Abstract
This thesis explores performing gender fluidity as a deviant act. The conceptual impetus is to tease out ways in which comedy and beauty can be used to subvert stigma against the gender fluid community in a cultural climate where it is still dangerous to be queer. Through aestheticized, heroic and subversive imagery, I utilize drag vernacular to contextualize my own feminine performance as a gesture of power. In collaboration with gender fluid models, we create imaginary spaces as a backdrop for the outlaw act of playing with the gender binary. Within recognizable systems of gender marketing, the cult of the feminine is subverted. Often, the final product is presented as a conflation of painting, photography and performance. Shady Ladies, can be interpreted as a Midwest gender protest. By including geographic information in the titles, I mirror the widespread violence against the gender-queer community due to limitations within the binary gender system.
Committee Chair
Heather Bennett
Committee Members
Heather Bennett
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Author's Department
Graduate School of Art
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Spring 5-2016
Language
English (en)
Recommended Citation
McGraw, Holly, "Shady Ladies: Femininity Across the Gender Spectrum" (2016). Graduate School of Art Theses. ETD 60.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/K76M3549
Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K76M3549