Drag is a diving suit the third wave of the transvestite scene: the drag queen scene

Abstract

The text discusses the trajectory and socio-historical transformations of the third wave of the transvestite scene in Brazil, drag queen culture. The first wave, before 1960, is characterized by the imitation of women and the aesthetics of Teatro de Revista. The second, in the context of the transvestite scene boom, involves the rise of homosexuality, the AIDS epidemic and the repression of the dictatorship, with emphasis on artists from Teatro Rival. The third wave, the focus of this study, introduces the drag queen aesthetic and the impact of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The drag phenomenon, from the point of view of queer studies and focusing on artists of Salvador (BA), is described here, due to its subversive character, as an artistic performance, with debates on the disconnection between biological sex and gender identity that, consolidated in the 1990s, can be seen as gender art, revealing the performative and fictional nature of sex/gender categories.