TY - JOUR
T1 - Performing (Asian American trans) femme on RuPaul’s Drag Race
T2 - dis/orienting racialized gender, or, performing trans femme of color, regardless
AU - LeMaster, Lore/tta
AU - Tristano, Michael
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 National Communication Association.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This essay turns to reality television to perform trans of color criticism. Taking as its analytic focus the embodied performance–and concomitant mediated production–of whiteness by Asian American drag queen competitor Gia Gunn on the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race [Bailey, F., Barbato, R., Campbell, T., RuPaul, Corfe, S., Post, P., & Salangsang, M. (Executive Producers). (2012). RuPaul's drag race all stars [TV series]. World of Wonder Productions]. We argue that Gia exploits what Nishime, L. [(2017). Mixed race matters. Cinema Journal, 56(3), 148–152. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2017.0031] calls the “perceived malleability of Asianness,” allowing her to perform a queer version of white womanhood. In turn, media producers orientalize Gia’s performance, effectively constructing a trans femme formation in transmisogynistic terms. In turn, and in the words of Nakayama, T. [(2012). Dis/orienting identities. In A. Gonzalez, M. Houston, & Y. Chen (Eds.), Our voices (pp. 20–25). Oxford University Press], the racialized trans formation “dis/orients” mediated tropes constraining Asianness.
AB - This essay turns to reality television to perform trans of color criticism. Taking as its analytic focus the embodied performance–and concomitant mediated production–of whiteness by Asian American drag queen competitor Gia Gunn on the reality competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race [Bailey, F., Barbato, R., Campbell, T., RuPaul, Corfe, S., Post, P., & Salangsang, M. (Executive Producers). (2012). RuPaul's drag race all stars [TV series]. World of Wonder Productions]. We argue that Gia exploits what Nishime, L. [(2017). Mixed race matters. Cinema Journal, 56(3), 148–152. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2017.0031] calls the “perceived malleability of Asianness,” allowing her to perform a queer version of white womanhood. In turn, media producers orientalize Gia’s performance, effectively constructing a trans femme formation in transmisogynistic terms. In turn, and in the words of Nakayama, T. [(2012). Dis/orienting identities. In A. Gonzalez, M. Houston, & Y. Chen (Eds.), Our voices (pp. 20–25). Oxford University Press], the racialized trans formation “dis/orients” mediated tropes constraining Asianness.
KW - Ambiguity
KW - mixed-race
KW - trans femme
KW - trans of color criticism
KW - whiteness
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U2 - 10.1080/17513057.2021.1955143
DO - 10.1080/17513057.2021.1955143
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111899654
SN - 1751-3057
JO - Journal of International and Intercultural Communication
JF - Journal of International and Intercultural Communication
ER -