Conclusion: Studying Drag Marketplace Cultures – Critical Reflections and Future Directions

This conclusion reflects on the anthology and explores how the book’s chapters coalesce around the three substantive areas that we argue inform contemporary drag marketplace cultures: politicizing drag identities, marketizing drag and digitizing drag. Through a macro-critical reading, these chapters also speak to more abstract themes that are embedded into contemporary drag marketplace cultures – artisanship, stigma and commodification. This chapter concludes by problematizing a key issue that is germane to the question of why drag is an interesting marketplace culture to explore – the issue of legitimacy. We offer a critical reflection on the interplay between marketplaces, drag and legitimacy that orchestrates much of contemporary drag marketplace culture. Finally, the chapter offers directions for future research.