Everybody follow VER: glocal Drag performance in Chiang Mai and the challenge to dominant Phet discourse

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the performance of drag in Chiang Mai as a glocal phenomenon and to elucidate its relationship with the local performance tradition of kathoey cabaret and its connection to Thai phet. By exploring definitions of drag and how performers in Chiang Mai perform and understand drag, this research aimed to demonstrate how these performers use drag as cultural capital to challenge dominant discourse regarding phet. This was a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews and participant observation to develop a deeper understanding of drag performance in Chiang Mai according to local performers. Participants included 8 drag and cabaret performers from Chiang Mai. This study found that drag performance has become part of a cultural mélange (Pieterse) in Chiang Mai, rather than a unidirectional West-to-East global flow. Drag performance is recognized as a concept that comes from beyond Thailand and was brought into Thailand thanks to a few influential figures—RuPaul Charles, Jai Sira, and Pangina Heals. However, the way performers in Chiang Mai conceptualize drag performance demonstrates that it is a uniquely Thai articulation of the phenomenon. Drag, according to these participants, is ver (over-the-top), individual, and limitless, differentiating it from kathoey cabaret. The way participants talk about drag performance invokes phet in ways that differ from the work of prior scholars (Morris, Jackson, Käng). While the performers use phet terminology (LGBT, gay, saosong, huapok, kathoey) to create distinct categories in some instances, in other instances all of these terms fall into a larger category of kathoey. Participants use the term kathoey to refer at different times to an identity, a feminine presentation, and a ver disposition. This ver element of kathoey is aligned with the ver element of Thai-inflected drag. This alignment allows Thai kathoey to use drag performance as cultural capital (Bourdieu) to actually lend credibility to kathoey’s over-the-top disposition and to challenge dominant discourse about Thai phet.