Drag queens!
From its start as theatre slang to its pop culture today, drag has become a celebrated term while keeping its transgressive power and the word is still evolving today.“We shall come in drag which means men wearing women’s costumes”. Drag is a form of art evolving gender-bending where a person dresses in more exaggerate clothing and makeup of the opposite sex. A drag queen is a male person that uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes.The word drag has existed since 1388 but it wasn’t until in the 18th-19th century that it was used in connection with performing in clothes or a persona different from a persona of your gender.
Drag history goes way back to ancient Egypt where artifacts and carvings showed Cleopatra dressed as a male pharaoh with a male double crown. The early birth of theatre was witnessed in ancient Greece whereas female roles were performed by men as women were deemed as inferior and were thus unable to go on stage. The Middle Ages in Europe saw the Christian church continue the history of banning women on stage so acting was exclusively reserved for men who also played the female roles. During the 17th century in Japan, the world saw the rise in the art form of Kobuki which featured male impersonators showing interact makeup,full set of voices and feminine movement, at the time William Shakespeare was also rising to prominence and the first appearances of his iconic female characters like Juliet were all believed to be first portrayed by men, as a matter of fact it’s from the theater that the term is believed to have originated and this is because when men played female roles they observed how their costume dresses will drag on the floor. The first person to describe himself as “the queen of drag” was William Dorsey Swann, born enslaved in Hancock, Maryland, who in the 1880s started hosting drag balls in Washington DC attended by other men who were formerly enslaved, and the drag balls were often raided by the police. In 1886, Swann was convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail on the false charge of “keeping a disorderly house” which is a euphemism for running a brothel. He then requested a pardon from the president to be released from jail for holding a drag ball, but his request was denied. Drag began to shift from an ensemble performance to an individual form of entertainment known as vaudeville,it’s through vaudeville that the first official drag queens came to exist. An example is ofJulian Eltinge who was the highest paid actor at the time, even earning more than Charlie Chaplin. He had launched his own magazine full of wardrobe and make up advice for women and also fought against the homosexual panic by removing his wig to reveal his gender to the crowd.
In the 80s, balls and theatre houses became crucial as AIDS was reaping through the population and caution had to be communicated. As more and more Americans started getting sick and dying of the disease, spreading many cases through unprotected sexual intercourse, AIDS ravaged the gay community. Homophobia mainstreamed the streets and so the gay community stood up for themselves. House Mothers educated their offspring about safe sex and provided deep healing for deep emotional trauma to those living with AIDS. Ashow that shed quite a bit of light on what happened to the gay community regarding AIDS is called “POSE” which is a NETFLIX show based on drag queens, house mothers and AIDS.
Back then, the LGBTQ community went through a lot such as having to protests for their rights. The Cooper Donuts Riot is an incident which happened in Los Angeles in May 1959. During the riot, drags queens, lesbians, transgender women, and gay men rioted. It was one of the first LGBTQ protests in the United States. On the 17th of March 1968 in Los Angeles, the LGBTQ community protested against harassment and entrapment by the LAPD. During the protest, two drag queens known as “The princess” and “The Douches” held a St. PatrickDay party at Griffith Park, a popular cruising spot and a frequent target of police activity.More than 200 gay men socialized through the day. Drag queens were also involved in the stonewall riots, which were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations by members of the LBGTQ community against police raids that took place in the early hours of 28th June 1969 at Stonewall Inn. The riots are widely considered to be the catalyst for the gay liberationmovement and the modern fight for LGBTQ rights. Throughout the years more riots, police brutality, attempted robbery and so much more against the LGBTQ community continued to take place and it was only in 1980 when police presence finally started protecting gay spectators and drag queens from anti-gay harassment at the annual Halloween show at Toronto St. Charles Tavern.
Rodelio Lewis, a certified drag queen who prefers to go by the name “Miss Mavis Dash” had the following to say: “Miss Mavis, is my divine feminine energy come to life. She’s the embodiment of every strong woman I’ve seen growing up and to a degree through Miss Mavis I’m paying my respect to their hard work and love for life as woman. Being an actor,I’ve always enjoyed dressing up and my creative mind didn’t understand why any boundary had to exist, especially when it came to clothes. RuPaul, the mother of drag always says “we’re all born naked, and the rest is drag” which basically means whatever we do with clothes is drag. I wish people would see that even if you’re not performing on a stage, and be it in your office, at home, or at the grocery store, every time you dress yourself to be a part or express something specific which is probably all the time, you’re doing your interpretation of it and that is drag.”
Fast forward to the 21st century, drag queens aren’t simply just men that dress up a ladiesclothing, they’re a whole different entity. When so flawlessly dressed, the person underneath disappears almost completely and tap into their weirdest, fiercest, and most theatrical parts of themselves to form something new, a whole new character, an alter ego, a super “her”. In this moment drag culture is more popular than ever, queens have been able to build incredible following via social media platforms, podcasts, and their performances. In the past drag was submerged in deep underground clubs and back-alley bars, it was merely regarded as part of the theatre culture but in actual fact it has been part of our culture for centuries. Every era and new iteration of the art has been crucial to the shape and success of drag today. It took a lot in history for drags or the LGBTQ+ community to be who and where they are today, respectedand accepted without judgment or being squeezed underground.
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