Introduction
This website is the written component of my dissertation film Queer Is A Tender Feeling: a short documentary about drag, gender and queer community. It covers the methodologies and ideas behind the initial research, as well as some of the processes and theories that informed the creation process. Certain areas of interest were not expanded upon in the film and therefore have been added here as a more detailed companion to the documentary.
This project explored contemporary drag through interviews with drag artists, whose levels of experience ranged from 0 to 6 years. The aim was to gather insights into their personal experiences with drag and how it has helped them to shape, explore and understand their own identities, with the hope of educating both the film’s audience and myself. I was motivated to conduct this research to gain a better understanding of the possibilities drag performance has for understanding one’s own identity, as well as using it as a vehicle to gain confidence both personally and as a performer. I was also interested in how drag can be political and used in activism and community building.
As the writer and researcher of this work, I must acknowledge my identity and stance on the topics that will be discussed. I identify myself as non-binary, meaning that I do not identify with ideas of what it means to be a man or woman. On this site, there are certain terms used that have yet to become part of the common lexicon. These terms are listed and defined below.
1. Cisgender - (sometimes shortened to cis) describes a person who identifies with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth, both socially and biologically.
2. Non-binary – a person who does not identify as being a man or woman. Other terms include genderqueer, gender non-conforming and gender-fluid.
3. Trans/transgender – a person who identifies with a different gender to the one they were assigned at birth. Some trans people may choose to medically transition, others may choose not to.
4. AMAB – Assigned male at birth.
5. AFAB – Assigned female at birth.
6. Intersex – a person who is born with varying sex characteristics, such as multiple or parts of multiple sex organs, rare chromosome combinations, or rare hormone balances.
One of the underpinning beliefs of this research is that sex and gender are separate, and that gender is a societal construct. Humans have a biological sex from birth (male/female/intersex). However, they are assigned a gender based upon that sex (man/woman), which affects the ways they are conditioned to behave and how they are viewed and treated by others. While sex is something biological, gender is sociological and we are socialised to follow this system that has been set up by society before us. While some people will be socialised to be more feminine or masculine depending on their sex, the characteristics of these qualities are not necessarily unique to biological sex. Gender identity may not always align with biological sex, hence the existence of the terms ‘trans’ and ‘non-binary’. Much of my understanding is closely linked to queer theorist Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity, which states that gender is our learned expressions and behaviours rather than something we are inherently; it is what we do, not what we are (Barker & Scheele, 2016, p.79). This theory is also relevant to drag performance, as drag is most often a performance of gender. As Butler said, ‘In imitating gender, drag implicitly reveals the imitative structure of gender itself’ (Walsh, 2009, p.57). This further suggests that gender is something we can mimic and perform, as opposed to our inherent nature.