'Deep in Vogue'

Dans en de constructie van identiteit

Samenvatting

In the second half of the twentieth century, a subculture emerged in New York created by and for black and Hispanic LGBTQ+ people. This article examines one of its most well-known cultural expressions: vogue. It argues that, through performance, this subculture offered strategies for resisting the dominant culture and making life more livable for LGBTQ+ people of colour in the context of the historical developments of the 1970s and 1980s. Forms of performance such as vogue were used to construct alternative meanings of gender, sexuality, race, and class. This was done by taking signs from the dominant white heteronormative culture and giving them new and subversive meanings through a process of bricolage. Additionally, this article shows that, through community building and meaning making, LGBTQ+ people of colour had agency in the face of discrimination and the constant threat of violence.