"I prefer to call them gender performers," said Jessica Goldberg '08 (Pittsburgh, Pa.) of the male and female artists who make masculinity or femininity part of their act. Sociology major Goldberg has an Emerson grant this summer in collaboration with Assistant Professor of Sociology Yvonne Zylan, to research female lesbian drag king culture from a sociological and feminist perspective.
Although drag queens are now recognized as a performance genre, the drag king culture is quite young. Goldberg offers two reasons for this: a change in lesbian identity since the '50s, and the fact that our society considers masculinity "normal" and non-performative. Goldberg argues that the two factors combined mean that it is only recently that lesbians, now free from a "suffocating" butch/femme dichotomy, have been able to dissociate masculinity from men for performative purposes.
Goldberg conducts her research by attending drag king shows and pursuing an extensive literature review. She has been in touch with a group in Washington, D.C. called DC Kings, who have offered to let Goldberg attend one of their monthly production meetings. Goldberg plans to interview some of the performers and visit their dressing room.
Although it is too early for conclusions, Goldberg observed that many kings mimic masculinity rather than parody it. She explained her conclusion that drag queens have become their own gender and that parody had been a large part of this shift. She predicts that kings, who currently use mimicry as an extension of their own femininity, may grow into a greater use of parody and eventually transcend gender boundaries in a similar way.
The hardest part of the research is working in a new field. Not only was ("is, I guess") it hard for Goldberg to narrow her research onto one specific question, how drag kings deconstruct and uphold gender norms, but she had to deal with the summer performance schedule. Many troupes stop performing in the summer months and even the DC Kings only do two shows a month. There is also the problem of finding a regularly performing group – "it seems like everybody's folding and forming on a yearly basis," Goldberg said. She has chosen well, though: the DC Kings are one of the largest and longest-running troupes in the country.
A first-time researcher, Goldberg's topic is a long-standing point of debate. "I've always been frustrated with our gender system," Goldberg explained. She is enjoying work, especially the contact with the DC Kings; "my trip to Washington was sort of the highlight of my summer." Although she finds the reading fascinating, "I would rather be around people." Still, she is hard at work and will produce both the presentation the grant requires and full sociology ethnography of king culture.
Goldberg is busy this summer; as well as doing research, she is working at one of Hamilton's summer hockey camps and will return to the Hill in August as an Adirondack Adventure leader. She is a member of the field hockey team as well as the women's ice hockey team, of which she will be co-captain this year. She is also a Café Opus barista and takes, along with her sociology courses, many of the pre-requisites for physical therapy graduate school. The rising senior hopes to take time to travel after graduation and then work as a physical therapist's aide in order to finish the program pre-requisites.
Goldberg's research this summer is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of mutual interest. Recipients typically undertake some combination of fieldwork, laboratory investigation, library research and the development of teaching materials. A public presentation of their findings is required of all Emerson Scholars during the academic year.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
Although drag queens are now recognized as a performance genre, the drag king culture is quite young. Goldberg offers two reasons for this: a change in lesbian identity since the '50s, and the fact that our society considers masculinity "normal" and non-performative. Goldberg argues that the two factors combined mean that it is only recently that lesbians, now free from a "suffocating" butch/femme dichotomy, have been able to dissociate masculinity from men for performative purposes.
Goldberg conducts her research by attending drag king shows and pursuing an extensive literature review. She has been in touch with a group in Washington, D.C. called DC Kings, who have offered to let Goldberg attend one of their monthly production meetings. Goldberg plans to interview some of the performers and visit their dressing room.
Although it is too early for conclusions, Goldberg observed that many kings mimic masculinity rather than parody it. She explained her conclusion that drag queens have become their own gender and that parody had been a large part of this shift. She predicts that kings, who currently use mimicry as an extension of their own femininity, may grow into a greater use of parody and eventually transcend gender boundaries in a similar way.
The hardest part of the research is working in a new field. Not only was ("is, I guess") it hard for Goldberg to narrow her research onto one specific question, how drag kings deconstruct and uphold gender norms, but she had to deal with the summer performance schedule. Many troupes stop performing in the summer months and even the DC Kings only do two shows a month. There is also the problem of finding a regularly performing group – "it seems like everybody's folding and forming on a yearly basis," Goldberg said. She has chosen well, though: the DC Kings are one of the largest and longest-running troupes in the country.
A first-time researcher, Goldberg's topic is a long-standing point of debate. "I've always been frustrated with our gender system," Goldberg explained. She is enjoying work, especially the contact with the DC Kings; "my trip to Washington was sort of the highlight of my summer." Although she finds the reading fascinating, "I would rather be around people." Still, she is hard at work and will produce both the presentation the grant requires and full sociology ethnography of king culture.
Goldberg is busy this summer; as well as doing research, she is working at one of Hamilton's summer hockey camps and will return to the Hill in August as an Adirondack Adventure leader. She is a member of the field hockey team as well as the women's ice hockey team, of which she will be co-captain this year. She is also a Café Opus barista and takes, along with her sociology courses, many of the pre-requisites for physical therapy graduate school. The rising senior hopes to take time to travel after graduation and then work as a physical therapist's aide in order to finish the program pre-requisites.
Goldberg's research this summer is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant Program, which provides students with significant opportunities to work collaboratively with faculty mentors, researching an area of mutual interest. Recipients typically undertake some combination of fieldwork, laboratory investigation, library research and the development of teaching materials. A public presentation of their findings is required of all Emerson Scholars during the academic year.
-- by Lisbeth Redfield
