“Montação, tombação, picumã”: an analysis anthropological of the performance drag in Campo Grande - MS

Abstract

This article aims to analyse the drag performance configuration in front of a society that regulates bodies according to their standards. This is done by understanding corporeality, theatricality and temporality of the contestants from “Corrida das Drags”, in the city of Campo Grande, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The theoretical framework adopted is from subalternist studies. Through the bibliographic survey, the ethnography performed during the presentations, the interviews with the interpreters of the drags, we conclude: a) there is agency in drag performances, based on the desire to assemble, which carries meanings and may or may not reiterate social norms; b) the “feedstock” of this agency is their bodies, because the socio-culturally mediated intersections occur in them; c) unlike what the Butlerian performativity theory pointed out in other contexts and period, in this study it was observed that the drags have as reference not only the woman, but other drags.