Drag Performance on Screen

While common definitions tend to reduce drag to a gendered transformation, drag is a multifaceted queer/trans performance practice rooted in stylized representations of camp, exaggeration, and authenticity that highlight the constructed, contested, and contradictory natures of social categories more broadly. Beyond its legacy in live performance, drag also has a rich history on screen in myriad examples of narrative, documentary, and art cinemas, as well as television, and an emerging engagement with digital and social media platforms. However, drag must also be distinguished from other forms of gender transgression, notably cross-gender casting, cross-dressing, and people who identify as transgender or gender nonconforming. Drawing on queer and other cultural theories, this entry focuses on the history of scholarship on drag as such, with attention to key media examples from classic films like Paris Is Burning and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, to the television empire of RuPaul's Drag Race and drag performers' #MyNameIs campaign challenging Facebook's “real names” policy.