My personal interest project is an investigation into the intercultural communication within drag culture. This topic was developed from my interest in drag performers and the stigma associated with this culture. The concepts of persons, society, culture, identity and gender will be evaluated within this culture. A drag performer is a person who dresses in the typical clothing of the opposite gender and often acts with exaggerated feminine or masculine gender roles for the purpose of entertainment or fashion. A drag queen is a male who dresses in typical feminine clothing and in a feminine gender role while a drag king is a female who dresses in typical masculine clothing and in a masculine gender role. Drag performers tend to exaggerate certain …show more content…
Drag culture utilizes forms of communication through performances, social media, and television broadcasting. Maintaining social relationships within the LGBTQIA community allows drag performers to have an additional culture to belong to. Due to the close connection between the LGBTQIA community and the drag community, losing this relationship would be detrimental for drag performers. When disputes arise between cultures, it is extremely important for there to be communication so that the situation can be resolved. If no effective communication is executed, this could lead to potential intercultural misunderstandings due to being misinformed from no communication, furthermore, resulting in a loss of a social relationship. Social media can control the way people perceive and judge cultures, for example, if a popular media article was demoting drag performers and giving this culture a bad reputation, many individuals would be influenced by this and would further stigmatise drag culture. This is why social control is essential in maintaining a positive reputation and expanding social knowledge and acceptance for drag performers. Maintaining social control can be achieved through the previously mentioned television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. This show projects the acceptance for all drag performers and shares knowledge about drag queens to inform society and dismiss common misconceptions. Many drag …show more content…
Exploring and discovering self identity is a key part of drag culture, to which the adherents typically explore their gender and sexual identity as it is part of self acceptance and discovery. The intercultural communication within drag culture is typically performed through social media. Television shows, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, exhibit social acceptance and equality for drag performers and aids in the LGBTQIA movement. Communication is essential in the culture’s continuity because without the social platform and power typically displayed on social media, the stigma associated with drag would not be dissolved as it currently is in motion of doing. As long as prejudice and homophobia is present in society, there will be a stigmatization that follows drag performers, however with the evolving knowledge and acceptance of all unique individuals there is hope that being different and exploring self identity will be welcomed by future cultures and
In The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, Imani Perry argues that the over-sexualized, unattainable bodies of black women in popular culture will lead to the breakdown of feminism and the positive body image of the everyday black women. As hip hop music continues to become more popular, the sexist messages presented in lyrics and music videos are becoming more common to the everyday public, including young black girls developing a self-image. Instead of these girls being exposed to healthy, positive role models who encourage individuality and that there is more to a woman than her body they are given hip hop video models whose only purpose is to look sensual on screen. The strong women that do exist in the hip hop genre are pushed to sexualize themselves or their lyrics to sell records or stay relatively unknown. Although Perry’s arguments are logical, I believe that she is creating a slippery slope of logic. A genre of music cannot destroy the self-image of black women that has existed for generations.
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
Goth teems drenched in black become teeny-bopper darlings in pink dresses and platform sneakers. Male couch potatoes in flannel shirts become debonair gentlemen in tuxedos. Scantily clad women popping out of halter tops and leather mini-skirts become responsible women in business suits and subtle make-up. The make-over is a popular talk show tool used by everyone from Oprah to Jenny Jones. These transformations embody Lancaster's argument in "Guto's Performance" by demonstrating how we are all participating in one big drag show, presenting our gender through our dress, our play. We construct our genders, moment by moment, through our performance, fluidly moving from one to the next. On "Oprah," an over-worked single mom in sweat pants who devotes all her time to working outside the home and raising her children (in a combination of constructed masculine and feminine gender roles) sits slumped in her chair. Soon, lipstick and sequins transform her into a confident, sensual woman, strutting across the stage ready to take the arm of the handsome, well-dressed man chosen to take her out for an evening on the town (she now takes on a different, more feminine, gender role).
It is hard to imagine drag not consisting of a type of stage activity and of being a part of a theatrical performance. Contreras also points in Ester Newton’s book, Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America. In framing drag’s importance to queer theory, it is also important to consider drag practice also a particular expression of racial identify (Contreras, 2005). In this book, Contreras explains that drag´s relationship to sexual and racial identities are discussed in a context in which relatively is visible academic work about drag, such as Marjorie Garber’s books Vested Interest: Cross Dressing and Cultural Anxiety where she elides these
Funnily drag did not n’t start out as a form of expression but as a necessity. In Ancient Greece, women could not n’t perform in plays because it was considered deemed “too dangerous”(Conger). In the middle ages, Europe’s Christian church continued the ban
One of the factors that heavily influence the continuing propagation of these ideas associated with the sexuality of racialized women is the production and dissemination of media images, symbols and narratives (Brooks & Hébert, 2006, p. 297). As a society who is constantly consuming media culture through various media outlets, television uses a combination of methods in imagery, symbolization, and narration to represent our social realities. Notions of what beauty means are further dictated by fashion and reality television shows, which includes shows that discuss trends, makeovers, modeling, and more. In turn, these television programs often targeted at young women themselves, continue to shape how society views women of color, particularly how women of color are superfi...
The intention of this research is to clearly define the roles that drag performers fill in our society. With that objective, the key issues that must be clarified include offering what the distinction of a drag performer is compared to other individuals that may be mislabeled or misrepresented by such a title, and what education is lacking by those who challenge the concept of drag. In society it is a common theme to fear or demonize an idea we feel is taboo, even when we have a very weak understanding of what we fear. This research seeks to ease fears surrounding drag, and allow cautious individuals to approach the topic without feeling threatened. The further fear and apprehension is reduced, the more open to honest fact and interpretation people will become, which will lead to a more comfortable and open exchange of ideas regarding drag. Ultimately, this will allow for a stronger platform for drag queens themselves to utilize as ambassadors of their cherished art form.
56). Despite the origin of the word cosplay, cosplay is largely thought of as directly inspired by Japanese popular culture (Okabe, 2012). Many of the conventions that these cosplayers attend, also known as ‘Cons’ for short, began popping up in many cities in the United States in the 1990s (Pollak, 2006). Currently, conventions are held in around 30 states in the United States (Leng, 2013, p.90). As popularity for these conventions grow, more and more people have started to participate in the act of cosplay (Leng, 2013, p.90). With the emergence of cosplay trends such as gender-bending, cross-playing, and mashups it is interesting to look into how traditional expressions of gender roles and identity are undermined in the cosplay community. In this paper, I plan to investigate the relationship between gender roles, gender identity and gender expression through participation in
Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous, making it hard for the average African American woman to relate to. Black television has done well with having different shapes and sizes for women of color to relate to, but that only includes one or two channels on all of television. For example, even though BET was founded by Robert Johnson, a black man, BET is now predominantly owned by white people. “"Day after day, in all forms of media -- print, radio, and television -- we see, hear, and read the perspectives of non-Black women and women of color who are not actively involved in the struggles of Black women -- especially on so-called 'women's issues'.”(Women’s Health Weekly, 546) Large television networks must choose to show things that will not only keep ratings up but also keep people interested in watching their shows. Unfortunately in today’s age and day drama and negativity is what most Americans look to watch. Even though many people feel that these negative things are wrong, we still find ourselves watching and reading about it. The...
In today’s modern society, the media plays a large role in our everyday lives. We are each affected by the media each and every day as it is everywhere we go. The media surrounds us an influences our behaviour and our perception of the world. The media influences how people think and feel, especially about what is considered “normal”. People depend heavily on the media to inform them on what is important in the world and what is normal in the sense of how people dress, look, and behave. The media wants to target the “in” audience. The media wants to give the people what they want, and what people want is the normative because that is how society works, as also argued by Carrera et al. when they say “The implication of sex-gender in heteronormativity has been at the forefront of much trans activism.” (2013) The media display...
Social identies are a big force in the way lesbians are treated within society. The fact that groups fear individuals who are different to themselves is a big factor in trying to understand why it is lesbians face discrimination. The more heterosexuals are subjected to the reality of lesbiansm the more this social identity can become normalized. As stated before, unless a lesbian discloses her identity heterosexuals wont alsways assume thir identity hindering them into their social group. This research will further look at how the use of media, in specific TV dramas are a significant tool in representing these lesbian identities, to normalize the subculture which is often overlooked because there are no obvious factors that highlight a lesbian, and to show how normal lesbianism actually is withing society.
In our culture today, it is problematic to gaze at an individual and recognize exactly how that person self-identifies. Self-identification is becoming more ambiguous and self-determined. In recent years, our culture is making strides in becoming more accepting of this revolution of identification. Caitlyn Jenner and her gender transformation was a catalyst for the movement. During the 2015 ESPY Awards, Jenner received the Courage Award honoring her bravery in her transformation. However, Rachel Dolezal identifies herself as being black. In an essence the American society is denying one’s personal identity. The question that lies before us is, why is the American society in an uproar when Dolezal identifies herself as black, but Jenner is rewarded when she identifies herself as white? Self-identification should not be limited to just gender or sexuality but should also include race and ethnicity.
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant
Russo, Julie Levin. Indiscrete media: Television/digital convergence and economies of online lesbian fan communities. Diss. Brown University, 2010.
Humans have been communicating since four million years. On the other hand, the birth of culture is estimated to have taken place about 35,000 years ago. Today, both culture and communication have evolved considerably and have become interdependent of one another, to the point that communication is considered to be a product of culture. Thus, our own culture has a deep impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Since each culture has its distinct aspects, intercultural communication can be the cause of conflict and disorder. There are three main issues which are at the root of the problem of intercultural miscommunication : language as a barrier, cultural diversity and ethnocentrism. I will analyze these three notions in situations in which intercultural communication is frequent such as : the workplace, the classroom and vacation trips.