University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 1-1-2020 It's A Cis-Gendered Man's World: How Drag Kings Define Good Drag In Their Fight To Be Seen As The Best Performers Madison Shappley Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Recommended Citation Shappley, Madison, "It's A Cis-Gendered Man's World: How Drag Kings Define Good Drag In Their Fight To Be Seen As The Best Performers" (2020). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1890. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1890 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. IT’S A CIS-GENDERED MAN’S WORLD: HOW DRAG KINGS DEFINE GOOD DRAG IN THEIR FIGHT TO BE SEEN AS THE BEST PERFORMERS A Thesis presented in partiAl fulfillment of requirements for the degree of MAster of Arts in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology The University of Mississippi by MADDIE SHAPPLEY MAy 2020 Copyright MAddie Shappley 2020 All rights reserved ABSTRACT This reseArch is based on field observations in Ridgeville, a Southern city, at an LGBTQ bar, that I cAll Rainbow Bar and on in-depth interviews with Rainbow Bar drag performers. Through my study at Rainbow, I set out to answer: 1) What do drag kings consider to be “good drag” for themselves and for other kings?; and 2) Who is considered to have the best drag? And who determines what the best drag is? I found that Ridgeville drag kings felt as though they had to work harder than Ridgeville queens in their drag.