ABSTRACT
Drag has been an object of fascination for queer theorists since Gender Trouble used it to illustrate gender performativity in 1990. Deploying a transfeminist perspective, this chapter examines the treatment of drag in French and Anglo-American queer theory, focusing on the works of Judith Butler, Judith Jack Halberstam, Sam Bourcier, and Luca Greco. This chapter identifies reoccurring themes in queer approaches to drag, including the positioning of drag as subversive, a focus on the relationship between drag and performativity, and in certain cases, a continued reliance on the definition of drag as ‘performing as the opposite sex’. Building on Bourcier’s assessment of exclusionary approaches to drag (2006, 2012), this chapter argues that this artform can be theorized differently, without relying on the opposite sex paradigm.
