Friday, October 27, 2017

Drag King Culture


After module five I started to wonder about drag king culture and how it was challenging the gender binary. The author of the article “How king culture is challenging gender expectations” explains how performing gender can produce different perspectives that the viewer might not have thought of originally. The author and the people she interviews say that: “Some people are so adamant that they know the truth, but the truth doesn't exist, it's merely a perspective. People can choose to see gender differently. But these performances are not bound to sexuality . . . don't make the assumption that we are queer because some of us may be genderqueer. Drag Kings are much more interesting and complex than that “ (Franklin 1). It is interesting to see that by looking into these different perspectives we are able to question gender divides that limit us as a people. By performing different genders the performers call into question issues of identity and create a space for conversation. "Any performance will give you ideas. You're doing this for yourself. You don't have to please everyone in the room. If you feel good on stage, that's all that matters . . .Feeling good as a member of the audience is a given too. Sometimes it will hit you in a laugh-out-loud way and other times in a sensual-prodding-of-selfhood-kind-of-way. Moving through ideas about who we are is vital for evolution. Queer or not, identities are not fixed and this is something all of us are free to explore " (1).

 

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