| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the potential for empowerment that drag performance has on the lives of drag performers and their audience members. I have attended over one hundred drag performances in Oklahoma City from January 2015 to May 2016 with the goal of discerning how power (self-esteem, economic, social, and political) is expressed in drag performances through the performers’ choices regarding musical sound, lyrics, gesture, audience interaction, props, and costume. By interviewing drag performers and audience members, I have used drag performances in Oklahoma City as a case study to test the research results of Elizabeth Kaminski and Verta Taylor in which they argue that a “collective identity” is created between audience members and drag performers irrespective of their sexual identity. Specifically, this thesis examines the process by which audience members emotionally react to drag performances in a way which gives the audience members the opportunity to embody the performative power of the drag queen. | en_US |
