Carmens e drags: reflexões sobre os travestimentos transgenéricos no Carnaval carioca

Abstract

n this research, we study the inversions of sexual gender that take place in Rio de Janeiro during the Carnival. We decided to work with the contemporary drag queens because they realize these inversions in exaggerated, funny and carnavalized ways. We also analyze the places and the parties that received homosexual men during the Carnival in the last decades, that shaped what we call The Gay Carnival from Rio now. In the last part of the research, we intend to connect Carmen Miranda s mith (Brazilian singer that became an international icon because of Hollywood in the 1940 s) with the contemporary drag queens; the artist in one of the biggest esthetic reference for these performers. Questions as identity, gender, consumption and globalization are extremely important for our reflections. We want to deviate from traditional conceptions of essence, cultural purity and fixed identities. To achieve our purposes, the Cultural Studies, with its conception of popular culture as a space of constant contentions and symbolic negotiations, help us to understand in a better way our objects of study.