic social process generates identity, so identity is not static but fluid and dynamic.

The musicals Billy Elliot and Grease present both conventional and unconventional representations of gender throughout. Both musicals also seem to obscure the message of the underlying gender stereotyping issues by overshadowing them with elements such as music, dance and costume.

Now this is where I destroy the idea that only queer men do drag. Drag is extremely inclusive and anyone can join in on the fun. For example we have drag kings, bio queens, even young aspiring queens like 8 year old Lactacia are welcome. Drag kings can be defined as women and dressed as men for performance and entertainment. Performers like Landon Cider, Robin Heartz, and Spikey Van Dykey. Bio queens on the other hand are women dressed as an exaggerated idea of being female. Women such as Tayla Macdonald, the girls of Drag Coven Aka Courtney Conquer and Ja’mie Queen West, and Lucy Garland are well known in the community. As for Lactacia, the 8 year old drag queen the young queen have recently blown up in the media and the world of drag. Lactacia and their mother recently did an interview with Elle Magazine where they were asked how the 8 year old got into drag, like many others including myself it all started with a little show called Rupaul’s Drag Race. Drag Race is a reality competition show where they find the next drag superstar. Much like Americas Next Top Model, but with much more charisma, uniqueness, nerve, and talent. Through the growing popularity of the show it is spreading the art of drag and the magic behind it. Not only has casted a spell on Lactacia and I, but millions of others as well.

Gender performativity is related to performance and shares elements with it, but it has no subject. She explains, “The action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. This repetition is at once a reenactment and reexperiencing of a set of meanings already socially established” (178). Performativity creates a fictional reality in which gender and its roles are determined according to a men/women binary distinction. According to her, the category of Women from which the feminist struggle arises is different from this political, hierarchical myth based on