Single Gentlemen
30-Jan-09
I’ve been watching this video repeatedly, and trying to dissect why I find it fascinating.
To start, the performers are good. It moves me to think of our presidential transition, and the cultural ramifications of refilling the top office with a different kind of example. We now have a president who is a constitutional law scholar rather than a failed baseball team owner. Could that usher in a new era of proficiency, a counter to the mass amateurization of everything?
But most of the interest has to do with the signifiers of gender and sexuality at play here. These are professional dancers from the touring company of The Color Purple. The Color Purple is a narrative in which men are generally contained in oppressive roles, victims and perpetrators of violent and disequitable systems of sexism.
The dancers wear the period dress of their show: they dress as men within that system dress. But their dance is loyal to Beyonce’s and arguably more expressive than hers: their performance is, frankly, a impeccably-executed drag performance.
If we break out the good old queer theory and read drag and camp as a disruptive and productive play of gender signs, this play is particularly rich. I don’t know if it resolves into a particular message, and I don’t think it needs to. It’s enough to enjoy the play.