December 11 2019: Dominican students Evangeline and Lucy are working on a proposal to separate out Drag queens from the current LCSH for Female impersonators.
150 $a Drag Queen
450 $a Queens, Drag
550 $a Female impersonators
670 $a Huffington Post, viewed online December 12, 2019 $b “I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven-inch heels, four-foot wigs, and skintight dresses?” He also said, “I don’t dress like a woman; I dress like a drag queen!” $u https://www.huffpost.com/entry/drag-queen-theology_b_175120
670 $a The drag anthology : the absolutely fabulous but flawless customary world of female impersonators $b “Drag’s core elements are performance and parody. Drag exaggerates gendered dress and mannerisms with enough little incongruities to show the “otherness” of the drag artist.” (xv)
670 $a $b Drag : combing through the big wigs of show business
670 $a Encyclopedia Britannica $b “The authenticity of femininity is always undermined by a drag queen’s roughness, which often includes a vulgar stage presence and desire to shock.” $u https://www.britannica.com/topic/drag-queen
680 $a Here are entered works on male-bodied or identified performance artists who perform as women in drag shows or similar events.
Regarding the scope note, “Here are entered works on male-bodied or identified performance artists…” I would be mindful of the fact that some drag performers are trans women whose drag personas are also female. Peppermint, Carmen Carrera, Sonique, and Jiggly Caliente are a just a few examples of trans women who have appeared on the reality show Rupaul’s Drag Race. I think that many trans women would take issue with being referred to as ‘male-bodied.’ To avoid this problem, perhaps the wording could be changed to say something like, “Here are entered works on performance artists (usually male-identified) who perform as exaggerated female personas in drag shows or similar events.”
A number of drag-related headings, including a separation of Drag queens from Female impersonators, are in the works as we speak. A bunch of them appear on February’s Tentative Subject List. I submitted a couple of proposals (I am at Duke) and then the folks at U. of Alberta submitted a bunch more. LC is addressing them all at once since they are so interconnected. So, big drag LCSH news coming soon!
I just saw the February Subject Headings Approved list! Yay for progress!!