Vaginal Davis
Self-described as African-American and Mexican-American [citation], Davis examined her Chicana background and its mix with blackness, especially through her group, Cholita [insert link]. In performing her various minoritarian identities and the intersection of them (mostly via drag), Davis in a true punk fashion reject dominant modes of normalcy, with what Munoz deems "terroristic drag" [citation]. Davis' guerrilla tactics aimed to critique punk's whiteness, as she infiltrated a dissent, but nonetheless mainly white male culture through mixed media: zines, performance art, and of course her bands- PME, Cholita, and Black Flag [link]. Duhham pays homage to Munoz's term, for she writes. “Muñoz was the first person to use the term “terrorist drag” to describe the work of Davis—in particular, the way she interrogated rather than obscured her cultural otherness.” [citation]
"A handful of punk icons flaunted gayness outrageously, such as the African American drag diva Vaginal Creme Davis, who created a band called Cholita: The Female Menudo (for which she performed as a Latina-swapping ethnic identity as well as gender" (Gay LA, 252).
Munoz in his own words comments on the way in which Davis interrogates straight culture, her attack on white-male norms. He writes [insert]
Doyle writes, "Davis is a black drag queen, a grande dame of the queer underground in Los Angeles, on the margins of both the Los Angeles art world (as not-commercial) and the gay scene as well (black, queer punk-rock drag queen she is" (Sex Objects, 126).
She, unlike other artists depicted in this chapter, acts and represents anxieties of the queer body, through her queer body of work that engages the objectification of women's bodies.
"...a drag queen, who enacts, documents, and theorizes an array of drag characters" (162). In this way, Davis blurs the line between performer and critic.
*The White to be Angry
*Connect to Ron Athey
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