Intervention 2: Devine Rebis
Intervention 2 is all about gender performance. The work is a blog documenting queer art, history, performance, and recent politics regarding the hostility surrounding trans rights. Gender performance is defined as something that is ingrained in our daily practices, learned, and performed based on cultural norms of feminity and masculinity. This definition of gender was popularized by Judith Butler in their book Gender Trouble, published in 1990. Furthermore, they asserted that sex is biological, while gender is culturally constructed. Think about how you were raised to play with certain toys, how you were dressed, and how you were told to act. Often times girls are encouraged to play dress up while boys are pushed to play with trucks and boy-appropriate toys. This behavior is reinforced throughout a child's formative years within their schools. We see this in Bell Hook's essay Understanding Patriarchy as she critiques how society has shaped and traumatized its children to act in rigid gender roles to avoid punishment. She writes, "Embracing patriarchal thinking like everyone else around them, they taught it to their children because it seemed like a 'natural' way to organize life"( Hooks pg. 18). Gender roles are established to maintain a societal expectation where men are in power. At the same time, women are expected to be domesticated; any deviation is considered unnatural. It also shapes how children grow up emotionally, where boys are expected to repress their emotions while girls are encouraged to express their feelings as long as it is not anger. After analyzing how children are raised in this patriarchal structure, we can better understand the definition of gendered performance and how queer artists created literal gender performance.
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| A boy who is a girl and a girl who is a boy |
Throughout the history of performance art, there has been cross-dressing, as seen in Greek amphitheaters and in Shakespeare's plays. Going forward, drag was a Vaudeville performance done in speakeasies and underground bars. In the 20th century, ballroom culture emerged, spaces where black and Latino LGBTQ+ could perform pageants to win prizes. Ballroom culture was made up of "Houses, alternative families run by an older "mother" and "father" who provided shelter and guidance to those ostracized by their families (Nasr). The history of drag cannot be complete without mentioning Marsha P. Johnson, who protested police raids on gay clubs during the Stone Wall Riots of 1969. While drag has been prevalent throughout history, it has recently gained popularity among mainstream audiences through RuPaul's Drag Race. The show has undeniably changed how drag is perceived, making the drag queen an international celebrity (Nasr). According to The Art of Activism, " We can 'queer' mass culture by making it say things it was never designed to say and act in ways it was never meant to act" (Ducombe and Lambert, pg. 126). Therefore by being outspoken and openly expressing oneself, queer performance art can make a greater change to LGBTQ+ representation and legislation. Reviewing the history of queer performance art, there is a common theme of celebration and active protest against cis-heterosexual normativity.
Therefore, my blog is a curated catalog that not only celebrates the history of LGBTQ+ performance but uses the platform to spread awareness about anti-trans and gay legislation being discussed recently. "It is important to bring creativity, joy, pleasure, and play into activism. Not only is it a more effective way to get your message across and entice others to join us, but it is equally important because it'll keep us doing the work that needs to be done" (Ducombe and Lambert, pg. 128). Divine Rebis is a space I created to show others a collection of performance art, along with historical pictures of queer love. My project was directly inspired by Black Contemporary Art created by Kimberly Drew. The blog's header shows a group of women cross-dressing as men, a common practice amongst lesbians during the 20th century. Within this blog, I have uploaded interviews from my friends talking about their experiences with gender, their personal definitions of gender performance, and how they feel about the current political unrest surrounding trans rights and drag. My performance is curating this work while cross-dressing, actively taking interviews, and spreading the message of this blog to everyone who listens.
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