Bibliography
BACKSTREET BOYS, Backstreet Boys, Jive Records, 1996, CD.
BACKSTREET BOYS, Backstreet Boys: The Greatest Hits. Chapter One [2001], Sony Music Entertainment, 2010, DVD.
BORDO, Susan, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Private, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.
BUTLER, Judith, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory", in Theatre Journal, Vol. 40, Nº 4, 1988, p. 519-531.
BUTLER, Judith, Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity [1990], New York, London, Routledge, 1999.
BUTLER, Judith, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", New York, London, Routledge, 1993.
BUTLER, Judith, Undoing Gender, New York, London, Routledge, 2004.
COOPER, T, Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes, New York, Dutton, 2006.
EPSTEIN, Jeffrey, "The Boys on the Bandwagon", in The Advocate, 09 May 2000, p. 36-44.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, Female Masculinity, Durham, Duke University Press, 1998.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, "What is a Drag King?", in VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, HALBERSTAM, Judith "Jack" (eds.), The Drag King Book, London, Serpent’s Tail, 1999, p. 32-58.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, New York, London, New York University Press, 2005.
HOENES, Josch, MUNIER, Julia Noah, "A Fabulous Country of Gender. Queer-feministische Fantasiebilder von Männlichkeit und Sexualität", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.), Sissy Boyz. Queer Performance, Bremen, thealit, 2011, p. 42-56.
HUTCHEON, Linda, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms [1985], Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 2000.
"I Want It That Way", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ I_Want_It_That_Way, 23 November 2012, Web.
JAMIESON, Daryl, "Marketing Androgyny: The Evolution of the Backstreet Boys", inPopular Music, Vol. 26, Nº 2, 2007, p. 245-258.
KATZ, Jana, "Why does it always rain on me? Boygroupvideos und Männlichkeit", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.),Sissy Boyz. Queer Performance, Bremen, thealit, 2011, p. 112-117.
MATUSOW, Cathy, "What’s Sex Got to Do with It?", in Houston Press, 20 March 2003,http://www.houstonpress.com/2003-03-20/calendar/what-s-sex-got-to-do-with-it/, 05 April 2012, Web.
McDONALD, Paul, "Feeling and Fun. Romance, dance and the performing male body in the Take That videos", in WHITELEY, Sheila (ed.), Sexing the Groove. Popular Music and Gender, New York, London, Routledge, 1997, p. 277-294.
MESSNER, Monja, "‘Sie sind sooo süüüß…’ Boygroups und ihre Fans – Fans und ihre Boygroups", in SPoKK (eds.), Kursbuch Jugendkultur. Stile, Szenen und Identitäten vor der Jahrtausendwende, Mannheim, Bollmann Verlag, 1997, p. 235-242.
MOOS, Jennifer, "Boy Band Culture, Transnational Exchange, and the Performance of ‘Uncool’ Masculinity", in FELLNER, Astrid, HAMSCHA, Susanne, HEISSENBERGER, Klaus, MOOS, Jennifer (eds.), Is It ’Cause It’s Cool? Affective Encounters With American Culture, Wien, LIT Verlag, forthcoming 2013.
POOLE, Ralph J., "Preface", in POOLE, Ralph J., SEDLMEIER, Florian, WEGENER, Susanne (eds.), Hard Bodies, Wien, LIT Verlag, 2011, p. 6-20.
SALIH, Sara, Judith Butler, London, New York, Routledge, 2002.
SCHENK, Jana, "Eine boygroup ist eine boygroup ist eine boygroup", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.), Sissy Boyz. Queer Performance, Bremen, thealit, 2011, p. 16-24.
SISSY BOYZ, website, http://www.sissyboyz.de/, 23 November, Web.
SMART, Gordon, "Chris Martin: Take That made me think I was gay", in The Sun, 25 Oct 2011, n.p,http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3891730/Chris-Martin-Take-That-made-me-think-I-was-gay.html, 23 November 2012, Web.
STAHL, Matthew, "Authentic Boy Bands on TV? Performers and Impresarios in The Monkees and Making the Band", in Popular Music, Vol. 21, Nº 3, 2002, p. 307-329.
SULLIVAN, Nikki, A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, New York, New York University Press, 2003.
TAKE THAT, Take That & Party, BMG Records, 1992, CD.
"The REAL Backdoor Boys", video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgseb0PCP8, 23 November 2012, Web.
THEWELEIT, Klaus, Männerphantasien. Männerkörper – Zur Psychoanalyse des Weißen Terrors, Frankfurt, Main, Verlag Roter Stern, 1978.
THILMANN, Pia, WITTE, Tania, REWALD, Ben, Drag Kings. Mit Bartkleber gegen das Patriarchat, Berlin, Querverlag, 2007.
THOMPSON, James, Performance Affects: Applied Theater and the End of Effect, Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
VENUS BOYZ, dir. Gabriel Bauer, Impuls Home Entertainment, 2003 [2002], DVD.
VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, "Foreword: A Kingdom Comes", in VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, HALBERSTAM, Judith "Jack" (eds.), The Drag King Book, London, Serpent’s Tail, 1999, p. 10-28.
WALD, Gayle, "’I Want It That Way’. Teenybopper Music and the Girling of Boy Bands", in Genders, 35, 2002, n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
"Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?", lyrics,http://www.lyricsfreak.com/w/weird+al+yankovic/ which+backstreet+boy+is+gay_20145848.html, 23 November 2012, Web
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Notes
For the German-speaking context magazines like BRAVO and Popcorn first come to one’s mind.
WALD, Gayle, "‘I Want It That Way’. Teenybopper Music and the Girling of Boy Bands", inGenders, issue 35, 2002, n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
My primary examples are The Backdoor Boys, a former drag king troupe from New York City, USA, and the Sissy Boyz from Bremen, Germany. Although the Sissy Boyz do not refer to themselves as "drag kings", but describe themselves as a "queer-feminist boy band", they use drag performances as a strategy to subvert sexed and gendered binaries (and here, masculinity in particular). Cf. their homepage http://www.sissyboyz.de/, 23 November 2012, Web.
JAMIESON, Daryl, "Marketing Androgyny: The Evolution of the Backstreet Boys", in Popular Music, Vol. 26, Nº 2, 2007, p. 248f.
On the "clean" image of boy bands see also MESSNER, Monja, "‘Sie sind sooo süüüß…’ Boygroups und ihre Fans – Fans und ihre Boygroups", in SPoKK (ed.), Kursbuch Jugendkultur. Stile, Szenen und Identitäten vor der Jahrtausendwende, Mannheim, Bollmann Verlag, 1997, p. 240.
For a discussion of these stereotypes see also SCHENK, Jana, "Eine boygroup ist eine boygroup ist eine boygroup", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.), Sissy Boyz. Queer Performance, Bremen, thealit, 2011, p. 19f.
For a discussion of race, ethnicity, and the "adaptation of black performance styles" in boy band culture with an emphasis on the Backstreet Boys see WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p.,http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
When the Backstreet Boys entered the European music market in the mid-1990s, they had to compete with already established boy bands from Europe. In order to become successful they had to distinguish themselves from their European counterparts: at that time, their "Americanness" became a unique feature which was strategically enacted in order to win European audiences and thus to support the Backstreet Boys’ career. This "Americanness" was primarily established through visual allusions to American culture, esp. to American sports culture, and American landscapes/ settings in the band’s early videos. These markers distinguished the Backstreet Boys from European boy bands and thus made the band especially appealing to European teenagers via the band’s "uniqueness", whereas, on the other hand, the very same markers functioned as identificatory icons on the U.S. market. Cf. my article on "Boy Band Culture, Transnational Exchange, and the Performance of ‘Uncool’ Masculinity" in the forthcoming volume Is It ’Cause It’s Cool? Affective Encounters With American Culture, in FELLNER, Astrid, HAMSCHA, Susanne, HEISSENBERGER, Klaus, MOOS, Jennifer (eds.), Is It ’Cause It’s Cool? Affective Encounters With American Culture, Wien, LIT Verlag, forthcoming 2013.
Cf. also Gayle Wald’s article in which she argues that "the characterization of boy bands as ‘gay’" leads to viewing them as "musically inept as well as insufficiently masculine." WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
Cf. e.g. Monja Messner and Jana Schenk, who both write that boy bands, due to their "createdness", cannot be seen as "authentic" or "natural" bands. Messner’s statement reads: "Die Boygroups sind keine ‘gewachsenen’ Bands, im Gegenteil. Sie sind vielmehr das Produkt cleverer Manager, deren Konzept mit den smarten Jungs genauso einfach wie auch genial ist." MESSNER, Monja, art. cit., p. 239; or Jana Schenk on the paradox of linking the idea of a boy band to that of "realness": "Außerdem scheint es geradezu paradox, diese Bands mit dem Attribut ‘echt’ in Verbindung zu bringen, denn sie sind der Definition nach alles andere als ‘natürlich’." SCHENK, Jana, art. cit., p. 17.
Quoted in WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web, my emphases.
Ibid.
Ibid.
STAHL, Matthew, "Authentic Boy Bands on TV? Performers and Impresarios in The Monkees and Making the Band", in Popular Music, Vol. 21, Nº 3, 2002, p. 324.
BUTLER, Judith, Undoing Gender, New York, London, Routledge, 2004, p. 215, my emphases.
BUTLER, Judith, Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity [1990], New York/ London, Routledge, 1999, p. 33.
SULLIVAN, Nikki, A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, New York, New York University Press, 2003, p. 50.
Ibid., p. 81.
The video can be accessed here: http://www.tape.tv/musikvideos/Backstreet-Boys/Quit-Playing-Games-With-My-Heart, 19 November 2012, Web.
WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
Klaus Theweleit writes about the male "body armor" ("Körperpanzer") in the second volume of his study Männerphantasien (1977 and 1978). Männerphantasien was published in English as Male Fantasies in 1987.
McDONALD, Paul, "Feeling and Fun. Romance, dance and the performing male body in the Take That videos", in WHITELEY, Sheila (ed.), Sexing the Groove. Popular Music and Gender, London/ New York, Routledge, 1997, p. 286.
Ibid., p. 284.
Ibid., p. 286.
Ibid.
POOLE, Ralph J., "Preface", in POOLE, Ralph J., SEDLMEIER, Florian, WEGENER, Susanne (eds.), Hard Bodies, Wien, LIT Verlag, 2011, p. 18.
MCDONALD, Paul, art. cit., p. 281.
POOLE, Ralph J., art. cit., p. 14.
MCDONALD, Paul, art. cit., p. 286.
Ibid.
BORDO, Susan, The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Private, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999, p. 55. However, Bordo also writes that "[t]ears are permissible, even admirable, when they fill the eyes of an old warrior reminiscing about battle or a jock talking about his teammates. In such contexts, tears are like the soft penis after satisfying sex: they don’t demean the man but make him lovable and human – because he has proved his strong, manly core."
I am paraphrasing Katz’s statement here in which she writes about "real/ true feelings" ("tatsächliche Gefühle"). The German text reads as follows: "Die Jungs verlieren ihre Männlichkeit nicht, denn sie müssen nicht weinen und sehen doch so aus, als täten sie’s: als zeigten sie tatsächliche Gefühle." KATZ, Jana, "Why does it always rain on me? Boygroupvideos und Männlichkeit", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.), op. cit., p. 114.
JAMIESON, Daryl, art. cit., p. 245, emphasis in original.
Ibid., p. 246.
Ibid., p. 250.
See Jamieson’s article for a more detailed reading of Nick’s "outsider" position during the band’s early years. In relation to "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)", Jamieson also discusses Nick as an object of desire for young gay men in greater length; Nick as an embodiment of "‘the fear of the locker room’ […] that keeps many gay boys from participating in organised sport"; and Madonna’s "Vogue" choreography as an intertext to Nick’s performance in "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" which, according to Jamieson, culminates in "an intense, almost orgasmic expression on [Nick’s] rain-damped face". JAMIESON, Daryl, art. cit., p. 250.
Ibid., p. 257.
WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
Ibid., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web. Wald further writes that "the question of whether male fans can be straight if they derive pleasure from a band that is so obviously ‘gay’ has been a recurring topic of debate on the Internet, where detractors of boy bands vehemently deem the ‘Spice Boys’ too ‘girly’ for male consumption."
BUTLER, Judith, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory", in Theatre Journal, Vol. 40, Nº 4, 1988, p. 519, emphasis in original.
BUTLER, Judith, Undoing Gender, op. cit., p. 214.
Ibid., emphasis in original.
THOMPSON, James, Performance Affects: Applied Theater and the End of Effect, Basingstoke and New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 119.
Cf. Anke Westphal’s article "Friedhof der Kuscheltiere: Mädchen stehen auf Boybands" (quoted in HOENES, Josch, MUNIER, Julia Noah, "A Fabulous Country of Gender. Queer-feministische Fantasiebilder von Männlichkeit und Sexualität", in KATZ, Jana, KOCK, Martina, ORTMANN, Sandra, SCHENK, Jana, WEISS, Tomka (eds.), op. cit., p. 50). Gayle Wald puts emphasis on another important function of teenage girl fandom when she stresses the community building aspect of girl fandom which, in her opinion, creates a "sisterly solidarity" (WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p.) among teenage girls.
Ibid., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
I am paraphrasing Monja Messner here. Her original sentences read as follows: "Die Fans der Boygroups […] sind weiblich. Und zwar ausschließlich. Trifft man auf Konzertbesucher männlichen Geschlechts, dann handelt es sich mit Sicherheit um Väter oder ältere Brüder, die ihre Töchter oder kleineren Schwestern begleiten". MESSNER, Monja, art. cit., p. 237).
Cf. EPSTEIN, Jeffrey, "The Boys on the Bandwagon", in The Advocate, 09 May 2000, p. 36-44 and JAMIESON, Daryl, art. cit., p. 245-258.
This is a summary of Hoenes and Munier’s argument which, in German, reads as follows: "Denn schwule Sexualität höchstens als kaum spürbaren Subtext in den Performances vorkommen zu lassen, produziert eine heteronormative Konformität, die keinen Einspruch in homophobe Machtverhältnisse formuliert." HOENES, Josch, MUNIER, Julia Noah, art. cit., p. 47.
SMART, Gordon, "Chris Martin: Take That made me think I was gay", in The Sun, 25 Oct 2011, n.p., http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/3891730/Chris-Martin-Take-That-made-me-think-I-was-gay.html, 23 November 2012, Web. It should also be mentioned here that Chris Martin can make his "confession" that he was a teenage Take That fan much easier in 2011 than during his adolescence. As a well-known person in the music business, who is happily married to Gwyneth Paltrow, Martin is able to admit his appreciation of Take That, especially after their successful re-union tour "Progress" in 2011.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, New York/ London, New York University Press, 2005, p. 178.
Cf. WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, op. cit., p. 177.
The Wikipedia entry for "I Want It That Way" lists 28 different kinds of parodies for the song, cf.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_It_That_Way, 23 November, Web. You can watch the Backstreet Boys’ video here: http://www.tape.tv/musikvideos/Backstreet-Boys/I-Want-It-That-Way, 23 November 2012, Web. Cf. also Gayle WALD’s analysis of this video and song in the larger context of teenybopper music.
You can watch the video here: http://www.clipfish.de/musikvideos/video/2952387/blink-182-all-the-small-things/, 23 November 2012, Web.
WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web.
Ibid.
HUTCHEON, Linda, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms [1985], Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 2000, p. 7.
Ibid., p. 95, my emphasis.
WALD, Gayle, art. cit., n. p., http://www.genders.org/g35/g35_wald.html, 13 December 2012, Web, emphasis in original.
Ibid.
For the song’s lyrics check, for example, http://www.lyricsfreak.com/w/weird+al+yankovic/ which+backstreet+boy+is+gay_20145848.html, 23 November 2012, Web. All quotes from the song’s lyrics are taken from this website.
SULLIVAN, Nikki, op. cit., p. 92.
Another interesting book which focuses on the drag king scenes in Germany and Switzerland is THILMANN, Pia, WITTE, Tania, REWALD, Ben, Drag Kings. Mit Bartkleber gegen das Patriarchat, Berlin, Querverlag, 2007.
VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, "Foreword: A Kingdom Comes", in VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, HALBERSTAM, Judith "Jack" (eds.), The Drag King Book, London, Serpent’s Tail, 1999, p. 16.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, Female Masculinity, Durham, Duke University Press, 1998, p. 253.
Ibid., p. 1.
The similarities between the names of A.J. (BSB) and A-Jack (BDB) as well as between B-Rok (BSB) and T-Rok (BDB) are, of course, part of the drag kings’ play with repetition and variation. Check the following websites for a comparison of the visual staging of the Backdoor Boys "as" Backstreet Boys: http://www.houstonpress.com/2003-03-20/calendar/what-s-sex-got-to-do-with-it/, 23 November 2012, Web, and http://theberry.com/2010/12/28/ridiculously-awesome-backstreet-boys-photos-28-photos/#, 23 November 2012, Web; picture number 12 (i.e. The Backstreet Boys wearing large, oversized sports shirts) compares especially well with the photograph showing the Backdoor Boys.
You can watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzgseb0PCP8, 23 November 2012, Web. It is extremely interesting (and funny) that The Backdoor Boys are referred to as the REAL Backdoor Boys here. In the aftermath of this group, several other drag king troupes emerged who then also called themselves the Backdoor Boys. You can watch a video by a Toronto-based drag king group performing "Which Backstreet Boy is Gay?" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egEcEQjqDxc&feature=related, 23 November 2012.
MATUSOW, Cathy, "What’s Sex Got to Do with It?", in Houston Press, 20 March 2003, n. p., http://www.houstonpress.com/2003-03-20/calendar/what-s-sex-got-to-do-with-it/, 05 April 2012, Web.
HUTCHEON, Linda, op. cit., p. 95.
THILMANN, Pia, WITTE, Tania, REWALD, Ben, op. cit., p. 217.
Also check the troupe’s website on which they describe themselves as a queer-feminist boy band, i.e. "queerfeministische boygroup": http://www.sissyboyz.de/, 23 November 2012, Web.
Cf. http://www.sissyboyz.de/index.html, 23 November 2012, Web.
Cf. http://www.sissyboyz.de/index.html, 23 November 2012, Web.
See e.g. the picture of the Sissy Boyz on Jack Halberstam’s MySpace website, in which the drag kings ‘are wearing’ male torsos: http://www.myspace.com/223710371, 23 November 2012, Web.
SALIH, Sara, Judith Butler, London, New York, Routledge, 2002, p. 64. Butler’s argument concerning "doing gender" in Gender Trouble has often been understood "as an activity that resembles choosing an outfit from an already-existing wardrobe of clothes" (Ibid., p. 50). However, Butler tried to refute this (mis)reading in her second major contribution to gender and queer theories, Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex", New York, London, Routledge, 1993.
Cf. http://www.sissyboyz.de/index.html, 23 November 2012, Web.
BUTLER, Judith, Undoing Gender, op. cit., p. 217f. As shown in the part "Jumping on Stage, or: Performing Boy Band Masculinity" of this article, an argument similar to Butler’s argument about gender can also be made about the "realness" (or authenticity) of boy band music.
Ibid., p. 218.
This is a summary of Hoenes and Munier’s argument. In the German text, this reads: "Zum einen formuliert sich in ihren Performances eine Kritik an der hegemonialen Gesellschaft, die nur die geschlechtlichen Identitäten Mann und Frau anerkennen kann, und deren Logiken, die um die heterosexuelle auf Reproduktion und Produktion ausgerichtete Kleinfamilie zentriert ist. Zum anderen beteiligen sie sich aber auch an der Konstruktion und Produktion einer queeren Begehrensgemeinschaft; an der Kreation von Bildern, die Identitäten jenseits von Mann und Frau lebbar oder zumindest vorstellbar und fantasierbar machen." HOENES, Josch, MUNIER, Julia Noah,art. cit., p. 45.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, op. cit., p. 179.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, "What is a Drag King?", in VOLCANO, Del LaGrace, HALBERSTAM, Judith "Jack" (eds.), op. cit., p. 32.
SCHENK, Jana, art. cit., p. 24.
Cf. ibid.
Cf. ibid.
You can watch the video here: http://www.tape.tv/musikvideos/Take-That/Happy-Now, 23 November 2012, Web.
There is a certain ambivalence to Take That’s attitude towards the doubles and towards their final choice. The doubles certainly do not meet normative beauty standards. They are pale-faced; they have flabby bellies; their bodies are not in best shape. It is therefore telling that the doubles are only accepted when they conceal their bodies/ skin under long coats for the re-staging of "Back for Good". Nevertheless, they are being rewarded: they get the job and thus the opportunity to perform in front of "their" fans.
HALBERSTAM, Judith, In a Queer Time and Place. Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives, op. cit., p. 179.
Cf. ibid., p. 2.
Ibid., p. 179.
One could also argue that Take That are "in drag" in this scene. However, in this case "drag" would not allude to men wearing women’s clothes or women wearing men’s clothes (and even this is a rather limited understanding of "drag" or cross-dressing) but to Take That wearing their younger selves’ clothes, i.e. a certain kind of age-crossing.
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