Is there a way to write about, talk about, and practice gender-bending without reinscribing the dominant cultural authority of sex? Using feminist, queer, and performance theories in conjunction with previously restricted archival material, original ethnography, and personal interviews, this dissertation illustrates how some acts of gender-bending partially or wholly escape the limiting but central definitional parameter of sex identity. The term "gender-bending" traditionally characterizes how an actor of one distinct, binary sex (male or female) performs a gendered illusion that fundamentally differs from his or her own "real" identity. A drag queen might be described as an actor who appears as a woman onstage but is, "in actuality," a man. This dissertation investigates a broad range of so-called female-bodied gender-bending practices such as male impersonation in U.S.

variety and vaudeville (1868-1920), androgynous cross-casting by El Teatro Campesino's teatristas (1968-1980), and contemporary drag kinging events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA (2008-2012). Not every gender-bending performance is intended to be an act of social contestation or to perpetuate radically queer political goals. Even liberal gender-bending practices might be constructed or interpreted via a "reveal" of the actor's state-defined sex identity. Close attention to specific socio-historical contexts as well as performers' overriding personal, economic, or social goals is essential in deciphering why some acts of gender-bending ultimately support dominant ideologies while others renegotiate the role of the sexed body.

By investigating gender-bending intents, methods, and outcomes in the commercial venue, the civil rights struggle, and the queer domain, this dissertation demonstrates how and also why certain gender-bending strategies identify, revision, or disidentify the performer's body within the gendered performance. Based on these examples, I propose that the term gender-bending should be resignifed to encompass a myriad of non-normative identity acts such as "female-femmeing" and "body-breaking." In doing so, this term may also be used by academics and practitioners to characterize and discuss the potential in acts that express any or all social identities as unstable, including the relationship between the performer's body and the performance of identity.