Queer Community Drag

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Performance is how we act in society, such as how we talk and how we dress. Performance in society solidifies certain hegemonic social conventions in society, such as gender roles. These gender roles are allotted ideologies and concepts that have been associated with certain genders, such as skirts for females and cologne for males. Certain performances such as dressing and talking in defined ways although seemingly unimportant and common occurrences in society, is ultimately built on the foundations of gender roles. We as a society perform to fit these certain gender roles and propel gender roles continuance. However, continuing to perform in order to fit under certain gender roles affects the queer community. It affects the queer community …show more content…

The drag community is important to the LGBTQ community for this reason. Drag however also allows through there performances to indirectly showcase the performative actions that we as a society have perpetuated in order to solidify gender roles and that they can be deconstructed. As Sarah Salih notes in On Judith Butler and Performativity “it is the very notion of an original that is being parodied (in drag)…” What Salih means in her statement is that the concept of there being an “original” way of performing in feminine gender roles that is parodied in drag. Some in drag perform exaggerated hyper-feminine performative aspects of female gender roles. As Laurie Norris notes in Of Fish and Feminists Homonormative Misogony and Trans Queen, “On Drag Race, that image is of the glamorous, professional, fish. With big wigs, haute couture inspired costumes, flamboyant but sexy make-up, the queens are expected to give both face and body. The beauty ideals from Americas Next top Model are exaggerated to become the hyperfeminie expectations of Drag Race.” Drag indirectly showcases how the performances performed to fit gender roles are socially constructed and in reality can be performed by any

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