What's so Funny? Video Ethnography and Drag Performance

Haaken, Jan

doi:10.1057/palgrave.pcs.2100060

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…Others have argued that such performances reinforce binary categories through defining the boundary to the ‘Other’ (see e.g. Haaken, 2005). Considering the desire of many Salsa dancers to reconstruct ‘traditional’ gender identities, the latter position may be more applicable in the context of Salsa (see also the Discussion section).…”

Section: Queerness and Heteronormativity In Transnational Salsa Commumentioning

confidence: 99%

Heteronormativity and queerness in transnational heterosexual Salsa communities

Schneider

2013

Discourse & Society

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Salsa dance and music has become popular worldwide and Salsa communities outside of Latin America offer a fertile environment for studying gender and heteronormativity in cultural contact zones. Often, the desire to reconstruct ‘traditional’ heteronormative gender roles in these contexts is striking. Interestingly, informants of the qualitative, ethnographic study presented here display high degrees of reflexive consciousness regarding the constructed nature of their gendered performance. This article also discusses and analyses non-heteronormative performances that do not adhere to ‘traditional’ gender roles, which may be understood as queer performances. These are found frequently; however, an analysis of discursive data that relates to these performances makes their subversive potential debatable.

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Section: Queerness and Heteronormativity In Transnational Salsa Commumentioning

confidence: 99%

Heteronormativity and queerness in transnational heterosexual Salsa communities

Schneider

2013

Discourse & Society

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Queens of Heart: Community Therapists in Drag

Michel

2010

Psychoanal Cult Soc

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Costuming gender : an investigation into the construction and perception of drag costume in mainstream film

Akal¹

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The years succeeding 1990 have seen a significant increase in the release of mainstream film featuring transgendered characters. The inclusion of such characters in popular film becomes a point of interest as transgendered identities differ from the hegemonic heterosexism of the audiences at whom these films are targeted. This investigation aims to gain a better understanding of how audience members read gendered identity through the visual appearance of drag queen characters in mainstream film. Due to the emblematic contrast between the male body and a hyper-feminine dress aesthetic, drag queens pose an overt visual challenge to the normative expectation of anatomical sex determining gender and gendered expression. This investigation is conducted from the paradigmatic perspective that recognises the impossibility of a ‘correct’ reading of dress aesthetics and is thus concerned with discovering the various gendered meanings audience members may attach to drag costume in film. This interpretivist standpoint, however, is held in conjunction with the critical understanding that prevalent contemporary socio-political constructs with regard to gender and dress will undoubtedly affect these perceptions. Segments from selected Hollywood films featuring drag queen protagonists were screened for a heterogeneous focus group and the subsequent discussion analysed through critical discourse analysis. Academic discourse concerning the socially constructed gender dichotomy and the debated subversive potential of the drag act is reviewed in order to provide a theoretical framework for analysing the participants’ comprehension of gendered performance. Gendered associations with dress and the body together with film theory are examined to better understand how an audience may perceive gendered identity through drag costume in film and what affect this may have on their conception of sartorial gendered expressions in reality. Finally, to situate and provide further context for this investigation, Queer theory critiques of the representation and reception of transgendered characters in past mainstream films are considered.

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What's so Funny? Video Ethnography and Drag Performance

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Heteronormativity and queerness in transnational heterosexual Salsa communities

Heteronormativity and queerness in transnational heterosexual Salsa communities

Queens of Heart: Community Therapists in Drag

Costuming gender : an investigation into the construction and perception of drag costume in mainstream film

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