Language Politeness Issue:

Abstract

Drag performance in the cabaret show in Yogyakarta is a modern Indonesian performance which prioritizing cross gender roles. The characteristics of male actors with female attribute, causing negative public responses, where they were expected to behave in accordance of their sex. The expression of the drag song's lyrics is a form of contradiction and fantasy against reality whereas is interesting to study upon. The research based on the data which are consisting informants of cabaret show artists, both from the drag queen, drag effeminate male, and drag transgender. The research data based on its source consists of verbal information from informants, textual information from related documents, and visual information of the "cabaret show" performance. This study utilizes the perspective and approach of cultural studies with a single focused case study model by developing the theory of drag performance [8], and language manners [3]. The validity of the research data was examined by peer debriefing, while the data analysis used the interactive analysis model of Miles and Huberman [9]. This research obtaining results such as; first, the lyrical expression of the drag's song produces a positive image so that its appearance is attractive, while negative image makes its presence acceptable or not resisted. Second, the complexity of actors as drag queen, drag effeminate male, and drag transgender produces language expression as a form of parody and self-parody as well.