Dressing Up: The Production and Performance of Identity through Drag

• In Event: 306 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Performance and Performativity

Abstract

Identities are formed through lived experiences with power and operate as more abstract instruments of power and social control. In order to examine the ways in which individual and group performances of identity create, negotiate with, and challenge structures of power, this project uses drag queen performances as a case study due to their overtly performative style. Empirical observations and grounded analysis demonstrated three main elements of drag queen performances of femininity- larger-than-life physicality, hypersexuality, and a cocksure attitude- that come together to constitute a gender expression I have termed “diva femininity.” Drag queens create a tangible gap between body and identity in order to highlight the constructed character of gender categories. In doing so, drag queens rely on experiences with differing levels of power to deploy “otherness” in ways that ultimately reestablish dominant identity categories and white normativity. This case study illustrates that any theory of intersectionality must incorporate performativity: individuals are not acted upon by intersecting identities, but are productive actors that interact with identities as they intersect to resist and reproduce unequal distributions of power. These performances and interactions are mechanisms of power in that they produce categories that operate as social control mechanisms to privilege some bodies and police all bodies.

Author

• Rebecca Ewert, University of California-Davis