How drag performers challenge and disrupt our understandings of gender: a case study of the Slovenian drag community

Abstract

CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF HUMANITIES M.A. Program in Gender Studies Nuša Muršič How drag performers challenge and disrupt our understandings of gender: a case study of the Slovenian drag community Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Ivy Helman, Ph.D. Prague 2023 Abstract The common perception of drag is that of imitating the "opposite" gender. Drag has, however, been evolving, and its implications for gender are explored in this Master Thesis. Feminist circles are usually divided between regarding drag as proliferating gender hierarchies and stereotypes or drag as a tool for subversion and new possibilities. I have conducted my research on the case study of the Slovenian drag community in order to reach results through doing interviews and participant observation. My results pointed to drag influencing the perception of gender via offering the space for experimentation and questioning. For both the drag performers, who were my interview participants, and for the audience of drag shows, drag loosened their strict perceptions of gender and the rigid gender binary, and showcased gender as a complex concept, which offers possibilities for gender play, can be fluid, as well as changeable. Gender hierarchies, are, however, to an extent still present when it comes to doing drag and drag communities. Keywords Drag,...