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The History and Representation of Drag in Popular Culture; How We Got to Rupaul

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The History and Representation of Drag in Popular Culture; How We Got to Rupaul FACULTY OF ARTS The History and Representation of Drag in Popular Culture; How We Got to RuPaul Bachelor's thesis MICHAELA SEVEROVÁ Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Brno 2021 THE HISTORY AND REPRESENTATION OF DRAG IN POPULAR CULTURE; HOW WE GOT TO RUPAUL Bibliographic record Author: Michaela Severová Faculty of Arts Masaryk University Title of Thesis: The History and Representation of Drag in Popular Culture; How We Got to RuPaul Degree Program: English Language and Literature Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. Year: 2021 Number of Pages: 72 Keywords: drag queens, RuPaul´s Drag Race, drag, LGBTQ+, representation, queer culture, sexuality 2 THE HISTORY AND REPRESENTATION OF DRAG IN POPULAR CULTURE; HOW WE GOT TO RUPAUL Abstract This bachelor thesis deals with drag and its representation in popular culture, focus- ing on RuPaul´s Drag Race. It analyses the representation of drag by explaining some basic terms and the study of the history of drag. It then analyses the evolution of the representation of drag queens in movies and shows. The main focus of this thesis is the American TV show RuPaul´s Drag Race and how it changed the portrayal of drag and the LGBTQ+ community in popular culture. The thesis questions if the show is as progressive and diverse as it proclaims to be and if it shows the authentic image of drag culture. 3 THE HISTORY AND REPRESENTATION OF DRAG IN POPULAR CULTURE; HOW WE GOT TO RUPAUL Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis with title The History and Representation of Drag in Popular Culture; How We Got to RuPaul I submit for assessment is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my thesis. Brno May 14, 2021 ....................................... Michaela Severová 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor – Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. – for his useful advice and guidance. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 1 Introduction 11 2 Terms 14 2.1 Drag, Drag Queen and Female Impersonation ....................................................... 14 2.2 Cross-dresser, Transvestite, Transexual and Transgender .............................. 18 3 The History of Drag 21 3.1 The Beginnings of Drag in the United Kingdom .................................................... 21 3.2 Drag in the United States and the Ball culture ....................................................... 26 4 The Representation of Drag 34 4.1 Female Impersonation for an Easy Laugh ............................................................... 34 4.2 The Accurate Depiction of Drag ................................................................................... 38 4.3. The Era of RuPaul.............................................................................................................. 42 4.4. Current Drag Representation ....................................................................................... 45 5 RuPaul´s Drag Race 50 5.1. The Fame of the Chosen Queens ................................................................................. 50 5.2. The Representation of Different Types of Drag Queens .................................... 54 6 Conclusion 61 Bibliography 65 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 9 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction The LGBTQ+ community has faced oppression for hundreds of years, and while the situation is getting better, their life is unnecessarily complicated. There are many laws in place that are openly against this community; they are not allowed to get married or have kids in many countries, they can be rejected for a job based on their sexuality, and it is still something one can get killed for in too many countries. Even without taking these laws into account, this community has it difficult in every part of their lives; many queer kids are being bullied at school, forced out of their homes, adult people are harassed in their workplace or on the streets just for holding a hand with their partner, people are getting beaten up for it. What is helping to make the situation better is the authentic representation in pop – culture. While even a few years back, it was hard to find anything other than maybe one gay best friend of the main character or the masculine lesbian, more diverse stories of all LGBTQ+ people can now be found on television. With more openly queer people in pop culture, more information and knowledge are revealed about their history. There are also more academic works related to LGBTQ+ history and repre- sentation, and in general, it is a more freely talked about topic, and with that, over the past few years, there is more information about drag and drag queens. The drag community got more worldwide attention with the self-proclaimed super-model of the world and his tv show RuPaul's Drag Race. RuPaul and the Logo network created a space for drag queens from America and other states like Canada or United Kingdom to show their talents. This thesis will concern itself with the history and the 11 INTRODUCTION representation of drag queens on television and how it changed with RuPaul's Drag Race. The main goal of this thesis is to show that drag has always had its place in cul- ture and history, but in recent years its representation in popular culture changed and brought more attention to this art form. This thesis has some limitations. Queer culture, history, and representation is a vast topic, and there are many academic sources about this topic, with many differ- ent approaches. Drag is a rich part of the history of the world, starting from female impersonation in the theatre to many forms of drag that exist today. While this thesis will talk about drag and female impersonation history, it will only concern itself with English-speaking countries, mainly Britain and America. It will also only talk about drag queens (men impersonating women), not drag kings (women impersonating men) because that is a rich enough topic for separate research. Sometimes it is hard to differentiate between the drag queen and the people who are those drag queens, so while all of the other queens named in this thesis have the pronouns she/her be- cause they are only mentioned as drag queens, RuPaul has the pronouns they/their in this thesis, because they are mentioned not only as a queen but also as the man be- hind it all. It has four chapters, and the first chapter is a shorter one, outlining some basic terms used further in the thesis and drag communities, starting with drag itself. It is followed by a chapter about the history of drag and female representation, covering the start of drag in theatre and essential events for the western world of drag. The in- formation about this topic is taken mainly from the book A history of Female 12 INTRODUCTION Impersonation in the Performing Arts (Baker 1994) and other academic sources con- cerned with drag in America. The third chapter talks about the representation of drag in television, and it is divided into four subchapters. The first one is about movies that use drag as the main comedic punchline, the second one is about a more accurate rep- resentation of drag, the third one is focused on RuPaul, and the fourth one is about the representation of drag now. The final chapter focuses on RuPaul´s Drag Race and the diversity of the queens represented in the show. The representation of drag drastically changed in the twenty-first century, mainly in the second decade, together with the representation of the LGBTQ+ com- munity. More queer people can now see themselves on TV, which is a great success for the community. However, drag changes quickly, and the representation needs to evolve just as quickly, not always be accurate and diverse, just as the art of drag is. While that seems to be an issue for some drag shows and movies, it progresses in the right way. 13 TERMS 2 Terms Before diving into the history of drag and the analysis of its representation, it is important to go over some terms that appear in movies and shows that include drag. RuPaul´s Drag Race uses LGBTQ+ slang, words from African American Vernacu- lar English, and drag terminology. They also reference many LGBTQ+ and drag mov- ies. To completely understand what is going on in the show and on the stage, it is es- sential to know the terms and have basic knowledge about the world of drag. These terms are not only used in Drag Race and other LGBTQ+ movies and shows, but they are significant when talking about LGBTQ+ themes and issues. 2.1 Drag, Drag Queen and Female Impersonation The word "drag" has an exciting history essential for how the term is used now. Drag and "female impersonation" are to this day very interchangeable because their meaning is very similar. In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of drag is "entertainment in which performers caricature or challenge gender stereo- types (as by dressing in clothing that is stereotypical of another gender, by using ex- aggeratedly gendered mannerisms, or by combining elements of stereotypically male and female dress) and often wear elaborate or outrageous costumes," ("Drag"). This definition is aged now, and it uses some words that are not seen as positive when used to talk about drag queens and their performances. For example, using the term caricature when talking about queens sounds offensive if the performance or the drag queen's clothes are not meant to be a caricature. Costume is also not a flattering term, 14 TERMS and when used by the judges, it means that the look is not good. On the stage of Ru- Paul's Drag Race, queens cannot afford to wear a costume. There is also a definition for female impersonator in the Merriam-Webster dictionary "a male entertainer who plays the role of a woman," ("Female impersonator"), and it is just the shorter version of the definition of drag.
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