Book Title: Performing Gender and Sexuality

Book Description

This course uses different frameworks and lenses to look at performances that defy gender and sexual normativity in different parts of the globe. It explores how not only femininity and/or masculinity are being recreated, reaffirmed, or mocked in different performances, but also ideas (and ideals) about race, class, body shapes and abilities, national and local belonging, and ethnicity. We will investigate how “drag” can simultaneously reflect, reinforce, and resist ideologies from mainstream cultures and look for instances of queer joyful defiance and gender euphoria in gender-bending popular public performances. We will also acknowledge the moments in which cross-dressing serves as a means of reinforcing normativity and policing gender identities, sexualities, and embodiments.