1 THE QUEER CARNIVAL: Gender transgressive images in contemporary Queer performance and their relationship to carnival and the Grotesque. Submitted by Bruce Howard Bayley to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Drama, (February 2000). This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all the material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material is included for which a degree has previously been conferred upon me. ___________________________ Bruce Howard Bayley 2 ABSTRACT The starting point for this study was my MA research into dramatherapy interventions with young male clients whose self-images contained indicators of both male and female genders alongside one another and who identified with a kind of gender fluidity which put them outside the duality of the male-female gender system. This study is an exploration of contemporary Queer performers whose work can be seen as embodying positions similar to those taken by my dramatherapy clients. PART ONE contains a description of the performances I observed and extracts from interviews conducted. PART TWO consists of my analysis of the performances. After a discussion of the theories of gender identity that underpin my research, there follows a presentation of the terms ‘gender transgression’ and ‘gender fluidity’ and a consideration of the extent to which the gender transgressive images embodied in the work of these performers can be considered to be liminal and/or liminoid phenomena. Continuing with an exploration of the term ‘queer’, its various usages, its development and its application in Queer Theory’, the study goes on to identify criteria for Queer performance and analyze the performances in the light of these criteria. After presenting general theories of the Grotesque, the study identifies the grotesque nature of the images presented by these performers, using a conceptual rather than a literal reading of Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the grotesque body. Finally, the study looks at some of the ideas within the theory of carnival, starting with Bakhtin’s idea of folk carnival culture, and whether or not gender transgressive Queer performance can be considered to be carnival. After a detailed examination of these performances in relation to carnival - as public occasion and performance, as communitas and as the subversive inversion of normality - as well as to notions of parody, travesty and burlesque, the study concludes that a number of characteristics of carnival are also present in these performances. 3 LIST OF CONTENTS List of illustrations 4 Illustrations 5 List of Definitions 27 Introduction 28 Part One The Performers and the Performances 43 Part Two Gender Identity and Liminality 129 Queer, Queer Theory & Queer performance 161 Gender transgressive images in Queer performance & the Grotesque 193 The Queer carnival 232 Summary & Conclusions 274 Appendix A 286 Appendix B 349 References 364 Acknowledgements 369 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plate 1 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 2 The Divine Feud (Cathy Peace & Chris Green) 3 The Divine David (David Hoyle) 4 Amy Lamé (Amy Caddle) 5 ‘Dolly Blue’ (Marisa Carr) 6 ‘Violet Rose’ (Marisa Carr) 7 Ivan Cartwright in It Took More Than One Man 8 Doo Cot’s Peacock 9 Mr. Gay UK (Ben) 10 Mr Gay UK Tattoo 11 " 12 Freak Orlando 13 Bearded man in dress 14 Two fat drag Queens 15 Horned man 16 S/M dykes 17 Carnival float 18 Man in carnival mask 19 " 20 Woman in carnival mask 21 Woman in hooped dress 22 Bearded man in scarlet dress 23 Bearded man in mini skirt 24 Sister of Perpetual Indulgence 25 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in street performance 26 Bizarre clown ‘dancer’ 27 Wedding couple (female) 28 Wedding couple (male) 29 ‘Bishop’ 30 Drag Kings 31 Drag Queen with pink wig 32 Drag Queen with red cape 33 White Angel 34 ‘Angel of the North’ 5 Plate 1 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (Sr. Gypsy TV Filmstar, Sr. Groinne of the Burnished Buttocks, Postulant Richard and Sr. Anorak of the Cheap Day Return - Manchester 1997) Plate 2 The Divine Feud (Cathy Peace & Chris Green) 6 Plate 3 The Divine David (David Hoyle) Plate 4 Amy Lamé (Amy Caddle) 7 Plate 5 ‘Dolly Blue’ (Marisa Carr) Plate 6 ‘Violet Rose’ (Marisa Carr) 8 Plate 7 Ivan Cartwright in It Took More Than One Man 9 Plate 8 Doo Cot’s Peacock 10 Plate 9 Mr Gay UK (Ben wins) Plate 11 Mr Gay Tattoo Plate 10 Mr Gay Tattoo 11 Plate 12 Freak Orlando 12 Plate 13 Bearded man in dress 13 Plate 14 Two fat drag Queens 14 Plate 15 Horned man 15 Plate 16 S/M dykes Plate 17 Carnival float 16 Plate 18 Man in carnival mask Plate 19 Man in carnival mask 17 Plate 20 Woman in carnival mask Plate 21 Woman in hooped dress 18 Plate 22 Bearded man in scarlet dress Plate 23 Bearded man in mini skirt 19 Plate 24 Belgian Sister of Perpetual Indulgence (Europride 1997) 20 Plate 25 Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in street performance (Sr. Mary Mother of Pearl from Sydney and Sr. Gypsy TV Filmstar, with Gard Cuise, guards of the thighs to the Parisian Sisters - Europride 1997) 21 Plate 26 Bizarre clown ‘dancer’ 22 Plate 27 Wedding couple (female) Plate 28 Wedding couple (male) 23 Plate 29 ‘Bishop’ 24 Plate 30 Drag Kings Plate 31 Drag Queen with pink wig 25 Plate 32 Drag Queen with red cape Plate 33 White angel 26 Plate 34 ‘Angel of the North’ 27 LIST OF DEFINITIONS A comprehensive list of definitions of key terms and concepts is included as an integral part of the Introduction to the thesis (p36) 28 INTRODUCTION The initial point of inspiration for this study was located at the heart of my MA Thesis, Splitting and Mirroring: The process of Mimetic Enactment and Mirroring in addressing the split-gender role conflict of young, male, homosexual prostitutes. This was a research study in dramatherapy and I drew on clinical material from my work practice with clients whose self-images contained indicators of both male and female genders alongside one another. The young, male clients identified with role models derived from the media, idealized and fantasy characters of the female gender, but they presented themselves as being divided between two, sometimes three, personae of differing genders at various times but without any loss of a fundamental identity. In other words, they were not manifesting the psychological states of dissociation or multiple personalities. They expressed ambivalence towards accepting either male or female gender behaviours and, equally, towards transexuality, in the sense in which this term means undertaking a sex-change operation - genital re-assignment surgery - which would take them towards a position of gender certainty. They a) adopted female personas with female names both in the sessions and in their life experiences while acknowledging themselves to be biologically males, b) assigned both male and female names to male genitals and other body parts, c) identified with female characters in pictorial material, written material and enactments within the dramatherapy sessions while also identifying themselves with male characters who may be presented within the same specific material or identified with in other material in other sessions, d) expressed ambivalence towards maleness, femaleness and transexuality, e) adopted clothing along the lines that suggested a split in gender stereotypy, 29 f) played roles, within dramatherapy enactments, of females characters presenting themselves as males and vice versa, g) stated a preference for bisexual partners with whom the client would be identifying as being ‘feminine’ but who would be aware that the client was anatomically a male presenting a female persona, h) would take on a ‘feminine’ role in sexual partnership while identifying positively with the potency and perceived ‘largeness’ of their penises. What these people were saying was that they identified with a kind of gender fluidity which put them outside the duality of the male-female gender system. To this extent they may be considered to be gender transgressive. The BBC’s ‘Q.E.D.’ programme Sex Acts, broadcast in May 1995, featured a number of people who were born as either male or female but who, like my gender transgressive clients, also wish to live neither as male nor as female but with gender ambiguous identities, in between genders, as it were. Christie Elan-Cane and Zoltar Kattse, two of the individuals interviewed in the programme, were born women but had strong convictions that they were occupying the wrong kind of body. Christie did not feel he was a female but equally he did not feel that he was a male. After much suffering, research, painful experimentation and expense, Christie managed to approach a plastic surgeon who consented to perform a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy, removing the female-ness of his body. As Christie had no wish to be reassigned as a male there was no further surgery to provide him with a constructed penis. Zoltar Kattse was still awaiting his hysterectomy at the time of the programme’s being broadcast. A third interviewee, Rachel O’Connor is a biological male but identified herself as a transgenderist living a double 30 life. When she presents as a man at work she uses a male name and dresses and is known as a man. At other times she is Rachel and presents and is acknowledged as a woman. During what she called her ‘normal heterosexual relationship’ with a woman, they gradually reversed their gender identities and roles, Rachel becoming more feminine and her female lover becoming more masculine.