Bio-Queening and Body Art: An Autoethnographic Investigation into Hybrid Performance Making

The purpose of this autoethnographic, practice-as-research investigation, is to attempt to create a new sub-genre of hybrid performance entitled Neo-drag. This thesis will be accompanied by a practical, forty-five-minute neo-drag performance piece which was presented in June 2018. Both elements of this research are designed to question whether a hybrid performance entitled neo-drag, can successfully be created.

Situating bio-queen drag within the theorising of Judith Butler’s Gender Performativity, the performance will present the introduction of bio-queen drag aesthetics into body-based performance art. The paper will firstly attempt to question my chosen title of ‘bio-queen drag’ or, ‘bio-queening,’ distinguishing whether it belongs to Skyy’s ‘Faux Queen’ theorising or Peluso’s ‘high-femme drag’ genre. Secondly, it will explore how my bio-queening is employing gender performativity to develop a hyper-feminine identity known as Frances Kay, within a body-based performance art, performance.

This paper is written in a first-person narrative, with interjected sections of speech from the researcher’s alter-ego: Frances Kay. Following a similar autoethnographic writing style of Tami Spry, these sections of speech, will divulge the creative process of integrating bio-queening into body-based performance art and the personal responses of the performer. The research material of this paper analyses the differences between Skyy and Butler’s scholarly material, and touches upon gender and drag/identity within a performance-based setting, especially present through the artists, such as Lady Gaga and Victoria Sin.