The Drag Queen’s journey based on Campbell’s Hero mythology

Abstract

This paper analyzes the process of creating a Drag Queen, whose main characteristic is the exaggerated performance of the female in entertainment performances. The starting point is to understand how the birth of a Drag happens and what dynamics of consumption are involved in the creation of the persona. The main objective of this study is to understand how the process of aesthetic construction of this subject happens, contributing to the understanding of fashion as an instrument of transformation. Twenty interviews were conducted with people who had already gone through the production process (assembly) of their Drags. For the analysis of the interviews, the life story technique was used, to understand the inspirations, restrictions, lessons learned, relations with society and negotiations with the self in this consumption dynamic. In the research findings, we identified, from the discourse analysis of the Drag Queens narratives, a possibility of theoretical dialogue with Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, when for each step of the transformation of the common person into Drag Queen, we found the same steps related by Campbell for the rising of the mythological hero. In the first case, these steps take the hero from the ordinary world to the extraordinary, and in the Drag Queen’s Journey, from everyday life to the Drag world, where the aesthetic construction enables the birth of this Drag heroine who seeks her self-knowledge and self-improvement to conquer the freedom to be for herself and the others.