Painted Nails: The Gender(ed) Performance of Queer Sexuality
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2020
Abstract
In this essay, I interrogate my own experiences performing my queer identity through my painted nails. I attest to the ways queer bodies might performatively challenge and/or reinforce rigid norms of sexuality through mundane performances of (gendered) identity. To accomplish this, I engage in an autoethnographic exploration of queer performativity. I recount and analyze a series of anecdotes that illustrate how performances of queer identity in everyday life are accomplished—and policed—in mundane situations. In turn, I reflexively investigate the ways in which these performances situate me within a nexus of aesthetic, embodied, and ethical social interaction and performative resistance. I end by drawing conclusions about the ethics of performance, dialogue, and civility in identity politics.
Department
Communication Studies
Publication Title
Women & Language
Recommended Citation
Rudnick, J. (2020). Painted nails: The gender(ed) performance of queer sexuality. Women & Language, 43(1), 7-32. 10.34036/WL.2020.003
DOI
10.34036/WL.2020.002
Publisher's Copyright and Source
Copyright © 2020 Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender.
Included in
Gender and Sexuality Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Performance Studies Commons
