Drag Histories, Herstories and Hairstories: Drag in a Changing Scene Volume 2 (Methuen Drama Engage)

"Drawing on rich interdisciplinary research that has laced the emerging subject of drag studies as an academic discipline, this book examines how drag performance is a political, socio-cultural practice with a widespread lineage throughout the history of performance. This volume maps the multi-threaded contexts of contemporary practices while rooting them in their fabulous historical past and memory. The book examines drag histories and what drag does with history, how it enacts or tells stories about remembering and the past. Featuring work about the USA, UK and Ireland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Barbados, this book allows the reader to engage with a range of archival research including camp and history; ethnicity and drag; queering ballet through drag; the connections between drag king and queen history; queering pantomime performance; drag and military veterans; Puerto Rican drag performers and historical film."-- Provided by publisher Cover page 1 Halftitle page 2 Series page 3 Title page 4 Copyright page 5 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Illustrations 10 Contributors 11 Acknowledgements 19 Note 21 Foreword: Such A Drag! 22 Preface 27 Same salad but a different ‘dress’ing 33 Notes 35 1 Dragging Up the Past 38 The impossibility of a drag history 38 Snatching drag sources 40 Intersections of drag fragments with performance cultures 42 Family lineages – generative processes in passing on drag 44 Community lineages 45 [In]Conclusion 48 Notes 48 References 49 2 ‘Once Upon a Time, There Was a Tavern’: Metadrag and Other Uses of the Past at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern 52 The Royal Vauxhall Tavern 55 Those Were the Days 57 Readers Wifes Fan Club 58 Royal Vauxhall 60 Happy Birthday RVT 61 Feeling forward 63 References 64 3 Camp and Drag in the Mainstream: A Critical Study of the Phenomenon of Drag Performance in the Northern British Fun Pubs, 1973–1993 66 Introduction 66 A camp night out! 67 Notes 74 References 76 4 Soldiers in Skirts: Cross-Dressing Ex-Servicemen, Sexuality and Censorship in Post-War Britain 78 Introduction 78 Veterans’ cross-dressing revues of the 1940s and 1950s 80 Press reactions 82 The Lord Chamberlain, homosexuality and gender variance 83 Public responses 86 Conclusion 89 Notes 90 References 91 5 Kinging the Stage: Male Impersonators and Drag Kings, Exploring Shared Historical Narratives 94 Talking about kinging and drag 95 Kinging in the theatre: JOAN 101 Connectedness 103 Notes 104 References 105 6 A Kiss that Breaks the Spell: Japanese ‘Drag Kings’ and the Homosocial Culture of the Takarazuka Revue 106 Playing the male role: The power dynamics of performing gender 107 A kiss that breaks the spell: The homo-erotic safe-space of the ‘drag’ performance 111 References 118 7 Camp Can Be Such a Drag: Approaches to Understanding Camp and Drag 120 Pop camp to queer parody 121 Reclaiming the discourse 123 ‘The Camp’ 124 London quean 126 Temporal drag/camp 128 Notes 130 References 131 8 Vonni Diva: Showgirl 134 Notes 143 References 143 9 ‘FagHag Drag’: Penny Arcade’s Archive of Otherness 146 Introduction 146 Dragging towards truth telling 147 FagHag: Disidentification and the politics of trauma 150 Drag as an archive of otherness, and some concluding thoughts 154 Notes 155 References 156 10 Nobody’s Trash: Holly Woodlawn’s Puerto Rican Drag and the Subversion of Authorship 158 Queer Puerto Rican drag aesthetics 162 My trashy lady: The ‘discovery’ of Holly Woodlawn 164 ‘You’re both junk’: Redefining Trash 168 Conclusion 171 References 171 11 Bibi is a Sissy: Drag, Death by Silence and the Journey to Self-Determination 174 What’s in a name? 174 Brazil 1993 175 Back to 1993 176 Horizontal bonds and identity markers 179 Leaving Brazil 180 Conclusion 181 Notes 183 References 183 12 Mother Sally and the Fig Leaf: Re/Productions of a Carnival Character in Barbados 186 Female impersonation and carnival 186 African and folklore context 188 Commercialization and national identities 191 Current attitudes 193 Notes 195 References 196 13 The Buttcracker: Dragging Ballet into Queer Places 198 Introduction 198 But why? (Why not?) 199 Herstories and fairy stories 199 Drag acts posing and acts of drag 202 Dismantling through drag 205 Drag foraging and play as methodology 206 Hoaxes 207 Collaboration 210 Notes 210 References 211 14 Oh Wow! He’s Queer! Queering Panto in Belfast: An Interview with Ross Anderson-Doherty 214 Acknowledgements 228 Notes 228 References 229 15 Wicked Queens of Pantoland 232 From hags to witches 232 Wicked old fairies 234 Savage queens 236 New queens on the block 237 Dressed to kill 239 New drag for old 242 Conclusion 244 References 244 Index 248 Drawing on rich interdisciplinary research that has laced the emerging subject of drag studies as an academic discipline, this book examines how drag performance is a political, socio-cultural practice with a widespread lineage throughout the history of performance. This text centres on the importance of dragging up the past to see beyond present drag constructs. Therefore, this volume maps the multi-threaded contexts of contemporary practices while rooting them in their fabulous historical past and memory. The chapters in the book not only examine drag histories, but also what drag does with history, how it enacts or tells stories about remembering and the past. Featuring work about the USA, UK and Ireland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Barbados, through contributions from an international assortment of performers, academics and writers, this book allows the reader to engage with a range of archive research including photographic explorations of ageing drag queens; ethnicity and drag; queering ballet through drag; the connections between drag king and queen history; queering pantomime performance; bodies as living archives through memory and place; drag mothers and daughters; drag and military veterans; Puerto Rican drag performers and historical film. The volume functions not only to contribute to the area of drag history, but also touch on current work in drag that is done about history. Collectively, these essays complement the contemporary practices documented in Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers: Drag in a Changing Scene (2020), yet they offer echoes of a distinctive drag history, enlarging the remit of history to uncover drag's fruitful past. Vol. 1: 9781350082946 "In recent years drag performance has moved from the fringes to emerge as a mainstream phenomenon, showcased on TV shows in the US and the UK. This collection offers a diverse range of critical engagements by drag performers, makers, scholars and writers reflecting on work from the UK, USA, Israel, Germany and Australia. Moving beyond discussions of gender theory, the essays consider contemporary drag performance practices, connecting them to the histories, communities and politics that produced them. Chapters range across discussions of drag kings in the US, UK and drag and activism; the influence of RuPaul on the generation of new forms of work in New York; transfeminist critiques of drag; 'bio'/faux queens; engagements with race and ethnicity through drag performance; drag andragogy; audience concerns; drag intersections with animal personas, and how drag performance relates to personal narratives of history and identity. Collectively the contributions focus on drag as a mode of performance that is diverse and that uncorsets the easy thought that drag is simply a cross dressing man in a dress or a woman in a suit"-- Provided by publisher In recent years drag performance has moved from the fringes to emerge as a mainstream phenomenon, showcased on TV shows in the US and the UK. Volume 1 offers a diverse range of critical engagements by drag performers, makers, scholars and writers reflecting on work from the UK, USA, Israel, Germany and Australia. Moving beyond discussions of gender theory, the essays consider contemporary drag performance practices, connecting them to the histories, communities and politics that produced them. Volume 2 examines how drag performance is a political, socio-cultural practice with a widespread lineage throughout the history of performance. It maps the multi-threaded contexts of contemporary practices while rooting them in their fabulous historical past and memory