The subversive power of voguing: examining the political potential of drag

Abstract

This paper seeks to assess the extent to which drag can disrupt gender hierarchies. It explores
the key debates among feminist and gender theorists that provide the context for this research.
The research involves five drag artists that perform in Glasgow, Athens, or Cologne. It employs
an ethnographic approach, conducting semi-structured interviews with the participants. It
analyses its findings using a qualitative postmodern approach and presents them in terms of
definitions of gender and drag, performers’ motivations, audiences and performative spaces. It
concludes that the participants’ performances aim to empower femininity and deconstruct
gender hierarchies but their outcome is limited when faced with audiences unwilling to identify
the performance’s political aspects, or in a performative space that does not encourage political
statements.