“I Got Too Much Fashion Sense For One Gender” : En kvalitativ diskursanalys om dragqueens presentation av femininitet i modefotografi.

Sammanfattning: This bachelor thesis studies fashion photographs where drag queens are participating as models. It was aimed to explore how their function in the fashion context can be seen. Three cases from 2016, all from a North American context are used for the study. “Caged Heat” from Interview Magazine no. 3, 2016 where Violet Chachki can be seen as one of the models. “Walk in the Wild Side” from ODDA Magazine March 2016 edition where Pearl participate as a model. The final case, Marc Jacobs spring/summer 2016 with Milk as one of the models. The focus of the study was to explore how drag queens as models embodied gender in fashion photographs. The analysis was based on discourse analysis and completed with theories of gender, heteronormative stereotypes and dramaturgical interpretations of identities. The study shows that drag queens approach to gender is different from the traditional model profession where femininity is displayed by women, not men. Drag-models, on the other hand, use gender as a performative act where they apply gender qualities in a different way. They show that a man can embody femininity in a credible way, and through that it becomes clear that the gender system is a social construction. This means that they can clarify flaws in the traditional view of gender in a close link to sex in a two-tier system. Further, this may give drag queens who models a subversive function when they appear in a fashion context and change the way of seeing gender in the model industry.