Fierce bitches on Tranny Lane: gender, sexuality, culture, and the closet in theme park parades

Abstract

This chapter draws on 17 months of ethnographic observations in the Parade department at an American theme park that I call Wonderland. The Parade department is a homonormative workplace, numerically and culturally dominated by gay men. I examine how this work culture challenges the dominance of heteronormative masculinity often embedded at work through an exploration of backstage interactions among performers. I also explore the gendered and racialized meanings of the camp aesthetic that performers embody. I argue that while Parade culture undermines workplace heteronormative masculinity, it also reproduces the epistemology of the closet through its reliance on the gay/straight binary.

Citation

Orzechowicz, D. (2010), "Fierce bitches on Tranny Lane: gender, sexuality, culture, and the closet in theme park parades", Williams, C.L. and Dellinger, K. (Ed.) Gender and Sexuality in the Workplace (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 20), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 227-252. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0277-2833(2010)0000020013