Drag: The Basics

Mark Edward is a performer, artist and independent scholar.Chris Greenough is professor of social sciences at Edge Hill University, UK.

• Introduction 1. A History/Herstory of Drag 2. Drag: Theory, Practice and Activism 3. Drag and the Media Conclusion: A Drag Manifesto

"The time span, geographical spread and epistemology of the drag practices examined in this book are stunning: from Japanese Kabuki and Noh theatre to Thai kathoey cabaret shows, from Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar to Lebanese Grand Ball drag nights, from drag pageantry in South Africa to the annual Koovagam festival in India. This is a timely book with a truly global vision."- Hongwei Bao, author of Contemporary Chinese Queer Performance (Routledge, 2023)."It’s common to claim that “Drag is political!” Drag: The Basics substantiates this mundane assertion by staging the artform’s relationship to major political phenomena: AIDS activism, media censorship, colonial law, and global warfare. Drag, we learn, is complicit in racism and ableism, but it is also a tool to critique apartheid and demand trans liberation. This book is comprehensive in its global and temporal review, and will serve as a critical foundation to all future drag writing. Infinitely teachable in the classroom and pleasurable to read at the coffeeshop, Drag: The Basics will teach even the most seasoned scholars and performers a thing or three."- Kareem Khubchandani, Associate Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at Tufts University, USA."Drag: The Basics provides a scholarly yet accessible account of drag’s history,relationship with gender performativity, and its place in media and celebrity cultures.This is an essential book for anyone interested in queer studies, gender studies and celebrity studies. We are in a time in which widespread public attention on drag culture is increasing, both in ways which celebrate it among mainstream audiences and, simultaneously, denounce it as a dangerous attack on social and gender norms. There has never been a more urgent need for a book such as this which expertly, clearly and confidently outlines the key issues. Mark Edward and Chris Greenough have provided what is undoubtedly the best critical primer on the topic to date. By spanning a wide array of regions from India to Aotearoa New Zealand, and from Canada to China, as well as key temporal instances in both history and contemporary society, from #MeToo to the experience of drag during the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors demonstrate the global appeal of this creative and cultural form, and outline the reasons why it is now sometimes controversial but also much loved."- Rob Cover, Professor of Digital Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. "'What is drag?' ask Edward and Greenough in the very first line of this book. Admitting that there is no simple answer, they nevertheless go on to capture the extravagance, complexity, and troubling (in multiple senses of the word) nature of drag. From history to theory and practice to media portrayals, they cover it all, enlivening the narrative with imagery and metaphor drawn from the glittery world of drag performance."- Leila J. Rupp, Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies, University of California, USA. "This engaging, accessible book emphasises drag’s resistance to neat classifications. It delves into theoretical accounts of drag performance, drag histories, herstories, and theirstories, and international case studies. While showing the necessity of understanding drag in an intersectional way, the book does not shy away from addressing problematic dimensions of particular performances and scenes. This brings us a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the ways drag interacts with power, privilege, and oppression. The book also provides useful updates and insights into the shifts in (some) drag subcultures during and following the Covid pandemic, allowing us to show how the mediums through which drag is performed and transmitted change and reshape its practice."- Ash Kayte Stokoe, author of Reframing Drag: Beyond Subversion and the Status Quo (Routledge, 2019)."It is not contentious to say that drag is having a moment. And like all moments, we attempt to box drag up in its more spectacular, commercial guise in order to understand it. But as Mark Edward & Chris Greenough so delightfully and comprehensively show, drag resists any attempts to fix it into a universal practice or context. Edward and Greenough take us on a journey across the world, and over time, to showcase drag’s vagaries, contradictions and complexities. This book on drag basics is hardly that; instead, it is a wonderful showcasing of everything we love, hate and ponder over. This book is part of that moment that drag is having."- Kerryn Drysdale, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research in Health at UNSW Sydney, Australia.