Vaginal Davis' Terrorist Drag

In Jose Estaban Munoz's article "The White to be Angry" he discusses the complexities of a gay indivudual identifying with dominant ideologies. He begins by saying that most individuals of a minority, whether it be racial or sexual, are faced with the decision of subscribing to a dominant ideology. And that when the individual does accept a dominant ideology they are denying a part of themself. He goes on to talk about Davis who is a drag queen performer. She uses her perfomances to "rehearse identities" that are not socially accepted with the intent of restructuring the image of the self and the social.

Munoz discusses the periods that Davis goes through in her life as a minority. She goes through what she call the "snow period" where she wishes that she were white or had a relationship with a white person so that she would feel validated or validated through association. The next stage experienced is counteridentification with the dominant culture in which she turns to her own community after being exposed to white culture.

Davis uses her drag performances not to "change the ideas of the spectators, but in order to trouble them, to stir up uncertain desire zones that they always more or less refuse to explore. The question is...to make bodies, all bodies, break away from the representations and restraints on the 'social body'". In this way Davis uses art (performances) not as a way to necessarily convey a idea, but as a way to compel viewers to rethink the ideas they already have.