Pratt's "This is the Way We Live"- Rupaul's Drag Race #3

Miller & Roman state that, queer performance spaces "become a [way] be absorbed into a critical mass of subcultural resistance to the heteronormative muscle they must encounter continually in [their] daily lives (Pratt, p.343) " 

The show Rupaul's Drag Race is an example of how queer performance serves as as a way to disrupt or challenge the dominant  discourse that says gender and sexuality must be linked.  The heterosexual matrix is the prevailing assumption that if one is to be male than one must be masculine and if one is masculine than one must be heterosexual.  On the show contestants are seen in original costumes that they preform in for the judges.  They are competing for the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar."  This contrasts with the individual interviews which feature the performers without their makeup which suggests to the viewer a "male" identity.  This show illustrates how gender identity can be fluid.  For these contestants  performing in drag is more than dress-up, it it a form of cultural resistance to this 'heterosexual matrix.'

Shangela is a contestant of Drag Race season 3.  This photo is just to illustrate how fluid the gender transformations on the show are.

Shangela (pre & post makeover)