Tragic Resistance analyzes playwrights, directors, and performers who shatter gender norms to gain agency within the patriarchal institutions restricting them.

The artists in this book work against the tragic narratives that would otherwise constrict them: the tragedy of Antigone unmade by Judith Malina, the history of "The Venus Hottentot" pulled into the present in Suzan-Lori Parks's Venus, the narrative of the rape "victim" eschewed in Emma Sulkowicz's performances, the story of brides jilted by the homophobic state government in the case of Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens, the tragedy of Anna Nicole as told by Margaret Cho, and the reclamation of the female body from traditional hip hop by Nicki Minaj. All these performers and performances subvert traditional notions of gendered roles that people should or could hold.

This book examines the nature of these performances to interrogate how theatrical and performative resistance works and why performance might be a vehicle for altering patriarchal structures that withhold agency from women and trans/genderqueer+ people.