Kind of a drag: gender, race, and ambivalence in The Birdcage and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the ways in which two Hollywood films featuring drag queens, Too Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and The Birdcage, offer a kind of "both/and" look at the complexities of gender, sexuality, race, and culture, simultaneously challenging some institutionalized attitudes (especially heterosexism) while reinforcing others (especially sexism and racism)--making the use of drag as a locus of discovery in both films, at best, ambivalent.