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The Haus of Frau: Radical Drag Queens Disrupting the Visual Fiction of Gendered Appearances

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The Haus of Frau: Radical Drag Queens Disrupting the Visual Fiction of Gendered Appearances The Haus of Frau: Radical Drag Queens Disrupting the Visual Fiction of Gendered Appearances John Bryan Jacob Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Clothing and Textiles Catherine Cerny, Co-Chair Ann Kilkelly, Co-Chair Katherine Allen Scott Christianson Valerie Giddings Rebecca Lovingood May 7, 1999 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Gender, Appearance, Identity, Gay Studies, Women’s Studies Copyright 1999, John Bryan Jacob THE HAUS OF FRAU: RADICAL DRAG QUEENS DISRUPTING THE VISUAL FICTION OF GENDERED APPEARANCES John Bryan Jacob (ABSTRACT) This research considers the connections between appearance and identity apparent in the social experience of five gay male drag queens. Appearing at variance with gender norms that underwrite male appearance in mainstream society and among gay men prompted social consequences that impacted their identities and world views. One aim is to apprehend the experiences of difference that drag appearance manifest and expressed. Another aim is to gain a new perspective on the social construction of gendered appearances from marginalized persons who seem to look from the “outside” in toward mainstream social appearances and relations. Qualitative analysis relied on interview data and occurred using grounded theory methodology However, analysis gained focus and intensified by engaging Stone’s (1970) theorizing on “Appearance and the Self,” Feminist articulations of “the gaze” and poststructural conceptions of the discursively constituted person as “the subject.” This research especially emphasizes the points of connection between Stone’s theorizing and more recent feminist theoretical advancements on the gaze as they each pertain to appearance, identity and social operations of seeing and being seen. Yet there is also consideration of the manners in which gendered appearance norms circulate in discourse and permeate the individual psyche. The research findings also locate social consequences of transgressing male appearance norms. These drag queens’ interviews revealed that they used appearance to visibly portray gendered identities. Manners in which they related their drag appearances to the self were suggestive that gender identities are states of consciousness stemming from one’s imagined connections to mass cultural conceptions of male and/or female. Where most people seem to commit themselves exclusively to male or female appearance repertoires and identity sets, these men indicated that they made both male and female identifications. These mixed identifications, which could have remained hidden, materialized when they did drag. In a sense, by doing drag, they performed their gender ambivalence. Their drag appearances were meta-performances that referred both to their own ambivalence with the gender binary, and to how appearance assists in constructing, maintaining and communicating (i.e., performing) status quo gendered identities. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ..........................................1 Constructing an Alternative Approach to Research Marginal Subjects ......2 Contextualizing Frau’s Drag Queen Experience .........................9 Discursive Intersections that Informed this Research ...................13 Key Experiences in My Life Leading to this Research ..................15 CHAPTER II. REPRODUCING GENDERED SOCIAL REALITIES ...........25 Composing and Performing Social Realities ...........................25 Identity: A Socially Scripted Performance .......................25 Identity and the Discursively Mediated Subject ..................26 Discursively Negotiated Identities and Realities .................28 Heterosexuality: Discursively Constituted Reality and Resistance ..30 Symbolic Interactionism ...........................................32 Society as a Set of Meanings ..............................33 Presentation of Self .........................................33 The Individual as a Set of Meanings: Reciprocity of Individual and Society .............................................35 Appearance in Social Relations ...............................36 Appearance as Communication ...............................37 Appearance and the Self .....................................38 Program and review ..................................39 Identity, value, mood and attitude .......................40 Appearance, imagination and identifications ...............43 Social Cognition and Person Perception ........................46 -iii- Symbolic Appearances and Social Organization ..................49 Discourse, Power and the Subject ...................................54 Narrative Schemes and Human Experience ...........................57 The Gaze: Disciplining Appearances and Perception ....................59 Representing Lesbian Subjects ...............................60 Sexual Indifference .........................................61 Visually Apprehending Ourselves and Others ...................62 Performance Theory ..............................................67 Representation ............................................70 Realism ..................................................72 Realness vs. Reality ........................................75 Sex and Gender .................................................77 Compulsory Heterosexuality .................................78 Gendered Identities: Performativity and Citationality .............80 Gendered Appearances: Representing Sexual Relations ................83 Male Cross Dressing .............................................86 Nature versus Nurture: Discourses on Masculinity and Femininity ..88 Heterosexual/Homosexual Distinctions .........................89 Transvestites ..............................................91 Transsexuals ..............................................92 Male Femaling ............................................93 Female Impersonators ......................................95 Drag Queens and Radical Drag ...............................96 Radical drag movements. ..............................98 Contemporary drag performance .......................101 Chapter Summary and Rationale for this Study .......................102 -iv- CHAPTER III. METHODS ..........................................110 Research Subjects ...............................................112 Instrumentation and Data Collection ................................113 Data Analysis Procedure .........................................116 CHAPTER IV. APPREHENDING THE GAZE AS IT DISCIPLINES APPEARANCES AND CONSTITUTES BODIES .....................120 The Heterosexual Body ..........................................120 Ascribing to the Heterosexual Body ..........................122 Resisting the Heterosexual Body ............................124 Ambiguities of the Heterosexual Gaze as it Figures in Drag Queen Experience127 Women and the Imagery of Femininity ........................129 The Appeal of Feminine Appearances .........................131 Feminine Appearances Mobilizing Desire and Sexual Response ...133 Gay Stigma Under Compulsory Heterosexuality ................141 Contradictions of the Gaze in Gay Men’s Culture .....................145 Drag Queen Stigma ........................................145 Appropriating Heterosexual Male Imagery to Compose the Gay Erotic .................................................151 Drag Queen Exploitation in Baltimore’s Community of Gay Men ..154 Authenticating Gay Male Privilege ...........................159 Apprehending the Gaze as it Focuses on Drag Queens .................161 CHAPTER V. APPREHENDING THE DRAG QUEEN SELF ................164 -v- Hermaphrodite: The Boy Performing as a Girl ........................167 Performing “Gender Fuck” .................................169 Gaining Notoriety .........................................170 Selves in Conflict ..........................................173 Apprehending the Erotic Self ................................182 Drag as a Vehicle of Escape .................................185 Crash Landings ...........................................189 Miss Piss: The Complete Drag Queen Woman .......................189 Drag Epiphanies ..........................................190 Exploring Identities ........................................192 Engagements with the Beautiful and Glamorous .................196 Concealing the Awkward Boy ................................200 Denying the Queen for Love ................................202 Resolving the Queen’s Location in the Person ..................204 Growing Up and Out of Drag ................................209 Meduza: In a Glamorous Stage ....................................212 On the Effeminate Side .....................................213 Material Trappings of Femininity: From Mother to Son .........215 The Bitch Archetype .......................................218 Same Gaze, Different Expectations ...........................222 Doing Drag Less ..........................................227 Drag Involvement in the Present .............................229 Barbie Star: Performing a Borderline ...............................233 Anti-Barbie and Commercial Beauty ..........................234 Makeup and Giving Face ...................................237 Feminine Exaggerations ....................................241 -vi- It’s All Drag ..............................................244 I See You Seeing Me ......................................246 Nonami Flowers: No Pain,
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