ABSTRACT
How can one theorize drag from a transfeminist perspective? This chapter argues that certain academic theories overlook trans and non binary people’s contributions to current drag subcultures in the UK, the US, and France, and questions how drag can be theorized in a more inclusive, intersectional manner. As RuPaul’s Drag Race frequently dominates popular understandings of the artform, this chapter deploys a transfeminist approach to unpack the discourses which underpin the fourth season of the Drag Race spin-off series All Stars, thereby beginning to illustrate what it means to theorize drag from a transfeminist point of view. The chapter then examines trends pertaining to current drag subcultures in the UK and France, drawing particular attention to the strategies that participants have developed to make their scenes more welcoming to marginalized people. The final section brings the preceding analyses together to provide pointers towards a particularizing, transfeminist approach to drag.
