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Queer Gender Performers of Color As Public Pedagogues

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Queer Gender Performers of Color As Public Pedagogues University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2014 Celebration, Resistance, and Change: Queer Gender Performers of Color as Public Pedagogues Krishna Pattisapu University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons Recommended Citation Pattisapu, Krishna, "Celebration, Resistance, and Change: Queer Gender Performers of Color as Public Pedagogues" (2014). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 500. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/500 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. CELEBRATION, RESISTANCE, AND CHANGE: QUEER GENDER PERFORMERS OF COLOR AS PUBLIC PEDAGOGUES __________ A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver __________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy __________ by Krishna Pattisapu June 2014 Advisor: Bernadette Marie Calafell, Ph.D. Author: Krishna Pattisapu Title: CELEBRATION, RESISTANCE, AND CHANGE: QUEER GENDER PERFORMERS OF COLOR AS PUBLIC PEDAGOGUES Advisor: Bernadette Marie Calafell, Ph.D. Degree Date: June 2014 Abstract This research project expands academic understandings of queer of color subjectivity through the critical investigation of queer gender performance and its pedagogical potential for queer communities. With queer theories of color, critical communication pedagogy, and public pedagogy theories providing support, I utilize qualitative interviews fore-fronting poetic transcription of personal narratives in order to explore how queer gender performers of color engage in intersectional queer negotiations of identities and provide new possibilities for the everyday performance of queer identities. I call upon existing scholarship in queer gender performance in order to prove the centrality of such performances to queer social life, as well as the potential of queer gender performers to co-construct critical consciousness with audiences around intersecting categories of identity like race. Ultimately, I build on previously published work in Communication in order to build a case for how queer gender performance serves as a form of public pedagogy through which audiences and performers theorize and embody queer subjectivities. This proposed study is fundamentally critical, intended to expose and transform social inequalities in queer communities and to expand academic conversations around queerness and social justice. Ultimately, I contend that each queer gender performer of color I interviewed espouses a deeply personal form of public pedagogy that works to disrupt the whiteness that governs queer performance spaces and empowers ii audiences to do the same in their everyday lives. Onstage and off, queer gender performers of color engage in celebration of racialized queer identities, encouraging one another to honor difficult paths toward performance and the legacies they will leave. These performers practice active resistance to the glorification of whiteness in queer gender performance culture, their brown bodies living testaments to the contrary. At last, together, these performers have become agents of change through performance, intent on speaking to audiences in ways that illuminate their collective struggles and unstoppable, collective strength. This study is but one forum through which academics and activists alike can begin to unpack the collective potential of queer gender performers of color not only speak back to silence and erasure, but to disrupt privilege, transform existing spaces, and empower audiences and one another to accept no less than absolute creative and political agency. iii Acknowledgements Without the encouragement and support of my network of family, friends, colleagues, and mentors, none of this would have been possible. First, I thank my partner in life and in drag, Marvyn Allen. You inspire my confidence, nurture my growth, and indulge my whimsy. Thank you for never giving up on me, and for never letting me give up on myself. To my mother, Jacque Sullivan Pattisapu: thank you for refusing to let me settle for just enough. Because of you, I have always felt inspired to reach for the stars. Each time I touch one of those stars, I do it for you. I am so entirely appreciative of the richness that each of my interviewees and fellow performers brings to the world. Wanderlust, Eddie, Reese, Vinzie, Miz.Mojita, and P-Cock, thank you for sharing your stories with me, and for helping me feel not quite so alone. On our own, we are brilliant and strong. Together, we are unstoppable. Thank you to my writing partner, Dr. Keeley Buehler Hunter, for taking each step of this difficult journey with me. You have shown me that from ashes, beautiful flowers can grow. Salma Shukri, Dr. Bethany Doran Mutter, Lisa Ingarfield, Leah Seurer, and Christopher Kolb, thank you for validating each struggle and giving me endless reasons to smile. To my McNair Scholars family: all of this is for you and because of you. I am so privileged to have worked with such a phenomenal collection of professors and mentors. Thank you to Drs. Bernadette Marie Calafell, Richie Neil Hao, Roy V. Wood, Erin Willer, Naida Zukic, and Thomas Walker. Dr. John T. Warren: you will always live on in my heart and in my writing. This dissertation is for my father, Rao Pattisapu. I live my life to make you proud. iv Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction: Why Queer Gender Performers of Color ................................ 1 Queer Gender Performance and Race ................................................................... 21 Queer Gender Performance as a Communicative Phenomenon ........................... 23 Interventions across Race ......................................................................... 29 Queer Gender Performance as Public Pedagogy .................................................. 35 Project Rationale ................................................................................................... 37 Chapter Two: Queer Theories of Color and Critical Communication Pedagogy ............. 42 Queer Theory and Communication ....................................................................... 44 Interventions across Race ......................................................................... 49 Critical Communication Pedagogy and Queer People of Color ........................... 53 Bridging Queer Theories of Color and Critical Communication Pedagogy: Toward Queer Public Pedagogy ........................................................................... 61 Chapter Three: Interviewing, Personal Narrative, and Poetic Transcription .................... 75 Personal Narrative ................................................................................................. 77 Interviewing and Personal Narrative ........................................................ 85 Poetic Inquiry and Transcription .......................................................................... 98 Research Procedures ........................................................................................... 103 Chapter Four: Conversations with Queer Gender Performers of Color ......................... 109 Wanderlust and the Pedagogy of Self-Acceptance ............................................. 119 Edward Scissors and the Pedagogy of “Boldness” ............................................. 132 Vinzie Rey and the Pedagogy of Passing ........................................................... 146 Reese and the Pedagogy of Community Accountability .................................... 158 Miz.Mojita and the Pedagogy of Praxis .............................................................. 168 P-Cock and the Pedagogy of Ambiguity ............................................................ 178 Concluding Thoughts: On Public Pedagogy and Activism ................................ 192 Chapter Five: Conclusions and Implications .................................................................. 200 Contributions to Communication ........................................................................ 206 Limitations and Future Directions ...................................................................... 213 Concluding Thoughts .......................................................................................... 217 Epilogue: Drag Queen Bingo .................................................................. 221 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 226 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 247 Appendix A: Informed Consent .......................................................................... 247 Appendix B: Interview Solicitation .................................................................... 249 Appendix C: Interview Questions ....................................................................... 250 Appendix D: Notes ............................................................................................. 252 v Appendix E: A Song for Many Movements by Audre Lorde ............................. 253 vi Chapter
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