The Queer Mummer

Abstract

Through blending the art form of drag and the Newfoundland tradition of mummering, The Queer Mummer deconstructs gender norms and homophobic attitudes surrounding being openly queer. The Queer Mummer serves as reminder that mummering, itself, is a custom that queers space. Both drag and mummering are tools for the multi-vocal expression of identity, and both blur and subvert the gender binary. Therefore, both drag and mummering queer public space in one way or another and give license to possibilities beyond the two sex, two gender system; offering concrete reconfigurations of gender and gender performance.