Sexuality as Performance: Theatricality and Queer Expression

Abstract

This paper explores Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters through the lens of queer aesthetics, focusing on sexuality as performance and the role of theatricality in expressing queer identity. Set in the vibrant world of Victorian music halls, the novel presents gender and sexuality not as fixed categories but as fluid performances shaped by costume, gesture, and public spectacle. Nancy Astley’s transformation from an oyster girl to a male impersonator illustrates how desire and identity are enacted through theatrical roles. Cross-dressing, stage performance, and erotic display become tools through which queer characters negotiate visibility, pleasure, and resistance within a restrictive social order. By foregrounding performance as a mode of self-expression, Waters challenges Victorian norms of femininity and heterosexuality while celebrating queer desire as creative and empowering. The novel thus reveals how theatrical spaces function as sites of both personal liberation and political subversion, where marginalized identities find voice through aesthetic expression.