The Body as Canvas—Osaka Drag Queens from Kabuki to Lady Gaga

• In Event: The Body in Contemporary Japanese Society: Perceptions, Expectations, Alterations

Abstract

In Japan, the gods descend and temporarily dwell in painted, dancing bodies. The dances are sacred, revered yet taboo, because they belong to a world different from the profane one we live in. The dancers are humans who turn into divine beings, beings that transcend the clear-cut lines of the mortal condition, the moment they put the masks on. The first shamanistic act recorded in the Japanese chronicles was performed by a goddess, Ame-no-Uzume, the obscene dancer, but in contemporary society, the kagura dancers are all male. Similarly, drag queens are men who use not actual masks, but make-up and glamorous dresses to borrow or create personae, altering both the concept of gender and that of self during their performance. My research is based on fieldwork conducted at various stages in Osaka, where drag queens perform and reinvent themselves every evening, and it represents an attempt to analyze the metamorphoses of the sacred in the body of the dancers. My presentation will address the question of self-perception and alteration: How do drag queens see, represent and transform themselves through their performances? Most of them insist on their masculinity (sexual preferences are a different matter) and display hairy chests and heavily muscled arms from under cocktail dresses, while others look entirely feminine. Are makeup and costumes a mere form of art and entertainment, a search for identity or a proclamation of self?

Author

• Carmen Tamas, Kobe University