The Fluidity of Sex, Sexuality, and Gender

Though the following discussion began with a query about a term to describe
"women who dress up to resemble/pass for transvestites," it soon evolved into
a discussion of social construction and the fluidity of sex, sexuality, and
gender.  Because of the unusual length of the discussion, which took place
on WMST-L in July/August 2001, it has been divided into five parts.  
Later related messages have been added at the end.  For additional
WMST-L files, see the WMST-L File Collection.

PAGE 1 OF 5

Somewhere in my memory, I have the notion that there is a specific term
for women who dress up to resemble/pass for transvestites like those
portrayed in _Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_. My partner/colleague
says he thinks I'm imagining things. Any help, even if it is to confirm
his assessment, would be appreciated. You can e-mail me directly at
scurtis  AT  tnstate.edu.
Thanks,
Sam

---------------------------------------------
Samantha A. Morgan-Curtis
Languages, Literature, and Philosophy
119 Humanities Bldg., x.1536
"they run so into Rhetorick, as often times
they overrun the boundes of their own wits,
and goe they knowe not whether."--Jane Anger

My daughter, whose usual presentation is butch-to-androgynous, sometimes
goes all out dressing up "feminine."  The word she and her friends use to
describe this presentation (they say they are "in drag" when doing it) is
"drag princess."

First, thanks to all who have already to responded to this question, & one
kind soul who realized that my brain could not come up with the word
_drag_!:-)

Next, I want to be sure that my question was clear: I'm looking for a term
that describes a woman who dresses up to look like a drag queen (so really
calling those gender roles into play).  Most replies have suggested the term
"drag king" which sounds good to me, but I wanted to make sure that my
question was almost coherent.

Also, does anyone know of an article where this term is used? I don't have
Judith Butler handy, but I was thinking maybe that was where I remembered it
from. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
Sam
scurtis  AT  tnstate.edu

Isn't the term cross dresser/ing the term you were looking for? As you
suggest it opens up a whole lot of other issues of what exactly is female
and male clothing/behavior?? And what traits of the masculine or feminine
does that person choose to aprropriate and why? If a drag queen is imitating
a woman then how can a woman dress up as a drag queen?? Isn't she just
dressing in a steretypically feminine way??

Victoria Pasley

"Drag king" is a term usually used when a woman dresses up as a man.  

anabug.livejournal.com

"Drag king" isn't the right term - drag kings are women who dress in male drag
(if drag queens dress like Mae West, drag kings dress like The Village
People)..

The term you're looking for is probably "faux queen."  See
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/11/22/drag.queens.reut/ , or
http://www.advocate.com/html/news/111100_111300/111100ent08.asp , for example.

http://zena.secureforum.com/cartoons/by_artist.cfm?artist

We're getting off-topic, but....no, a drag queen isn't just imitating a
woman.  A drag queen is (usually) parodying a particular, exaggerated vision
of femininity--one which very, very few women aspire to.  It's a conscious
comment on gender, not on sex, I think.  Crossdressing is, when done in
public, usually an effort to "pass" and therefore has to be imitative.

Is the original question, what do you call a _woman_ who is in high _female_
drag?  If so, I have no idea...

Sheryl
sjlesage  AT  ou.edu

> If a drag queen is imitating a woman then how can a woman dress
> up as a drag queen?? Isn't she just dressing in a steretypically
> feminine way??

Um, I think I'm pretty safe to say that anyone who thinks that
drag queens are "imitating a woman" probably hasn't seen any drag
shows. As RuPaul once said, "Look, 6-inch heels aren't women's
shoes - they are drag queens' shoes."

Personally I don't have any problem calling a female who dresses
like a drag queen a "drag queen" - who says that drag queens have
to be male?


Emigrl <emi  AT  eminism.org>
(went to Gay90s in Mpls during NWSA in June)

--
http://eminism.org/ * Putting the Emi back in Feminism since 1975.

Hi, Sam,

The emerging (in both academia and drag settings) term "drag king" is a
woman, often lesbian identified, who performs as a male persona (see Volcano
and Halberstam's The Drag King Book, 1999).  In my own work on the Imperial
Sovereign Court System, I use the term "lesbian drag queen" to describe
largely lesbian identified women who perform hyper-feminine images (In
Feminism and Men, Schacht and Ewing, 1998).  In this work I also outline
lesbian drag kings, gay drag queens, and gay drag kings, which combined with
straight men and women who sometimes attended court sponsored drag shows,
make up what I argue are the multiple genders of the court.

Cheers,

Steve
Department of Sociology
Plattsburgh SUNY

Steve, But are these really "multiple genders" or merely variations,
exaggerations, parodies, or fantastic versions of the basic two?

---------------------------------
daphne.patai  AT  spanport.umass.edu

Judith Butler uses the term "gender performativity", which as
I understand it is in reference to any* exaggeration of gender
acts.  She does talk about drag quite a bit, in relation to this
term, although in my article entitled "Beer and Tea: harmony
and contradiction among two unlikely counterparts" I use it
to discuss ordinary women (from the WI alternative calendar
here in England), see 6, 3, July, 2001, International Journal
of Sexuality and Gender Studies),

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble, is the book you are thinking of.

Sue McPherson
sue  AT  mcphersons.freeserve.co.uk
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/homepage.html

which basic two?  what are they called, what are their formations, and can you
 provide some documentation?  this will help my research significantly.


Daphne Patai queries:
>Steve, But are these really "multiple genders" or merely variations,
>exaggerations, parodies, or fantastic versions of the basic two?

thousand thanks,
scout
informatician

scout  AT  hoyden.org
http://www.hoyden.org/books/

the last few comments have suggested to me that revisiting goffman's
"dramaturgical analysis" might be helpful (tho by no means conclusive)
to sorting this out--i.e. behavior as a theatrical presentation of self
corresponding to a favored self-image/identity the individual wants
others to ascribe to him/her--in the "symbolic interactionist" school of
sociological theory...

debbie <louis  AT  umbc.edu>

Happy to oblige with clarificaton about the "basic two."  I was referring to
men/women or male/female, as used in *all* the preceding messages on this
thread.

Daphne

---------------------------------
daphne.patai  AT  spanport.umass.edu

<< Steve, But are these really "multiple genders" or merely variations,
 exaggerations, parodies, or fantastic versions of the basic two? >>

Hi, Daphne,

My work in this area more deals with issues of sex, gender, and sexual
identity and performance.  The "basic two" are typically seen as innate,
fixed, and a binary, whereas my experiences in the court suggest an extremely
fluid, almost entirely contextual basis to doing gender and sexuality.  For
instance, many of my hyper-feminine gay drag queen friends never don women's
attire outside of the setting and can easily pass as a straight man.  Many of
my gay drag king friends, one of the contextual hyper-masculine personas of
the court, outside of the setting often appear as your stereotypical high
pitch, limp-wristed, hips-sashaying gay man.  On the other hand, many of my
lesbian drag king friends are decidedly and quite consistently masculine in
their presentation of self inside and outside of the setting.  IMO, to gain
an understanding of sex/gender/sexuality--beyond the "basic two"--one needs
to be attuned to issues of identity (who I perceive or desire myself to be
sex/gender/sexuality wise) and performance (how does one accomplish their
believed/desired sex/gender/sexuality).

In short, I believe many of my imperial court friends are fantastic versions
of sex/gender/sexuality in their own right.

Cheers,

Steve
PSUNY
SPSCHACHT  AT  AOL.COM (Steve Schacht)

Might I recommend Anne Fausto-Sterling's _Sexing the Body_, for a
biologist's perspective?  Judith Butler's approach is as a philosopher who
can _reason_ her way to the construction of first gender, then sex (and I'm
pretty sure "gender performativity" isn't about extremes: it's what we all
do, all the time).  Fausto-Sterling uses biology.  She tries to find a
common ground where the sciences and the humanities can both work to figure
out what we're talking about when we talk about sex, gender, sexuality, etc.
Valuable stuff in there about how scientists narrow (often artificially, but
also often unavoidably--see her chapter on the corpus callosum) the
parameters of the characteristics they point to and say "this denotes 'male'
and that denotes 'female'."  She says that instead of a "basic two" sexes,
there's a continuum.  When Fausto-Sterling talks about "construction" of
sex, she means it literally, as surgeons first decide on and then construct
the sex of intersexed babies.  I don't want to go into too much detail and
I'm only partway through the book--it seems outrageous fun to me, and I just
hope someone doesn't pipe up and point to some glaring error in it...

And Steve, I'm on your team, but I don't think that gender is really all
that fluid.  Contextual, sure.  But, except for short bursts for fun or
public performance, most of us just are whatever we are (the question is,
what is THAT?).  Go ahead, put me in a dress, but you'll still think you're
looking at a Marine in drag.  I couldn't walk like a girl, or sit like one,
or defer like one, if you paid my rent for the next 6 months.

Sheryl
sjlesage  AT  ou.edu

Sam scurtis  AT  tnstate.edu  wrote:

I want to be sure that my question was clear: I'm looking for a term
that describes a woman who dresses up to look like a drag queen (so really
calling those gender roles into play).

Reply:

I don't know if this is what you were trying to think of, but Luce Irigaray
might have called the practice "mimesis" as in the volume This Sex Which is
Not One.  She follows the psychoanalyst Joan Riviere in using this term I
believe.  I don't have an exact reference for Riviere's (c.1930s?) article,
however.  It might be referenced in Butler's Gender Trouble.

JT Faraday
Independent Scholar
qwertyuiop68  AT  msn.com

My article, "Beer and Tea . . ." is mainly to do with issues of gender
and sexuality in the lives of women* of earlier cohorts - about femininity
and masculinity -  and to do with social and personal change. And it
includes men, since this subject cannot be understood without
acknowledging the place of men in the lives of heterosexual women.

In the Women's Institute calendar, their idea was to have a bit of fun
with the way the WI women have been viewed traditionally, as home-
centred wives and mothers. And in this case, the "gender acts " are
not necessarily the way they want themselves to be seen.  There is
some ambiguity there.  But then, we're talking about women who have
been held back from examining their sexuality, or their gender roles,
to any great degee.

I don't believe traditional academic approaches can provide the means to
examine gender constructs in the way that queer theory can, especially
with the sexual element, so I hope it's ok to use it this way. Judith
Butler's emphasis, for instance, is on gender performativity, and on drag,
demonstrating the illusory nature of gender, which fits right in with the
subject of my article.

The article I wrote tells a little about the history of the male/female
dichotomy, through examining two cultural phenomena.  I think it would
help if the "basic two" were looked at as being separate and* part of the
continuum, at the same time (after all, there are physical/biological
differences to be taken into consideration).  The difference is in the
research topic, and can also be due to the location of the researcher
in the research. So that there is more than one way of seeing it.  I
come at this from my own position in history (beginning over half a
century ago), when I was firmly situated, for quite a long time, in the
gender role assigned to me. That makes my experience, and my way
of understanding, different to many others.

Sue McPherson
sue  AT  mcphersons.freeserve.co.uk
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/homepage.html

While I am not so sure I would agree with all of Steve Schacht's
classifications, I would certainly disagree with Daphne's suggestion that
the "multiple genders" are actually variations of male or female.

From my point of view, the term "lesbian drag queen" (Schacht, et al) can
have multiple readings as to what precisely that is; although I recognize
Steve "defined" it in his post, I am pointing to the complexity presented in
the combination of those three words, "plain and simple."  Such complexity
points precisely to the complexity of gender itself, and supports academic
deconstruction of the dichotomous gender binary of male or female.    And as
I think more about it, I think such simple exercises such as presenting
students with terms, like lesbian drag queen, and asking them to explain
what they imagine that to mean, might help students to understand in new
ways, through their own analysis, the complexity and richness of the work we
do.  The exercise might also help to raise the issue of appropriation of
labels to groups, specifically to those of which we may not find ourselves a
part.    There is a complex dynamism between social constructions, such as
gender and identity, as is demonstrated both in the dichotomous binary of
male/female and in the process of naming groups.

Best,
Lisa
LBurke2  AT  njcu.edu

Having students think about drag queens is one way of getting
them to understand how gender works. But one of Judith Butler's
aims, in Gender Trouble, was to have bodies that have been made
invisible, or that have been regarded as unreal or not legitimate,
put into the public eye in a way that undoes this neglect. She
may have been thinking about gays and lesbians here, but I don't
know if she would have meant drag queens, as she would consider
them phantasmatic. She probably wasn't thinking of women from
the WI either, but that's only because it would have been outside
her experience.

Perhaps this difference between gays and lesbians, on the one hand,
and drag queens or kings, on the other, could be worthy of note here.
Gays and lesbians are real people with real sexual desires and a
self-identity.  Drag queens, on the job, are in  different kind of world -
just pretending.  It's interesting to look at Marilyn Monroe, who is a
favourite gay icon, and consider how much of her performance was
pretending, and how much was "real" and then think about one's own
"performance".  But you can also take people who do not seem* to be
pretending so overtly, like the women from the Women's Institute
calendar, and think about the significance of that.

Sue McPherson
sue  AT  mcphersons.freeserve.co.uk

Is Julie Andrews in the film _Victor/Victoria_ the model for the term
you're looking for? Her character was a woman pretending to be a male
drag queen--so the claim in the film was that she was a woman pretending
to be a man pretending to be a woman.
  Joan Riviere, who was cited in an earlier message, wrote a classic
early essay about gender as "masquerade" [her term] (Butler cites her in
_Gender Trouble_, I think), so that, for instance, even if one is
biologically a woman one could still be "masquerading" as a woman (e.g.,
by being hyper-feminine, which another post-er talked about re: her
daughter calling this type of gender performance being a "drag
princess.").
  Marilyn Edelstein, English, Santa Clara U
medelstein  AT  scu.edu

Sue McPherson may have a point that having students consider drag
performance might facilitate a consideration and understanding of gender
among our students, but such an example to students requires vigilance since
drag is not only about a performance of a gender, whether it be male or
female, but is frequently interrelated, though not defined by, other social
and cultural factors.  In other words, yes, for some drag kings/queens, drag
performance is about making a living through providing entertainment, but
for others, their drag performance is part of the gender performance (how
they identify and self-represent) and for some, it is even about their
sexuality.    Whether or not Butler appropriately applies here, I think that
the bodies of drag queens/kings, etc.  have not always been fully understood
nor properly theorized.  Despite the growing bodies of work on drag, there
still is room for much more, especially with the voices of drag queens/kings
themselves.  So, as with any topic we introduce to our students and any
examples we use, we must be careful to demonstrate the depth and richness of
drag and not, even inadvertantly, represent drag as flat and
one-dimensional, easily encapsulated in a quick analysis.

McPherson's assessment of gays and lesbians as real and drag as pretend is
inaccurate and does not at all resonate with my interactions with and
knowledge of drag queens/kings.  Not to confuse drag with crossdressing, it
is important to note that for some drag performers, their drag gender is
their public representation of their own gender, so the line gets blurred
between drag and crossdressing, or between (trans)gender and sexuality
perhaps.

The multiple meanings of "performance" do not help to streamline our
thinking about these issues and remain points that need to be stressed with
our students, especially when we engage them in using the word as part of
the (inter)disciplinary tools of Women's Studies.  Performance is not just
entertainment; for some (many, even most), it is not about entertainment at
all.  Gender performativity is about self-representation of the gendered
self to the world around him/her.

Best,
Lisa
LBurke2  AT  njcu.edu

I agree wholeheartedly with the excerpt from Lisa Burke's post, below.  The
drag queens I know personally (of course I'm not generalizing here to the
entire drag queen population, but bear with me for one moment) absolutely
identify as feminine, even though they are not transgendered (some drag
queens have had breast augmentation, though the drag clubs here in Chicago
often, to my knowledge, require that performers have not had a complete sex
change operation as a condition of employment).  I think that our students
need to know that drag performance is not merely "pretend," because it is a
very real identity for many of the performers who practice it.  I wonder if
this issue of drag performance runs along a continuum, from more
masculine-identified to more feminine-identified, and if various drag
performers (kings and/or queens) might place themselves at various points
along this spectrum, if asked.  That might make for an interesting
survey/interview project, if anyone is looking for more to do!

Best,
Jennifer L. Rexroat
Doctoral Candidate and Instructor
Gender and Women's Studies Concentration
Department of Political Science
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 West Harrison Street (MC 276)
Chicago, IL 60607-7137
Phone:  (773) 381-5388
Fax:  (773) 381-5399
E-mail:  jrexro1  AT  uic.edu
Web:  www.uic.edu/~jrexro1


> McPherson's assessment of gays and lesbians as real and drag as pretend is
> inaccurate and does not at all resonate with my interactions with and
> knowledge of drag queens/kings.  Not to confuse drag with crossdressing,
it
> is important to note that for some drag performers, their drag gender is
> their public representation of their own gender, so the line gets blurred
> between drag and crossdressing, or between (trans)gender and sexuality
> perhaps.

(snip)

Performance is not just
> entertainment; for some (many, even most), it is not about entertainment
at
> all.  Gender performativity is about self-representation of the gendered
> self to the world around him/her.

In hopes of not taking up too much list space, I will respond to what I see
some of the key issues found in recent posts from Lisa, Marilyn, Sheryl, and
Sue.  To best accomplish this, I think a little information about the
Imperial Sovereign Court System is necessary.  The ISCS was founded in 1965
by Jose Sarria in SF and, thus, can be considered one of the first lgbt
groups in the US.  The ISCS is a charitable voluntary org. that through drag
shows raises monies for people in need in both "gay" and "straight"
communities.  Like many middle-class groups, there are many titles and
statuses in the group.  For the ISCS these titles/statuses are empress,
emperor, prince, princess, and many other lesser titles that are often
gendered.  While there are no rules over who can hold which titles, gay men
typically hold the feminine titles, an equal number of gay men and lesbian
women hold the masculine titles, and a handful of lesbian women hold feminine
titles.  With all the hi brow pomp and circumstance of these regal titles,
individuals very much perform the statuses they aspire for--are elected and
appointed to--with the gay drag queens largely ruling the entire realm.
Those most successfully performing their gendered roles typically are
rewarded with the titles they seek.
    Like the variability found in the general population, some members of the
court have very fixed gendered presentations of self (especially the lesbian
drag kings) while yet others are quite fluid (especially the gay drag
queens).  Nevertheless, during a yearly event called "Turnabout," all court
members perform their gendered opposite.  Thus, although I was a male persona
in the setting, I did drag during this event and learned much about where
many hyper-feminine mannerisms come from--e.g., my high heels made my rear
and chest protude at the same time (this expereince provides the basis of a
forthcoming chapter of mine in Nancy Tuana et als Revealing Male Bodies).
Another lesbian drag queen, who both in and out of the context looks like a
cocky 18 year old athlete (who is also a 40 something grandmother) appeared
as a quite "attractive" drag queen.  Keeping with the competitive theme of
the court, drag titles of Turnabout King and Queen are conferred upon those
who best perform their contextual gendered opposite.
    In more general terms, I believe most individuals gender is far more
fluid than they would like admit or even conscious of.  People undertake very
different gender performances with their boss, mother, partner, sibling,
friend, etc all in perhaps a given day.  Over of my lifetime, I know my
performances of gender have certainly changed, thankfully for the better.
    At the recent NWSA Conference I presented a paper about bringing students
to drag shows to teach about gender and sexuality.  The paper reflects on a
larger pedagogical project I bring to all my classes wherein I suggest
dichotomous conceptions of reality--male/female, gay/straight, rich/poor,
Black/White, etc.--largely prescribe performances and identities grounded in
dominance and subordination, oppressor and oppressed.   Many of my students
seem to get this, even acknowledge ways in which they perform/do oppression
both as oppressor and oppressed.  The problem is that they have no visceral
appreciation for how gender and other statuses might be performed
differently.
    Over the years I have brought hundreds of students to drag shows in court
settings and in many other drag settings.  In addition, folks of the setting
have graciously taped some of these shows--some in which I emceed shows and
performed.  Both student attendees and videos povide important classroom
material.
Very briefly, drag performers often fracture their dichotomous conceptions of
reality, and many, in their various relfection papers, have shared with me
unbelievably powerful and moving examples of ways they plan/hope to perform
equality instead of oppression.
    Students and friends over the years have often asked me if I wanted to be
a woman, Black, poor, etc.  To paraphrase my longer response, since present
conceptions of being male/female, gay/straight, etc. are all based on
identities and performances of dominance, subordination, and inequality, I
seek to reject them all and replace them with a nonoppressive personal
identity and ways of being in the world.  For me, the identities of feminist
and queer seem to be the most helpful in pursuing life to this end.

Cheers,

Steve
SPSCHACHT  AT  AOL.COM (Steve Schacht)

To add to the discussion of the fluidity of sex, sexuality, and gender,
please see my article, just published --

Judith Lorber, 2001.  "It's the 21st Century -- Do You Know What Gender You
Are?" In An International Feminist Challenge to Theory, edited by Marcia
Texler Segal and Vasilikie Demos, Advances in Gender Research, V.5,
Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

I'm afraid I don't have enough reprints to circulate but could email an
attachment. You could also consult chapter 4 of my Paradoxes of Gender,
"Men as Women, Women as Men" (Yale, 1994).

[Before you overwhelm with requests for "It's the 21st century: do you know
what gender you are?" I want to warn you that it's a fairly scholarly
paper, dealing with questions of multidimensional research and feminist
theories of gender.]

****************************************************************
Judith Lorber, Ph.D.            Ph/Fax -- 212-689-2155
319 East 24 Street               judith.lorber  AT  verizon.net
Apt 27E
New York, NY 10010
Facts are theory laden; theories are value laden;
values are history laden.   -- Donna J. Haraway
****************************************************************

Lisa,

When I referred to drag queens pretending, I was thinking of drag
shows, which are a way, superficially at least, of enabling
students to see how gender can be constructed.  But of course
there is a human being behind the masquerade, which is a lot
more complex.  Getting to know them apart from their act can
be very different kind of experience, even sometimes seeing their
personality change, and their body movement, along with their
dress.  And the change they go through when they go into drag is
not just about gender - it can be very, very sexual eg from being a
meek accountant to Marilyn Monroe.  And what we* wear, not as
drag queen perfomers, but perhaps in our jobs - a public
representation - affects the way we think about ourselves, too,
and the ways others see us.

Judith Butler use the term "performativity," to mean doing gender
intentionally, as part of an act, or unintentionally, which is what
most of us do in our daily lives.  But now you and I are talking
about the same thing.

I'm sure it must be things like drag shows and gay and lesbian
studies that are responsible for bringing these issues to public
attention (and to be a focus of academic research), but gender
is something we all do, whether we are aware of it or not.  And
I don't know if it can be understood apart from sexuality.
Heterosexuals have been able to take a lot of this sort of thing
for granted. I mentioned "Beer and Tea . . .", the article I wrote,
in a previous message, and I have also written about my
grandmother's struggle with self-representation - and how she
engaged in "doing gender" (the essay is on my website).

Sue McPherson
sue  AT  mcphersons.freeserve.co.uk
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/homepage.html

Sheryl suggested Anne Fausto-Sterling's _Sexing the Body_, a
recommendation I'll second for a solid examination of fluid identities.
The book is now out in paper.  My positive review of the text, for
_Metapsychology_, is viewable at the following URL, which you might have
to paste together (or go to http://www.mentalhelp.net/books/ and do a
cursory search):

http://www.mentalhelp.net/mhn/bookstore/db.cgi?uid=default&db=books&view_r
ecords=Search+Now&keyword=sexing


------------------------------------------------------------------------
M. Michael Schiff
Ph.D. Candidate | Graduate Programme in Social & Political Thought
York University | Toronto | Canada
mailto:michael  AT  yorku.ca | http://www.mMichael.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just finished reading a novel in translation, _Sirena Selena_, Peurto
Rican, about a young drag queen and bolero singer and her/his mentors and
life experiences.  It's loosely based on a true story and is interesting in
that the pronouns characters use to refer to each other are very fluid:
people shift from 'her' to 'him' and from masculine to feminine forms of pet
names and insults in the space of a sentence.  Sort of plays out the duality
of consciousness some drag queens may experience, and describes beautifully
the assumption of gender as the transfomation (in all of its time consuming
steps) takes place.  The novel is also possibly useful in the teaching of
gender in that you get a look at how complex emotional and sexual relations
are when men live in a 'machismo' culture and prefer the same sex, or prefer
to live out their femininity in this way.  I wish I could remember the
author's name for y'all, but I read it months ago then gave it to a friend.
It might be useful to read it along with Butler, et al. and with
documentaries on the drag scene, etc.

Simone

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
If you're really listening, if you're awake
to the poignant beauty of the world,
your heart breaks regularly.
In fact, your heart is made to break;
its purpose is to burst open again
and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders.
                   Andrew Harvey

Simone Roberts, Ph. D. Candidate, A.B.D.
Studies in Literature -- 19th and 20th Century
    Feminist Philosophy,Critical Theory,  and Poetics

University of Texas-Dallas
Instructor Art Institute of Dallas
email: Douve1  AT  aol.com
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

<< The drag queens I know personally (of course I'm not generalizing here to 
the entire drag queen population, but bear with me for one moment) absolutely
identify as feminine, even though they are not transgendered (some drag
queens have had breast augmentation, though the drag clubs here in Chicago
often, to my knowledge, require that performers have not had a complete sex
change operation as a condition of employment).  I think that our students
need to know that drag performance is not merely "pretend," because it is a
very real identity for many of the performers who practice it.  I wonder if 
this issue of drag performance runs along a continuum, from more 
masculine-identified to more feminine-identified, and if various drag 
performers (kings and/or queens) might place themselves at various points 
along this spectrum, if asked.  That might make for an interesting  
survey/interview project, if anyone is looking for more to do!

Jennifer L. Rexroat >>

Hi, Jennifer,

I am guessing you are talking about the performers at the Baton and the 
contestants at the yearly Miss Continental Pageant.  I have done fairly 
extensive ethnographic work with in both of these contexts--really one in the 
same--and agree and disagree with your above comments.  

To begin, while I appreciate your suggestion that drag might be placed on a 
continuum, I think the risk here is that reifies the gender dichotomy of male 
and female, and isn't very attuned to the very variability found in drag 
communities.  Again, I find the terms of sex/gender/sexuality identity and 
performance to be quite helpful here.  I also believe that issues of context 
(audience performed for) must be fully recognized.

For instance, the performers at the Baton are very different from the gay 
drag queens of the court, camp queens, professional drag queens, radical 
fairies, ect.  The expressed identity of well-know Baton performers, such as 
Mimi Marks and Monica Monroe is, "we are men," yet they can also be 
considered preoperative transsexuals with their breast implants and usage of 
female hormones, and "pass" as real women in settings outside of the Baton.  
As you note, some of this is due to pageant rules that strips past Miss 
Continental's if they remove their penis and legally become women, but I 
think it is even more so about a uniquely expressed sex/gender/sexual 
identity/performance of their own creation.  Most Baton performers desire to 
date only straight men (a desirable commodity in many gay men's eyes) yet 
they perform in front of a largely (80%) straight female audience (many women 
hold their bachlorette parties at the Baton) as stated "female illusionists" 
(and drag queens in private conversations) from which they make a reported 
five figure income from. In this sense, I don't believe their identity is so 
much on a continuum, but is rather a mixture of factors, some quite 
contradictory, that results in a very unique, sincere, and serious sense of 
self.  While to a certain extent, IMO, all gender performances regardless of 
who is performing them are "pretend" and a masquerade, as you note, drag 
performers of all sorts nevertheless have very real identities, with very 
real consequences to themselves and others, that, IMO, should be validated as 
such.

As I feel I am taking up too much list space as late, I thought it might be 
easier to just list my publications in this area and I can just forward 
copies of them to interested parties.  As I am presently co-editing with Lisa 
Underwood a special issue on "drag queens/female impersonators" for the 
Journal of Homosexuality, I would also be pleased to forward our cfp for the 
project to any interested parties.

Cheers,

Steve
SPSCHACHT  AT  AOL.COM (Steve Schacht)

"The Multiple Genders of the Court: Issues of Identity and Performance in a 
Drag Setting."  1998. Pp. 202-224 in Feminism and Men: Reconstructing Gender 
Relations, edited by Schacht and Ewing. New York University Press.

"Gay Masculinities in a Drag Community: Female Impersonators and the Social 
Construction of GÇÿOther'." 2000. Pp. 247-268 in Gay Masculinities, edited by 
Peter Nardi. Sage Publications, Inc. 

"Paris is Burning: How Society's Stratification Systems Makes Drag Queens of 
Us All."  2000. Race, Gender & Class.  7(1): 147-166.
    
"Turnabout: Gay Drag Queens and the Masculine Embodiment of the Feminine."  
Revealing Male Bodies, edited by Nancy Tuana et al.  Indiana University 
Press.  In press.

"Lesbian Drag Kings and the Feminine Embodiment of the Masculine."  
Forthcoming in the Drag King Anthology, Kathleen LeBesco, et al (eds.). South 
End Press.
    
"Four Renditions of Doing Female Drag: Feminine Appearing Conceptual 
Variations of a Masculine Theme."  Forthcoming in Advances in Gender Research 
(Vol. 6), Patricia Gagne and Richard Tewksbury (eds.).  Elsevier. 

"Beyond the Boundaries of the Classroom: Teaching About Gender and Sexuality 
at a Drag Show."  Presented at the recent NWSA Conference.