Limitlessness of Queer Performance: On-stage Performances and the Construction of Off-stage Identities
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Authors
Castagnetti, Christopher Jay
Issue Date
2022
Type
Thesis
Language
Keywords
Identity , Off-stage , On-stage , Performance , Race , Vogue
Alternative Title
Abstract
Most recent research regarding non-normative and alternative identities in the context of performance has alluded to the various social effects of these performances such as forming communities, demonstrating the possibility of living outside normative ideas of existing, and spatial transformation. However, little research has focused on understanding how such performances influence performers’ on and offstage identities. We understand the individual benefits gained from performing actions that maintain gender and racial norms, but we do not understand much regarding the effects of performances by individuals who deviate from such norms, especially once they have left the performance site. By interviewing vogue performers who perform at “Ballroom events”, I aimed to uncover the bi-directional relationship between performers’ radical on-stage performances and their off-stage everyday identities. Given that non-queer, white individuals largely maintain the status quo within our society, it is important to understand how the articulation and formation of queer identity through performances allow for the construction of alternative identities for marginalized people unable to be deemed normal in today’s society. My findings show that vogue performance can elicit transformations in performers off-stage identities through a repetitive engagement with both Ballroom as a space and vogue as a performance. Because my respondents connected the Ballroom space with their ability to construct authentic on-stage vogue performances, they were able to maintain characteristics of their on-stage performances, which include a construction of non-normative racial, gendered, and sexuality characteristics, within their everyday life. Such transformations included an increased view of self-worth, changes in gendered self-presentation, and community engagement.