An autoethnographic exploration of emergent therapeutic qualities in the art of drag

Martin, Jennifer

Abstract

Drag is an art, a type of entertainment, and a cultural practice that has exploded into the mainstream in the last 10 years, offering greater acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities and increased awareness around issues facing this community.

Several drag performers and fans of the art have claimed that drag is in some way therapeutic. This thesis begins with that observation, which I share, in an attempt to explore the claim further. I use autoethnography to engage with drag as both an insider (a fan and community member) and an outsider (a non-performer) through thinking with psychodynamic, queer, and psycho-social theories that help me sink into understanding(s) of the therapeutic aspects of drag.

By using creative relational inquiry, autoethnographic artefacts, and conversations with the wider drag community, I wrestle with how and why drag is having a therapeutic impact on the community. Autoethnography has been described as a queer adjacent, fluid endeavour that sketches subjectivities through multiple representations and forms of knowledge (Adams & Holman Jones, 2011). In that vein, the thesis invites the reader into a personal, cultural and socio-political journey borne out of my own subjectivity and its encounters with drag.

The autoethnographic journey stops at queer theory, play and containment, and sisterhood/community, as it invokes and works with/through disparate concepts such as the collective unconscious (Jung, 1980) and the now ubiquitous claim that the personal is political (Dillon, 2010). As a novice autoethnographer, I delve into my own subjectivity deeply yet clumsily, with an ultimate aim to point back out to the culture in which this art form and its appreciators reside. I offer readers no definitive ‘findings’ but invite them into a process-driven research endeavour which speaks to the topic from a counselling psychology perspective and espouses social justice, professional artistry (DCoP, 2006), and liberation psychology (Comas-Díaz, & Torres Rivera, 2020). The thesis raises implications for counselling psychology practice(s) as well as the therapeutic qualities of drag.

Citation

Martin, J. An autoethnographic exploration of emergent therapeutic qualities in the art of drag. (Thesis). University of the West of England. Retrieved from https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10780469

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: May 12, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 17, 2024
• Keywords: Drag; autoethnography; therapeutic qualities; play; queer theory; counselling psychology
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10780469
• Award Date: Jan 17, 2024