Reading & Composition

“Every time I bat my false eyelashes, it’s a political statement.”
–Rupaul

Drag queens are not known for their subtlety.  But tucked away underneath the bedazzled outfit and the painted face is a scathing critique of gender categories.  You think a girl should have curves?  Well, it’s just a question of a little padding.  Eyelashes that can wink seductively?  All it takes is a few tricks from a make-up bag.  Should a lady sparkle?  Then my dress will be covered from head to toe in sequins.  The drag queen deconstructs the concept of femininity, embellishing and eventually reproducing the elements that “organically” or “naturally” belong to women in general.  Through exaggeration, drag reminds us how every element of gender is in some way constructed.  It forces us to think about the way we attach meanings to the body.

In this class, we’ll be looking at texts that hinge on a drag performance, understood here in a broad sense as a moment in which male or female cross-dressing becomes a vehicle for critique.  We’ll be exploring how drag calls attention to the “constructedness” of assumed categories, gender or otherwise.  Our sources will come from a variety of historical periods, and it will be our task to understand what is at stake in each drag performance.  What does it mean for a woman to perform as a man in a particular historical moment, and vice-versa?  How is drag linked to questions of desire, both queer and heterosexual?  In what way is every drag performance political?

Furthermore, we’ll be looking at drag not only as an object of study, but also as a metaphor for our own reading practice—what we’ll call “close reading.”  If it is true, as Erasmus states, that “clothing is to the body as style is to thought,” we’ll use drag to interrogate what makes each text uniquely “form-fitting.”  As readers and writers, we’ll consider our cultural objects as performances in their own right, with drag providing a model for us to think about the complex relations between form and content.

Texts will be chosen from the following:

Euripides, The Bacchae
Ariosto, Orlando Furioso
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Catalina De Erauso, Lieutenant Nun
Rachilde, Monsieur Vénus
Balzac, Sarrasine
George Moore, Albert Nobbs
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Mayra Santos-Febres, Sirena Selena

Films and Television Shows:

Wilder, Some Like it Hot
Livingston, Paris is Burning
Elliot, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Groening, “Girls Just Want to Do Sums” (The Simpsons)
Rupaul, “Gone with the Window” (Rupaul’s Drag Race)