The performativity of gender in Costa Rican drag art. Psycho Drag’s performance “Bajo el límpido azul de tu cielo”

Abstract

This is a study on the performativity of gender in Costa Rica´s drag queen art representations, through the case study of the performance Bajo el límpido azul de tu cielo, developed by the Costa Rican artistic platform Psycho Drag, on the context of Costa Rica´s national elections in 2022, through the analysis of discourse and
content in audiovisual production archives, photographic images and written text. Theoretically, it is used
the concept of gender performativity of queer theory, mainly from Butler (1999) and Preciado (2009) but
explained from a Latin American perspective and van Dijk's theory of contexts (2009). The study allows us
to understand gender, body and identity as unstable, mutable, discontinuous and transitive processes and as product of social construction through the dynamics of communication and the construction of symbols and meanings in specific contexts. In this sense, drag art becomes a historical reference for alternatives to the binary expression of gender established by the dominant cisgender and heteronormative system, which also confirms the dissident and subversive political mission of this type of art.