Drag Kings: Performing Masculinity

Gender performance as a means of political message has always been fascinating to me. The idea of being able to put on and take off gender at will is interesting; the added layer of power relations makes it even more intriguing. What better illustration of gender performance than drag. Drag is all about the performance of gender, with the goal of disrupting the power hierarchy. To me drag is an important part of gender performance because it is one which illustrates that gender is a performance and is nothing more than culturally accepted features that come to identify people. Surprisingly there is a large body of literature on drag queens, but very little on drag kings. I decided to supplement what I found through literature with my own experiences as a guest to Masque, Dayton\u27s gay night club. These experiences are meant to help describe another group and give more examples from a local concept. I intend to present this information in first person sections at the beginning of some of the sections and will be followed by a break. This is a feminist methodology used by Ronai called a layered account. Through this paper I hope to better understand how drag performance of gender varies based on gender and race as well as the political nature behind drag shows