THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL Drag Performance, Identity, and Cultural Perception being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Karen Oughton, B. A. (University of York) April 2009 1 Acknowledgements There are a number of people without whose support this thesis would not exist. Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Keith Peacock and Professor Richard Boon from the Department of Drama and Music at the University of Hull. Their expert encouragement of my sometimes unorthodox approach enabled me to develop my ideas yet remain at all times critically minded. I would also like to thank Kathie Atkinson, Suzie Locke, and Dr Nigel Shaw at the Graduate School, who have handled my endless administrative enquiries with knowledge and patience. In this vein, I would also like to express my gratitude to Christine Godfrey, Peter Godfrey, Anthony Oughton, other family members, Lauren Orton, Kat Garcia and Martin Firth for their willingness to proof read my documents, offer insightful criticism, technical support and moral support. My thanks go to the many more who have contributed to this project. My arguments would not have developed as they have without the support of my primary respondents, Kerryn, Marcus R., Marcus M., Tony, Harry, Sam and Gerry. I am extremely grateful to them for welcoming me into their communities to watch their performances and to allow me to carry out such in-depth interviews. They were also fantastic hosts. I am also grateful to Kate Bornstein for her correspondence, comments, and sheer generosity of spirit. Finally, I would like to thank Simon and Rowan Oughton for their willingness to put up with my endless nights on the computer and away from home, developing the work, and indeed reading the endless drafts. This is for you. 2 Abstract This is the first holistic study of English cross-dressed performers. It will situate drag performers within their cultural context in order to establish how their concerns, motivations, employment, communities, friendships, self-perception and artistic ambitions impact on their performances. Furthermore, it utilises performance and ethnographic analysis of a number of artistes to demonstrate how modern drag politicises communities and forms an accessible critique of social roles. Furthermore, it aims to reunite Queer Theory with the realities of its effects on society. The first chapter establishes the study’s position within the overarching framework of Queer Theory. A troupe of drag performers are examined in light of Judith Butler’s theories of performativity to elucidate how the social aspects of gender can be developed. Then, Kate Bornstein’s work is used to illustrate how individuals can use these identities as a conscious method of self-development. Following this, the second chapter explores the social role drag performers have, sometimes inadvertently, chosen. Developing the theories of the interrelationship between belief, LGBTQ sexuality and otherness purported by Kate Bornstein, it asserts the educational and social role that can be taken by drag performers. The third chapter focuses on the messages that these LGTBQ shaman (a theory developed from Laurence Senelick’s work) convey to their community via performance. Case studies illustrate how the performers tailor their acts to politicise their often apathetic audiences. 3 This work is extrapolated in the fourth chapter, which focuses on the community-wide Pride Parade performances. The Rabelaisian carnivalesque is used to argue that the carnivals encourage the audience to review their gender development, revitalising the culture. Finally, the fifth chapter demonstrates how these differing theoretical strands enable televised drag performance to challenge censure by questioning ‘otherness’ itself. This is achieved with reference to horror theory, camp and the performances of Danny La Rue, amongst others, and the cultural impact of the programme Little Britain (2003). The thesis demonstrates that drag is, in fact, a dialogue that can engage and politicise mainstream culture. 4 Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: Which Identity?............……………………………………………..30 Chapter Two: The Great Fool ……………………………………………………..70 Chapter Three: What’s Our Message?............………………………..……..........100 Chapter Four: Theatres of Social Change…...………………………………........164 Chapter Five: Drag and Camp Traditions in British Popular Culture…………….219 Conclusion…..…………………………………………………………………….284 Bibliography...…………………………………………………………………….304 Appendices………………………………………………………………………...322 5 Introduction The medium of drag performance has enabled a revised understanding of sexual identity and its effects on the role of the individual within society as a result of its impact on mainstream culture. This first holistic study of English cross-dressed performers will demonstrate how modern drag performance forms a progressive and accessible social critique that gleans its power from a theoretical background incorporating subjects ranging from the carnivalesque to Queer Theory. It will show how drag not only offers its performers the opportunity to develop their self-perception and social role, but also crosses the footlights to elicit this reflexivity in its audiences, both community specific and in mainstream society. Performances that have been labelled as drag (either by the performers themselves or by theorists) are understood here in their widest definition as meaning clothing associated with one sex being worn by a member of the opposite sex. They do not have a specific body of work that can be examined. Rather, they comprise sometimes apparently disparate, yet inter-related, disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, politics, religion, gender theory and theatre, all of which contribute to their meanings and practice, but sometimes initially appear almost at odds with each other. Within these disciplines are topics, varying from the drag balls of 1980s’ Harlem (as referenced in Livingston 1990), to provincial cabaret and pantomime, religious and folk magic rituals, protest movements, legal power and media studies. While each sphere aims to impact on the audience in the interests of their advancement, this thesis examines them within their cultural context in order to prevent misinterpretations of the data. This enables a holistic understanding of the drag 1 phenomenon by elucidating any similarities, points of interest, concurrent developmental phases or sub currents found in the spheres that underpin their effect as political theatre. The primary theoretical framework through which drag performance can be understood is Queer Theory. This genre examines the concept of non-binary gender, sex and sexuality, and, while it is hugely varied, its key texts include works such as Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (2006, originally published in 1990) and Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “sex” (1993), and Kate Bornstein’s Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1994). 1 This thesis will argue that the concepts discussed within this field (such as biological sex, religion and social hierarchies) are integral to drag’s influence on mainstream culture. This builds upon a study concerning the allied aesthetic, camp, undertaken by John Latham Fisher (2001), whose focus is to highlight the subject as an academic discipline and demonstrate its effects on the audience. He contrasts what he calls the “old” school of camp theorisation, exemplified by Susan Sontag (whom he suggests perceived camp as an aesthetic that subsumed politics) to a modern conceptualisation of camp as a political tool enabling resignification of the human body (2001 18). He develops this perspective to suggest that camp’s use of meta-narrative interplay can be used to question and, thus, force a redevelopment of socio-political institutions, therefore demonstrating the form’s potential as theatre capable of causing social change rather than simply providing entertainment. 1 The term, ‘non-binary’ in this context relates to gender representation, biological sex, and sexuality that are not limited to stable absolutes, for example the concept that a male can display stereotypically female characteristics. 2 Whilst Latham Fisher’s work offers some unique perspectives, owing to its refreshing emotional honesty and endeavour to see the metaphorical wood for the trees, it is encumbered by his personal preferences. He quickly dismisses the common assertion that the on-screen personas of actresses such as Greta Garbo exemplified camp through their incongruent and ironic qualities, simply because their medium contradicts his assertion that live performance is the sensibility’s purest form. Moreover, as his large, autobiographical preface demonstrates, his love for the genre was formulated in conjunction with his personal politics, thus strengthening his perception of the efficacy of the style regardless of its content at the time, essentially believing that it is impossible for camp to be ‘bad’ or ineffective. 2 This thesis will, however, demonstrate how his basic theorisation of camp’s political power can be expanded and refined to cover drag performance – primarily, though not exclusively, in the context of a male dressing in culturally feminine attire. The very terms used to describe the sex and gender non-conformist community connote the society in which they were coined, and it is thus necessary to consider how they politicise this work. 3 The