Costuming the queer body: How body image impacts aesthetic and identity expression within queer creative communities

Abstract

Queer costuming and costumed performances offer extraordinary transformations while expediting ludic socialization and temporal reinvention, thereby developing community-specific cultural capital. This article outlines how body image impacted participants’ experiences during a series of costume-making workshops that took place in Brisbane in 2021 as part of Brisbane’s queer party scene. The participants’ creative journeys are examined using Merleau-Ponty’s corporeal subjectivity, focusing on social environments’ impact on body image. The workshops’ facilitation framework supported individual design development within a shared creative process, centring queered socialization, peer support and community building. Body-image issues impact queer individuals who experience mainstream cultural value systems alongside queer-specific cultural norms. During the workshops, participants negotiated their body-image issues through creative design and participation in queer events. These negotiations were carried out within a queered social world, where the other participants impacted the participants’ decision-making processes. The findings demonstrate that when situated within an empathetic communal experience, individuals’ body-image negotiation and self-expression can be positively challenged, empowering confidence and creative risk.