title: Drag queens' use of language and the performance of blurred gendered and racial identities.
abstract: Building on Barrett (1998), this study provides a sociolinguistic analysis of the language used by Suzanne, a European-American drag queen, during her on-stage performance in the southeastern United States. Suzanne uses wigs and costumes to portray a female character on stage, but never hides the fact that she is biologically male. She is also a member of a predominantly African-American cast. Through her creative use of linguistic features such as stylemixing (i.e., the use of linguistic features shared across multiple language varieties) and expletives, Suzanne is able to perform an identity that frequently blurs gender and racial lines.
authors: a Department of English, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601, USA. MANN.STEP@uwlax.edu
authors: Stephen L
authors: SL
authors: Mann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004324:Drama; D005783:Gender Identity; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D013060:Speech; D014190:Transvestism; D014481:United States