From Genderfuck to Nonbinary: Negotiating Gender in Performance

Abstract

Genderfuck is a performative gender critique. It is sometimes playful, sometimes serious, and always political. Genderfuck empowers artists to critique binaried gender through performance. Using four case studies, I suggest that genderfuck is part of a larger drag history, operated as a precursor to contemporary nonbinary gender performance, and continues to be accessed and activated through drag aesthetics. I locate genderfuck as a gender identity in 1970s San Francisco, with artists like gay poet Harmodius in Exile, and his lover and photographer, David Greene. Later, I track RuPaul’s early performance work in 1980s Atlanta through a genderfuck framework, aided by his autobiographies and publicity posters. Turning to contemporary examples, I examine the inaugural issue of Queen magazine to discover Alaska Thunderfuck’s direct citing of genderfuck RuPaul in the issue’s cover image, Violet Chachki’s queer exploration of French photographer Pierre Molinier in an editorial spread, and Cheddar Gorgeous, a Manchester-based genderfuck queen. I close with a study of Andrea Gibson, a queer poet currently publishing and touring in the US. I suggest their work is queered by their trans* status, and that Gibson uses genderfuck aesthetics to situate their poetry politically within a feminist paradigm.