Abstract
Using performance as a metaphor for understanding gender dates at least to the work of Erving Goffman (though even sociologists sometimes falsely credit Judith Butler with this innovation) and has proved to be a useful way of thinking about how gender operates. In Sex, Drag and Male Roles, performance artist, Diane Torr, and theater scholar, Stephen Bottoms, take up the notion of gender performance in a more literal context.
Presented in alternating voices, combining personal narrative and commentary with critical and historical analysis, Torr and Bottoms provide a compelling discussion of the ways in which female-bodied people can and have performed masculinities on stage and, to a lesser extent, in everyday life. Both Torr’s reflections on her own experiences and Bottom’s historical overview of women cross-dressing as men in the context of a variety of theatrical performances offer insights into everything from the growth of drag-king culture to Torr’s decision to memorialize the friends she lost in the AIDS pandemic by becoming them (through performance).
Torr began performing, as a woman, in feminist troupes in the 1980s. From the shock and dismay expressed by all-women audiences responding to her erotic dance performance piece to her experiences entering all-men spaces in character, we see an amateur sociologist at work. Torr, trained in several styles of dance as well as aikido (a martial art), has been developing and performing men characters for three decades. She discusses each of the characters she has developed, from her first foray into performing masculinity, Danny King—a “stereotype of male authoritarianism” (p. 109)—to the repulsive Mr. EE—a sort of gay-porn-inspired “anti-drag king” (p. 142). Transcripts are included from some performances, giving readers access to character monologues for further insights into Torr’s art.
To me, however, the most interesting and sociologically relevant aspects of the book have to do with Torr’s “Man for a Day” workshops, which she has been teaching since the 1990s. We see the ways in which Torr’s work reflects and embodies (literally) a social constructionist perspective on gender. As she notes, her work offers an exploration of “the imposition of gender polarities on [human] bodies and minds” (p. 85). Torr’s commentary on her experiences embodying her various characters shows that she is likely an excellent guide for her students. About Danny, she notes, for example, “The uneasy respect he is accorded . . . is not a biological privilege but a cultural habit” (p. 111).
Begun alongside pioneering drag king, Johnny Science, Torr’s workshops have evolved into a daylong opportunity for female-bodied people to experience what it is like to move around the world as a man. As Bottoms notes in his introduction to Torr’s work, the goal of these workshops is for women to pass as men in everyday life; indeed, this experience culminates each workshop. He explains: “women are able to distance themselves critically from their socialized perspectives as females, sometimes with life-changing results” (p. 2). As Torr notes, in places like New Delhi, passing as men allows women access to spaces they could not otherwise enter, thus opening their eyes to a whole new realm of experiences.
After settling on a persona, participants learn from Torr about the “physical presentation” (p. 98) involved in doing masculinities. They get lessons in taking up space, creating distance between themselves and others, giving the appearance of being in control and extending the voice, among other topics. Torr explains that to some extent, “Becoming a man . . . is an exercise in repression” (151). She also is well aware that men experience both threats and prejudices. Torr’s interest is in “exploit[ing] a certain invisibility as a man” (p. 106) to allow female-bodied people to move freely in all-men spaces as well as mixed-gender contexts. Some women report that participating in the workshop affirms that they are indeed happy as women; for others, it may provide a path to living full-time as a man. The “Man for a Day: A Do It Yourself Guide” that appears at the end of the book contains detailed advice about how to do masculinities; it would be an excellent addition to a reading list for a sociology of gender course.
While Sex, Drag and Male Roles is informed by a sociological sensibility, there are some limitations to its analysis. Despite explaining the importance of social context and noting, for example, social-class differences in performing masculinities, Torr ends up providing little in the way of an interrogation of the real differences in men’s experiences in the social world. Race is absent from her discussions, despite the fact that all of her characters are white. Readers learn little about the demographic characteristics of her workshop participants, leaving a large gap in the discussion of their experiences, too. Still the book provides intriguing insights into the performance of masculinities by female-bodied people.