Drag Mainstreaming in Italy: Theoretical Framework and Methodological Directions for a Sociological Inquiry

This paper explores the mainstreaming of drag as an international socio-cultural phenomenon, with a focus on Italy. Drawing on sociological scholarship on subcultures, queer visibility, and critical approaches to neoliberalism, it examines drag’s evolution from subcultural performance to commodified cultural form. The historical development of drag and the international influence of the reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race are discussed, emphasizing how mainstream media formats have reshaped aesthetic norms, audience expectations, and the visibility of queer practices. The Italian case, marked by recent televised formats featuring drag queens and the professionalization of performers, offers a fertile site to investigate how international models are localized, adapted, or resisted. Methodologically, the study proposes a research design that combines discourse analysis of media content, interviews with performers, and audience research to examine drag representation, experience, and fruition in Italy. This framework is expected to contribute to comparative understandings of how global queer forms are reinterpreted and lived in specific national contexts.