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Paper short abstract

This study investigates how the queens of a drag show in Kyoto, through their performances, challenge pre-established gender and identity frameworks, espousing a ‘principle of monstrosity’ that shapes their experience, especially in terms of gender, out of drag as well.

Paper long abstract

In the popular understanding, a drag queen is a gay man dressing and performing as a woman. A closer look at drag communities around the world, however, reveals how definitions based exclusively on pre-established notions of gender and sexuality obscure a much more varied and complex phenomenon. Current research on the topic has started to shift the narrative on drag, but much of the available literature still relies on ‘Western’ notions and on identity politics that do not necessarily reflect the reality of the drag world beyond the areas usually examined, such as the Euro-American sphere. The vibrant, yet dramatically understudied drag community of Japan, for instance, presents an interesting case in which not only are models and notions imported from abroad remodeled and adapted, but new ones, better suiting the needs and identity-building processes of the performers, are devised.

Presenting the results of an eleven-month fieldwork at the oldest and longest-running drag show in Japan, this study investigates the tension between the queens’ attempts to overcome preconceived notions of identity, the creation of new ways of identifying, and the impact of these new ways of self-positioning, especially on their gender experience. Based on interviews with the performers and participant observation, this presentation first reframes the figure of the drag queen as more than a simple female impersonator, envisioning her as an ambiguous, monstrous entity blurring the boundaries between the sexes, as well as between the human and the non-human. The drag queen thus simultaneously complicates and challenges both current and traditional notions of femininity. Second, as the performers’ self-perception as monsters and drag queens ‘bleeds through’ and makes up the core of their identity beyond the stage, this study examines how this ambiguous status impacts the life of the artists in relation to gender identity and gender roles, showing how it offers them, particularly Assigned-Female-At-Birth ones, ways to challenge gender norms, and create and embody alternative models. In doing so, this presentation unveils new ways of identifying beyond pre-conceived, ‘imported’ terms and categories, thus revealing the inadequacy of ‘Western’ notions to fully frame the participants to this study.