Dragula: Frights, Sights and Gender Delights

Rosie Fox

This zine proposal builds on research undertaken by myself and my excellent colleague Dr James Greenwood-Reeves on reality series Ru Paul’s Drag Race and The Boulet Brother’s Dragula. Our work has focused on jurisprudential concepts in these shows, and in particular how Dragula has developed a platform in which alternative and subversive forms of drag and gender expression can be performed and celebrated. I would love the opportunity to participate in the zine fest to develop my skills in zine making and explore creative alternatives to sharing knowledge – in particular, given that our research on drag, law and justice is so visual, I don’t want to reduce it to a text-based research output! I am also keen to build on my existing audio-visual pedagogical practice, bring what I have learned from zine-making back into the classroom, and share my own creative skills and insights with a community of like-minded zine makers! I plan to make a zine centred on the radical queerness and gender expression in the art of Dragula, where even those on the fringes of the LGBTQ+ community are welcomed, validated, and encouraged to be their most authentic selves. This zine will showcase the artistic diversity of the spooky and glamourous drag artists of Dragula, and aim to encourage viewers to consider what a truly radical, queer-inclusive world would look like.