%0 Journal Article
%T Panti Bliss still can¡¯t get hitched: Meditations on performativity, drag, and gay marriage
%A Emer O¡¯Toole
%J Sexualities
%@ 1461-7382
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1363460717741809
%X This article uses the activism of drag queen Panti Bliss during Ireland¡¯s marriage equality campaign to revisit two of the foundational debates of performativity theory: namely, the contentious political and ontological status of drag and the function of the exemplary performative ¡°I do.¡± It attempts to answer Judith Butler¡¯s provocative question: ¡°what happens to the performative when its purpose is precisely to undo the presumptive force of the heterosexual ceremonial¡± (1993a: 16). Taking account of concerns about LGBTQ assimilation, it argues that the gay ¡°I do¡± creates new categories of inclusion and abjection, and, ultimately, new categories of the queer. It suggests, further, that the ontological slippage inherent to drag ¨C often more than ¡°just¡± performance, yet not quite constitutive of a performative identity ¨C can help to maintain and reignite the political power of the queer in the face of hegemonic co-option
%K Performativity
%K drag
%K gay marriage
%K subversion
%K Ireland
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363460717741809