How Queens I Want to Break Free Video Explores Queerness...

Intro: Like various art forms such as film, television, and literature allows artists to express their own sense of identity, that being nationality, race, class, ethnicity, gender or sexuality. In this case, Queen uses music to illustrate the themes of gender and sexuality through their music video I Want to Break Free (1983). This essay will attempt to discuss how Queen’s music video, I Want to Break Free, explores queerness in relation to queer theory. Firstly, I will introduce the ideas and arguments of queer theory through Gilbert Herdt article Same Sex Different Cultures (1997). I will then discuss Queen’s portrayal of drag within the music video and how it can be seen as queer rather than heterosexual. Lastly, I will argue that†¦show more content†¦For example, the music video introduces Mercury in the appearance of drag wearing a large upright wig with a pink sweater vest, tight leather short-skirt with stockings and high heels. Furthermore, we are show n Deacon, May, and Taylor being in the appearance of drags as either a school girl, grandmother and an awoken female in her pink pyjamas. Although drag is noted as a form of performance, it is often associated with queer culture because of this idea where the artists perform as the opposite sex. Furthermore, drag is often highlighted as part of queer culture through main stream mediums such as Stephan Elliot’s The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), which is critically acclaimed by AfterElton’s as the 10th greatest gay film of all time (AfterElton). Para 2: However, one can argue that Queen’s I Want to Break Free, could be seen as a heterosexual text. One can argue that drag is not queer because drag is a performance – the idea that anyone can perform drag regardless of gender and sexual preference. For example, in Jean-Marc Vallee’s Dallas Buyer’s Club (2013), Jared Leto plays Rayon – a drug addict transsexual women who is HIV positive. Leto’s performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club is what earned him the academy award for best supporting actor. It was his win which sparked critique as the Vallee’s casting of Leto, a straight white male, to play and perform as a transsexual