Troubling Gender: How Drag Reconstitutes Perceptions of Gendered Performance

该项目将分析现有的表演形式和性别表演如何通过变装和异装癖解构社会界限，并将重点关注现代变装表演以及自我和他人刻在身体上的身份，身体物质性和解释的表演方面。它将研究新的变装运动，如Tranimalism，如何抵制当今变装的“主流”表演，并理论化这些运动如何作为反对或不稳定的力量（有意识或无意识地）对主导流行文化想象和性别观念的变装表演的传统形式起作用。通过观察这些对表演性别的重新诠释，本文提出了以下问题：在日益广泛和流动的性别认同背景下，如何看待变装？-这些表演如何帮助我们将自我概念化为社会中的性别表演身体？-表演的拖拽风格如何分散和破坏观看，阅读和制定性别的霸权方式？到目前为止，学术界的兴趣主要集中在变装表演和被归类为“他者”的身份如何以各种方式参与并经常试图颠覆性别问题。然而，一个人如何能够（或者如果一个人能够）理论化在性别二元结构之外产生的阻力及其含义，这仍然需要一项研究。我的论文将填补这一空白，并接受这一挑战，与迄今为止的情况相比，更明确地参与新的和当代的变装表演，特别是在试图颠覆观众对“变装”是什么以及它由什么组成的期望的运动中，通过以非二元/无性别和去人类中心主义的方式玩性别。我将研究表演者在舞台上描绘自己的身体和角色的性向时如何隐藏、炫耀或扭曲人体的性别特征，以参与和质疑非二元/非传统的性别表演。我将理论化表演者如何通过玩弄和抵制身体上性别的霸权社会解读，从社会期望中解放出来，从而能够对性别做出政治的、社会的、喜剧的评论，这些评论与当前普遍的性别观念有关。在重新评估变装表演中性别“需要”的变装中，我将分析这些新运动是建立在过去的运动之上，还是利用新的表达形式以新的和意想不到的方式暴露性别。该项目将使用定性研究——主要是文献分析、访谈和观察。从人种学的角度出发，表演者和观众的主观体验是我的分析和方法论不可或缺的一部分。这将包括询问表演者和观众的看法，以形成我关于性别的理论分析，并通过参加另类/不同性别变装活动的表演和讨论来支持我的第一手观察和解释。我将与参与性别表演的非二元创意艺术家合作，以及观察事件/表演以及随后对观众的调查和采访-包括视觉和感官在线表演。本项目还将探讨性别是如何通过变装表演被重新定义的，以及这如何告知并被围绕性别表演的新的社会意识所告知。这种人种学的定性方法允许我期望从参与者那里遇到的反应的灵活性和范围，并允许将表演视为短暂的，通常不可重复的，性别表演行为及其对观察者的影响。

The project will analyse how existing forms of performance and gender performativity deconstruct social boundaries through drag and cross-dressing and will focus on modern drag performance and the performative aspects of identity, bodily materiality and interpretations inscribed on the body by the self and others. It will look at how new movements in drag, such as Tranimalism, resist the perceived 'mainstream' performances of drag today and theorise how these movements act as oppositional or destabilising forces (consciously or unconsciously) to the traditional formations of drag performance that dominate popular cultural imagination and perceptions of gender. By looking at these reinterpretations of performing gender, this thesis asks the questions: - How is drag perceived in a context of increasingly broad and fluid gender identification?- How can these performances help us conceptualise the self as a gendered performative body in society? - How do drag styles of performance decentralise and destabilise hegemonic ways of viewing, reading, and enacting gender? Scholarly interest thus far has primarily focused on how drag performance and identities classified as 'other' engage with, and often attempt to subvert, issues of gender in various ways. However, a study in how one is able (or if one is able) to theorise drag which is produced outside of binary constructs of gender and the implications of this is still required. My thesis will fill this gap and takes up this challenge by engaging more explicitly with new and contemporary drag performance than has hitherto been the case, notably in movements that attempt to subvert the viewer's expectation of what 'drag' is and what it consists of by playing with gender in non-binary/genderless and de-anthropocentric ways.I will examine how the performers hide, flaunt, or distort gender characteristics of the human body when portraying their own body and the sexuality of the character onstage to engage with and query non-binary/non-conventional performances of gender. I will theorise how the performer, by playing with and resisting the hegemonic social readings of gender on the body, is liberated from social expectations, and is thus able to make political, social, comedic commentaries on gender that play with current common conceptions of gender. In looking at drag that reassesses the 'need' for gender in drag performances, I will analyse if these new movements are building on past movements or utilising new forms of expression to expose gender in new and unexpected ways. The project will use qualitative research - primarily documentary analysis, interviews, and observation. Working from an ethnographic approach, the subjective experience of performer and audience member is integral to my analysis and my methodology. This will involve interrogating performers' and audience's perceptions to shape my theoretical analysis in relation to gender supported by first-hand observation and interpretation by attending shows and discussions at alternative/differently-gendered drag events I will work with non-binary creative artists involved in gender performance, as well as observation of events/performances and subsequent surveys and interviews with audiences - including visual and sensory performances online. This project will also explore how gender is being reconceptualised through the performance of drag and how this both informs and is informed by new social awareness surrounding gendered performance. This ethnographic, qualitative approach allows for the flexibility and scope of response that I expect to encounter from participants, and allows readings of the performances as ephemeral, often unrepeatable, acts of gender performativity and their effect on the observer.