Passing, Cultural Performance, and Individual Agency: Performative Reflections on Black Masculine Identity

Posted in Articles, Arts, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Passing on 2011-02-01 22:24Z by Steven

Passing, Cultural Performance, and Individual Agency: Performative Reflections on Black Masculine Identity

Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies
Volume 4, Number 3
pages 377-404
DOI: 10.1177/1532708603259680

Bryant Keith Alexander, Acting Dean and Professor of Communication Studies
California State University, Los Angeles

This performative article uses the trope of “passing” as reference to crossing racial identity borders as well as to intra/interracial issues of identity and authenticity. Passing is constructed as a performative accomplishment and assessment by both the group claimed and the group denied. This article is structured around three divisions—passing as cultural performance, the social construction of identity, and the quest for self-definition of socially mediated expectations. All issues are centered within the specific concerns of Black masculine identity. In the process, the essay also seeks to establish the notion of an integrative ethnography of performance that envelops the critique of a performance as a part of the overall textual presentation of experience.

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Queer Punk Macha Femme: Leslie Mah’s Musical Performance in Tribe 8

Posted in Articles, Gay & Lesbian, Identity Development/Psychology, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, United States, Women on 2010-07-14 18:28Z by Steven

Queer Punk Macha Femme: Leslie Mah’s Musical Performance in Tribe 8

Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies
Volume 10, Number 4 (August 2010)
pages 295-306

Deanna Shoemaker, Assistant Professor of Applied Communication (Performance Studies)
Monmouth University, West Long Branch, New Jersey

This essay analyzes the musical performances of Leslie Mah, biracial lead guitarist and backup vocalist for the legendary all-female, queercore punk band Tribe 8, whose members broke up in 2005 after fifteen years together. Inspired by the recent turn in performance studies toward studies of music as performance, this work employs multiple methods and objects to get at the complex totality of popular music’s performativity. Mah’s macha femme persona, playing style, and performance of identity as a lesbian woman of color within queercore punk music allow her to enter a carnivalesque realm of feminist menace, palpable rage, and unruly pleasure. Mah’s performance strategies and articulations of her queer and biracial identities in interviews are contextualized within feminist performance, riot grrrl, and punk music studies. Tribe 8’s lyrics, music, marketing, and band member personas provide cultural context for Mah’s distinctive performance of macha femme.

Read or purchase the article here.

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