ABSTRACT

This article first traces how affect theory has reconfigured critical theory by challenging its epistemologies and by seeking out cross-disciplinary possibilities in conceptualizing happiness. The article then looks at how affect is both expressed and curtailed by drag performance in the reality/competition series RuPaul’s Drag Race, particularly for the series’ transgender competitors. It then examines how Drag Race’s transgender queens currently perform in social media space to reveal how their transgender self-identification and physical isolation have reconfigured queer politics espoused in the series. This study reveals several dimensions of affectively performing identity for drag queens negotiating cisgender, homonormative codes while sustaining careers in the confines of a pandemic. It argues that while transgender identity can be affectively expressed through alignment with political issues, consuming the body can become a site of political action. Moreover, Drag Race reveals limits over the potential for political action by transgender performers, even if social media further complicates realizing the affect of happiness through political mobilization.

摘要

本文首先追溯了情感理论如何通过挑战其认识论和寻找跨学科幸福概念化的可能性来重新配置批判理论。然后，本文着眼于现实/竞赛系列RuPaul's Drag Race中的变装表演如何表达和减少影响，特别是对于该系列的跨性别竞争对手。然后它检查Drag Race如何的跨性别女王目前在社交媒体空间中表演，以揭示他们的跨性别自我认同和身体隔离如何重新配置​​该系列所支持的酷儿政治。这项研究揭示了在大流行范围内维持职业生涯的变装皇后在谈判顺性别、同性规范代码时情感表现身份的几个方面。它认为，虽然跨性别身份可以通过与政治问题的结合来有效地表达，但消费身体可以成为政治行动的场所。此外，Drag Race揭示了跨性别表演者政治行动潜力的局限性，即使社交媒体通过政治动员实现幸福的影响进一步复杂化。