Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Apr. 30, 2006). Advisor: Vincent Roscigno, Dept. of Sociology. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-150).

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of the Master of Technology in Fashion, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / 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. / M

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

In a great deal of social scientific literature on gender, female impersonators have been framed as the example par excellence of crossgendering and crossdressing behaviour in the West. Perceived rather dichotomously as either gender transgressive or reinforcing of hegemonic gender norms, female impersonators occupy a very central position within the emerging fields of gay and lesbian, transgendered, and queer studies. Certain schools of feminist thought, dating back to the mid to late 1970s have framed female impersonators as misogynistic gay men who appropriate female bodies and a “feminine” gender from biological women. These theories argue that female impersonators utilize highly stereotypical and overly sexualized images of the feminine, in order to gain power, prestige, and status within the queer community. This study challenges popular feminist perspectives on drag, first on a theoretical level, utilizing advances in contemporary queer theory and secondly on an ethnographic level, based on a year long field study which involved both participant observation and unstructured interviews with several female impersonators and nightclub patrons at a local queeroriented nightclub in a city in southern Ontario, Canada. Aiming to understand the degree to which performers identified with the normative femininity they performed, this study argues for a more complex understanding of what motivates individuals to become drag queens, one that incorporates female impersonators unique subjective understandings of their own gender identities. Overall, this study calls for a more holistic perspective on female impersonation, which does not limit itself to any one theoretical model of drag.

In a great deal of social scientific literature on gender, female impersonators have been framed as the example par excellence of crossgendering and crossdressing behaviour in the West. Perceived rather dichotomously as either gender transgressive or reinforcing of hegemonic gender norms, female impersonators occupy a very central position within the emerging fields of gay and lesbian, transgendered, and queer studies. Certain schools of feminist thought, dating back to the mid to late 1970s have framed female impersonators as misogynistic gay men who appropriate female bodies and a “feminine” gender from biological women. These theories argue that female impersonators utilize highly stereotypical and overly sexualized images of the feminine, in order to gain power, prestige, and status within the queer community. This study challenges popular feminist perspectives on drag, first on a theoretical level, utilizing advances in contemporary queer theory and secondly on an ethnographic level, based on a year long field study which involved both participant observation and unstructured interviews with several female impersonators and nightclub patrons at a local queeroriented nightclub in a city in southern Ontario, Canada. Aiming to understand the degree to which performers identified with the normative femininity they performed, this study argues for a more complex understanding of what motivates individuals to become drag queens, one that incorporates female impersonators unique subjective understandings of their own gender identities. Overall, this study calls for a more holistic perspective on female impersonation, which does not limit itself to any one theoretical model of drag.

Academic interest in drag entertainers began in the late 1970s and has since been slowly growing. The literature has, thus, far largely examined entertainers’ life stories as well as whether drag reinforces or transgresses traditional gender roles. Little research has focused on the interactions between drag entertainers and their audiences. Based upon observational data and in-depth interview data, this study examines the tipping interactions that occur between an audience member and a drag entertainer during a drag show, positive and negative aspects of performing in drag, and rational techniques that entertainers use to encourage audience members to tip. In addition, it explores whether gender roles are reinforced or transgressed as well as the maintenance of the illusion of heteronormativity. Entertainers reported using several rational techniques to engage the audience, which included performing popular songs, wearing interesting outfits, and interacting with the crowd. These rational strategies were based upon the entertainer taking the role of the generalized other, the audience. Entertainers in this study discussed positive aspects of doing drag that made performing a positive symbolic experience for the performer. Through their stage performances entertainers reinforced traditional gender roles and, as a byproduct, also reinforced heteronormativity.

In this dissertation I seek to analyse the use of autobiographical monologues and elements in selected scenes from the political revues Foreign Aids (2001) and Elections and Erections (2009) by South African playwright-performer Pieter-Dirk Uys. The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate the use of autobiographical writing in revue performance as an alternative method for presenting autobiography to spectators. My argument is that the unique style and format of the revue-form provides a distinct approach to the live performance of autobiography. The analyses centre on the revues Foreign Aids and Elections and Erections in a literary comparison with Uys’ two prose narrative memoirs, Elections and Erections: A Memoir of Fear and Fun (2002) and Between the Devil and the Deep: A Memoir of Acting and Reacting (2005). These two book-length print memoirs have passages of text that correspond with the autobiographical monologues and other dramatic elements in the revues that I have selected. The aim of providing the comparative analysis of Uys’ revues with his memoirs is to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of these genres insofar as Uys has employed each to attempt to write and perform aspects of his life-story. In order to facilitate these analyses, I have researched international studies on the interdisciplinary field of performance autobiography. I have come to rely on two key theorists of performance autobiography, Sherrill Grace and Deirdre Heddon, and I have applied their theories to my study of Uys’ revues. I discuss several autobiographical scenes in Foreign Aids, comparing them with passages from Elections and Erections: A Memoir of Fear and Fun, and I compare a selected monologue in Elections and Erections, the revue, with a passage containing the same material in Between the Devil and the Deep: A Memoir of Acting and Reacting. The comparison between the revues and the memoirs reveals the narrative and stylistic similarities and differences between Uys’ writing and performance of the self in performance narrative as opposed to prose narrative. The study identifies the most salient features of Uys’ autobiographical performances, including the thematic links between the individual life-story and the concern with social welfare, the sharing of intimate anecdotes regarding his own sex-life and the sexual practices of South Africans, and the relationality between the self and other represented in dialogues where he portrays himself and other characters speaking to each other. / Thesis (M.A)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

The aim of this thesis is to study critically the works of François-Timoléon, abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) against their historical background, and to present this study in the context or the author's life. It consists of an. introduction followed by seven chapters, the first of which is concerned with biography and bibliography, and the last of which forms a conclusion. In the introduction, I point out that I have chosen four works by Choisy, because of the light that they throw on the writer and his times, for more detailed study, but in so doing have also taken into con- sideration the rest or his output.

Theses (M.S.)--University of Hawai'i at Hilo, 2009. / Advisor : Brian Kim. Bibliography : p.86-91.

This study investigates the politics of homosexual visibility in dressing-up, cross-dressing and drag performances that take place in a small city in South Africa over a period of sixty years, beginning in the 1950s and the inception of apartheid policy, through the socio-political changes in the 1990s to the 21st century post-apartheid context. The study draws on Butler’s notion of performative resistance and adopts a Foucauldian genealogy to examine the conditions that make visibility possible and through which particular representations of homosexuality are articulated and read, or remain unread or misread. Information about dressing-up, cross-dressing and drag performance was obtained in interviews, from documentary evidence, and from audio-visual recordings of drag shows and gay and lesbian beauty pageant competitions. Semiotics and a Foucauldian approach to analysing discourse were used to interpret the written, spoken, and visual texts. In this study I argue that the state prohibition of homosexuality during apartheid meant that people could not admit to knowing about it, and this ‘not knowing’ provided a cover for homosexual behaviour in public. At this time, the threat of being identified was associated with police raids on private parties. In the 1990s, homosexual visibility was more viable than it had been in the past. However, the strategies that were adopted to negotiate public visibility at this time were tailored to appease normative sentiments rather than challenge them. I argue that, historically, race and gender have played a role in diminishing and exacerbating homosexual visibility and its politics. Addressing the potential for harm that is associated with homosexual visibility in the 21st century post-apartheid context, this study considers the circumstances in which invisibility is desirable.