The rise and fall of the progressive drag queen

Westernization of cross-dressing in 1990s Poland

Datos Bibliográficos

ID18954286
AutoresLudmiła Janion (0000-0002-7325-1172, University of Warsaw, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen23
Número7
Páginas1179-1198
Fecha de publicación2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSexualities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1363-4607 • E-ISSN: 1461-7382
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1363460719888438
OpenAlexW2998327638
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas27

The article studies the meanings of drag in the Polish media in the period 1989–2002. A textual analysis of mainstream as well as gay and lesbian media texts on drag queens was conducted to examine strategies that explained and legitimated drag in the context of the westernization of Polish culture, the socioeconomic changes of the 1990s, and the politics of respectability of the early Polish gay rights movement. The article shows that drag lacked the western political meanings that focused on gender performativity and gay rights; instead, it assumed connotations specific to the time and place. Drag queens turned out to embody the socioeconomic changes and widely shared class and geopolitical aspirations related to the 1990s westernization of Poland, but they also attested to the persisting distance between Poland and the imagined West. The article calls for critical attention when applying western theoretical concepts to the East

Drag · Geopolitics · Modernization theory · Performativity · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Westernization · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · European history and politics · Gender Studies · History · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy