Costuming gender : an investigation into the construction and perception of drag costume in mainstream film

Mapping Intimacies ◽

10.51415/10321/2423 ◽

2015 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Shari Tamar Akal

Keyword(s):

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Film Theory ◽

The Body ◽

Male Body ◽

Drag Queen ◽

Visual Appearance ◽

Gendered Identity ◽

Hollywood Films ◽

Subsequent Discussion

The years succeeding 1990 have seen a significant increase in the release of mainstream film featuring transgendered characters. The inclusion of such characters in popular film becomes a point of interest as transgendered identities differ from the hegemonic heterosexism of the audiences at whom these films are targeted. This investigation aims to gain a better understanding of how audience members read gendered identity through the visual appearance of drag queen characters in mainstream film. Due to the emblematic contrast between the male body and a hyper-feminine dress aesthetic, drag queens pose an overt visual challenge to the normative expectation of anatomical sex determining gender and gendered expression. This investigation is conducted from the paradigmatic perspective that recognises the impossibility of a ‘correct’ reading of dress aesthetics and is thus concerned with discovering the various gendered meanings audience members may attach to drag costume in film. This interpretivist standpoint, however, is held in conjunction with the critical understanding that prevalent contemporary socio-political constructs with regard to gender and dress will undoubtedly affect these perceptions. Segments from selected Hollywood films featuring drag queen protagonists were screened for a heterogeneous focus group and the subsequent discussion analysed through critical discourse analysis. Academic discourse concerning the socially constructed gender dichotomy and the debated subversive potential of the drag act is reviewed in order to provide a theoretical framework for analysing the participants’ comprehension of gendered performance. Gendered associations with dress and the body together with film theory are examined to better understand how an audience may perceive gendered identity through drag costume in film and what affect this may have on their conception of sartorial gendered expressions in reality. Finally, to situate and provide further context for this investigation, Queer theory critiques of the representation and reception of transgendered characters in past mainstream films are considered.

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Fagchild Tools: Softening the Body Politic and Sexualizing Paul Ryan in a Pussy-Grabbing Era

Politics & Gender ◽

10.1017/s1743923x18000727 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 602-618

Author(s):

Queer J. Thomas

Keyword(s):

Queer Theory ◽

Body Politic ◽

Public Life ◽

Public Spaces ◽

The Body ◽

Sexual Expression ◽

Double Bind ◽

Male Body ◽

The Public ◽

Women's Equality

AbstractThis article cautions against the strong impulse in the #MeToo movement to desexualize politics. Informed by queer theory, the article argues that the public desexualization imperative, represented by indignation toward President Donald Trump's pussy-grabbing antics and the concomitant, albeit justified, movement to expose decades of his sexual harassment of women, casts a shadow across queer citizens that chills sexual expression in democratic discourse and public life. The public desexualization imperative presents a double bind that creates, on one hand, public spaces that are less threatening and discriminatory to women and, on the other, public spaces that—from a queer white cisgender man's perspective, one whose only “marking” is his sexuality—erase queers’ valued differences. The author uses personal narrative to describe and apply tools (conceptualized as fagchild tools) that help navigate tensions between women's equality movements and queer efforts to gain fuller, more open sexual citizenship. The article focuses, first, on softening the body politic (implicitly a white cisgender heterosexual male body) to provide sociopolitical space for sexual pluralism. Second, the article uses the sexualization of House Speaker Paul Ryan to argue that making space for queer sexualities may require accommodating the expression of nonqueer sexualities, including those that most of us find offensive.

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Bodies, Gestus, Becoming: Cinema as a Technology of Gender and (Post)memory

Deleuze and Guattari Studies ◽

10.3366/dlgs.2018.0332 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 555-571

Author(s):

Belén Ciancio

Keyword(s):

Queer Theory ◽

Latin American ◽

Film Theory ◽

The Body ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Feminist Film Theory ◽

Political Cinema ◽

Feminist Film ◽

The One ◽

The Third World

The first issue this essay examines is the articulation of the cinema of the body, the feminine gestus, and the ‘political cinema’, which begins with the philosophical shout, ‘Give me a body, then!’ and ends with the ‘Third World Cinema’ as a cinema of memory. How is this Deleuzian concept in tension with the one proposed here of ‘missing body’? The second issue concerns the importance of the body for theory and practice within feminist film theory and queer theory. The question of the body is introduced in-between these two lines in the context of a series of Latin American documentaries. The final problem is then how to see and show a body that is missing, like an outside of the body image, and of a certain regime of the visible and the audible that tends to be fixed in topics by the production of technologies of (post)memory.

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Some Things are Worth Losing to Become./? Trans Masculinity|Queer Autoethnography|Where Theory and the Body Collide

Irish University Review ◽

10.3366/iur.2020.0432 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 39-50

Author(s):

Matt Kennedy

Keyword(s):

Queer Theory ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

The Body ◽

Trans People ◽

Family Home

This essay seeks to interrogate what it means to become a legible man as someone who held space as a multiplicity of identities before realising and negotiating my trans manhood. It raises the question of how we as trans people account for the shifting nature of our subjectivity, our embodiment and, indeed, our bodies. This essay locates this dialogue on the site of my body where I have placed many tattoos, which both speak to and inform my understanding of myself as a trans man in Ireland. Queer theory functions as a focal tool within this essay as I question family, home, transition, sexuality, and temporality through a queer autoethnographic reading of the tattoos on my body. This essay pays homage to the intersecting traditions within queer theory and autoethnography. It honours the necessity for the indefinable, for alternative knowledge production and representations, for the space we need in order to become, to allow for the uncertainty of our becoming.

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The Body in Theory

Environment and Planning D Society and Space ◽

10.1068/d160387 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 387-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 56

Author(s):

Felicity J Callard

Keyword(s):

Queer Theory ◽

20Th Century ◽

The Body ◽

The Other ◽

Industrial Capitalism ◽

Late 20Th Century ◽

The Social ◽

Theoretical Investigations ◽

The One ◽

Do So

Geographers are now taking the problematic of corporeality seriously. ‘The body’ is becoming a preoccupation in the geographical literature, and is a central figure around which to base political demands, social analyses, and theoretical investigations. In this paper I describe some of the trajectories through which the body has been installed in academia and claim that this installation has necessitated the uptake of certain theoretical legacies and the disavowal or forgetting of others. In particular, I trace two related developments. First, I point to the sometimes haphazard agglomeration of disparate theoretical interventions that lie under the name of postmodernism and observe how this has led to the foregrounding of bodily tropes of fragmentation, fluidity, and ‘the cyborg‘. Second, I examine the treatment of the body as a conduit which enables political agency to be thought of in terms of transgression and resistance. I stage my argument by looking at how on the one hand Marxist and on the other queer theory have commonly conceived of the body, and propose that the legacies of materialist modes of analysis have much to offer current work focusing on how bodies are shaped by their encapsulation within the sphere of the social. I conclude by examining the presentation of corporeality that appears in the first volume of Marx's Capital. I do so to suggest that geographers working on questions of subjectivity could profit from thinking further about the relation between so-called ‘new’ and ‘fluid’ configurations of bodies, technologies, and subjectivities in the late 20th-century world, and the corporeal configurations of industrial capitalism lying behind and before them.

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The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Philosophy

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190628925.001.0001 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Critical Race Theory ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Postcolonial Theory ◽

The Body ◽

Feminist Philosophy ◽

Comprehensive Overview ◽

Rich Diversity ◽

Trans Studies ◽

Feminist Perspectives ◽

The Rich

This exciting new Handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the contemporary state of the field. The editors’ introduction and forty-five essays cover feminist critical engagements with philosophy and adjacent scholarly fields, as well as feminist approaches to current debates and crises across the world. Authors cover topics ranging from the ways in which feminist philosophy attends to other systems of oppression, and the gendered, racialized, and classed assumptions embedded in philosophical concepts, to feminist perspectives on prominent subfields of philosophy. The first section contains chapters that explore feminist philosophical engagement with mainstream and marginalized histories and traditions, while the second section parses feminist philosophy’s contributions to with numerous philosophical subfields, for example metaphysics and bioethics. A third section explores what feminist philosophy can illuminate about crucial moral and political issues of identity, gender, the body, autonomy, prisons, among numerous others. The Handbook concludes with the field’s engagement with other theories and movements, including trans studies, queer theory, critical race, theory, postcolonial theory, and decolonial theory. The volume provides a rigorous but accessible resource for students and scholars who are interested in feminist philosophy, and how feminist philosophers situate their work in relation to the philosophical mainstream and other disciplines. Above all it aims to showcase the rich diversity of subject matter, approach, and method among feminist philosophers.

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Embracing a New Day

Journal of Bodies, Sexualities, and Masculinities ◽

10.3167/jbsm.2021.020203 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 10-38

Author(s):

Phillip Joy ◽

Matthew Numer ◽

Sara F. L. Kirk ◽

Megan Aston

Keyword(s):

Body Image ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Gay Men ◽

Hegemonic Masculinity ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

The City

The construction of masculinities is an important component of the bodies and lives of gay men. The role of gay culture on body standards, body dissatisfaction, and the health of gay men was explored using poststructuralism and queer theory within an arts-based framework. Nine gay men were recruited within the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Participants were asked to photograph their beliefs, values, and practices relating to their bodies and food. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, using the photographs as guides. Data were analyzed by critical discourse analysis and resulted in three overarching threads of discourse including: (1) Muscles: The Bigger the Better, (2) The Silence of Hegemonic Masculinity, and (3) Embracing a New Day. Participants believed that challenging hegemonic masculinity was a way to work through body image tension.

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Deconstructing Queer/Trans Aging: A Critical Discourse Analysis

10.32920/16632277 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Annie Burns

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Discourse Analysis ◽

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Cultural Competency ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Critical Whiteness Studies ◽

Term Care ◽

Critical Whiteness

This Major Research Paper (MRP) examines the recent discourse around LGBTQ older adults and aging that has started to be incorporated into Toronto’s senior care ostensibly to promote inclusion and diversity. Applying postmodernism, queer theory and critical whiteness studies as the theoretical framework, this MRP conducts a critical discourse analysis of (1) a sample of articles on older adults and aging from a Toronto-based LGBTQ-focused newspaper and (2) a sample of a LGBTQ2S cultural competency manual from Toronto’s city-run long-term care homes. The analysis of the findings demonstrates a white-centered, homogenizing and depoliticized discourse. The hope is to push conversations of queer/trans aging beyond homonormative models of senior care.

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Cuerpo indeterminado: La precariedad del cuerpo en el discurso feminista

Revista de la Academia ◽

10.25074/0196318.0.47 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 47

Author(s):

María Isabel Peña Aguado

Keyword(s):

Feminist Theory ◽

Queer Theory ◽

Female Body ◽

The Body ◽

Philosophical Tradition ◽

Font Size ◽

Feminist Discourse ◽

Feminist Movements ◽

Cuerpo Femenino

La teoría feminista heredó de una tradición filosófica hostil la identificación de cuerpo y mujer. Partiendo de esta identificación de mujer y cuerpo es comprensible que un cuestionamiento del concepto ‘mujer’ influya asimismo en el lugar que va a encontrar el cuerpo dentro del movimiento y teoría feministas. Ese lugar será diferente dependiendo de las diversas reivindicaciones que marcan las diferencias entre los distintos feminismos y teorías queer. La pregunta que se plantea es hasta qué punto la precariedad del cuerpo femenino dentro de la misma teoría feminista es consecuencia del cuestionamiento del concepto de mujer o si, por el contrario, no será más bien el rechazo a una realidad corporal concreta lo que ha permitido y ayudado a desarmar los conceptos de ‘mujer’ y ‘mujeres’ hasta el punto de considerarlos como innecesario para el mismo discurso y políticas feministas contemporáneos.Palabras claves: cuerpo, mujeres, feminismo, Teoría Queer Indeterminacy of the body: precariousness of body in the feminist discourseFeminist theory inherited the identification of woman and body from a hostile philosophical tradition. Given this identification, it is understandable that a questioning of the concept ‚woman‘ also influences the place that the body will find in the feminist movements and theories. The question that arises is how far the precariousness of the female body within feminist theory itself is the result of a questioning of the concept of ‘woman’ or whether, on the contrary, it is the rejection of a concrete corporal reality which has enabled and helped to disarm the concepts of ‚woman‘ and ‚women‘ to the point of considering them unnecessary for contemporary feminist discourse and politics. Keywords: body, women, feminism, Queer Theory

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Idrott och genus: Kroppens materialisering

Dansk Sociologi ◽

10.22439/dansoc.v15i2.238 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 55-72

Author(s):

Håkan Larsson

Keyword(s):

The Body ◽

Track And Field ◽

The Other ◽

Biological Entity ◽

Male Body ◽

The Subject ◽

Male Discourse ◽

And Gender ◽

The One ◽

Cultural Effect

Håkan Larsson: Sport and gender This article concerns bodily materialisation as it occurs in youth sport. It is based on interviews with teenagers 16 to 19 years of age doing track and field athletics. The purpose of the article is to elucidate how the notion of a “natural body“ can be seen as a cultural effect of sports practice and sports discourse. On the one hand, the body is materialised as a performing body, and on the other as a beautiful body. The “performing body“ is a single-sexed biological entity. The “beautiful body“ is a double-sexed and distinctly heterosexually appealing body. As these bodies collide in teenager track and field, the female body materialises as a problematic body, a body that is at the same time the subject of the girl’s personality. The male body materialises as an unproblematic body, a body that is the object of the boy’s personality. However, the body as “(a problematic) subject“ or as “(an unproblematic) object“ is not in itself a gendered body. Rather, these are positions on a cultural grid of power-knowledge relations. A girl might position herself in a male discourse, and a boy might position himself in a female discourse, but in doing so, they seem to have to pay a certain price in order not to be seen as queer.

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Transgressive Textualities: Translating References to Gender, Sexuality and Corporeality in Nelly Arcan’s Putain and Paradis, clef en main

Canada and Beyond A Journal of Canadian Literary and Cultural Studies ◽

10.33776/candb.v3i1-2.3041 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1-2) ◽

Author(s):

Pauline Henry-Tierney

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Female Body ◽

The Body ◽

Sexual Agency ◽

Writing Style ◽

Women's Bodies ◽

Gendered Identity ◽

Translation Practice ◽

Neutral Tone ◽

Target Culture

In this paper I examine how transgressive references to gender, sexuality and the body are translated in two texts by the Québécoise writer Nelly Arcan, her debut autofictional narrative Putain (2001) and her final (retroactively auto)fictional title Paradis, clef en main (2009). Throughout her oeuvre, Arcan seeks to liberate women from stereotypical frameworks of reference by asserting women’s gendered, sexual and corporeal subjectivities in previously taboo discourses on prostitution, incest, sexuality, anorexia, matrophobia and suicide. Through her candid and explicit writing style, Arcan elaborates her own specific écriture au féminin which incorporates a linguistic, thematic and physical visualization of women within her texts.These two novels have been translated into English as Whore (2005) by Bruce Benderson and Exit (2011) by David Scott Hamilton respectively. However, analysis of the target texts suggests that neither translator adopts a gender-conscious approach which compromises the specificity of Arcan's idiolect in the Anglophone context. Through a comparative analysis of examples from the source texts and translations under the categories of gender, sexuality and the body, I discuss how the translation practices work counterproductively to obfuscate Arcan’s textual visualisations of women. In terms of references to gendered identity, by removing or neutralising Arcan's grammatically feminised language in Putain, the translator obfuscates Arcan's idea of the importance gender plays in shaping maternal relationships. Similarly, in Exit, Arcan's subversive feminist wordplay is distorted resulting in women being reinserted into patriarchal frameworks of reference. My analysis on Arcan's portrayal of sexuality underlines how sexual euphemisms in the translation downplay the narrator's potential for sexual agency in Whore, while misleading translation choices for feminist neologisms relating to women's sexuality in Exit eschew Arcan's efforts to verbalise women's lived sexual realities. Lastly, inconsistency in the translation of female corporeal vocabulary distorts the neutral tone Arcan employs in Putain to ensure women's bodies are not eroticised and the translator's decision to condense references to the female body in Exit undermines the significance Arcan places on corporeal connections between women. Thereafter, I move on to consider the wider implications of the translative process such as how paratextual elements also have an impact upon Arcan's reception in the target culture. I argue that in both Whore and Exit, the paratranslators intentionally sensationalise the autofictional elements of Arcan's texts. In short, my analysis contends that through a non-gender conscious translation practice, the celebrity of Arcan is promoted in the Anglophone context but to the detriment of Arcan’s écriture au féminin.

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