ABSTRACT
This essay examines the complex crosscurrents of queer popular culture and performance in the American past. From nineteenth-century queer performances emerging out of the minstrel show, theater, and vaudeville to a kaleidoscopic and wide-ranging presence in such twentieth-century century mass culture forms as movies and television, queer popular culture and performance occupies a central and commanding space in our understanding of American culture writ large. As such, it has drawn the attention of scholars studying not only what it means to see oneself reflected in culture but also how one understand the intricacies of that culture when viewed through a queer lens. The possibilities—as well as the limits—of social change enacted through queer popular culture have focused the attention of many engaged in these analyses.
