Where is the Body? : En komparativ visuell analys av kostym och smink i drag i To Wong Foo,Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar och The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Sammanfattning: This essay focuses on a comparative analysis of costume and makeup presented in the two drag queen road-movies To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar! (1995) and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). These movies have similar settings with a group of three drag queens traveling across the country to participate in their big show. The primary main focus of this essay has been to analyze the costumes and makeup that are worn by the three main characters in their drag in each film and what it can say about gender and performativity presented in each film. A semiotic analysis was used as a method to analyze selected sequences and Bordwell and Thompsons (2017) segment about costume and makeup as a part of mise-en-scene was used. The results from each movie were later compared. Other theories that were applied were Judith Butler’s theory (2006) about gender performativity, Richard Dyer (1999) on stereotypes and Laura Mulvey's theory (1999) about the male gaze. The results show that Too Wong Foo focuses more on conforming existing women's gender roles with costumes that could be connected to luxury brands in the connotation, while Priscilla has a more exaggerated approach that was likened to shows on Broadway in the connotation.  The individual project was based on a folder from Samiskt informationscentrum (SIC) and resulted in two short animated movies about Sámi in Sweden and Sápmi.