ENG140Y1 Lecture 12: Fri Jan 18 2019
Document Summary
First show delayed for an hour because of a corpse found upstairs. Drag suggests gender is a performance, which suggests that perhaps all gender is a performance but one you"ve been performing for so long you"ve forgotten it"s a performance. Or, gender is something we do rather than something we are. Hedwig is not transgender; doesn"t get a sex change because they feel like a woman. Drag performer can take the wig off, don"t have to live with being the wrong gender. Gender is not destiny/not written in the stars. Defuses (cisgender/heterosexual) anxiety about content with jokes. Even gives homophobia a role in the story. Answered with hollywood/exuberant/silly violence which hedwig literally rises above and flies over. Tries to keep audience from dwelling on hedwig"s differences. Berlin wall told you where to stand, who you were. Knowledge of where you stand, lack of ambiguity can be a comfort. Hedwig is the wall because she doesn"t belong in either world.
