Drag in the spotlight

RECENTLY A SMALL GROUP OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PROTESTED A DRAG QUEEN STORYTELLING EVENT AT A BRISBANE LIBRARY. AFTER THE CONFRONTATION WAS FILMED AND WIDELY SHARED ON SOCIAL MEDIA, THE LEADER OF THE PROTEST TOOK HIS OWN LIFE. AS EXPECTED, AND IN DEPRESSING FASHION, THIS AWFUL PUBLIC SPECTACLE HAS KICKSTARTED YET ANOTHER NATIONAL DISCUSSION ABOUT ‘HEALTHY’ GENDER REPRESENTATIONS, WITH DRAG IN THE SPOTLIGHT.

While religious debates of appropriateness have predicatively raged, some corners of the internet are claiming that Drag Queens are performing a type of sexist and misogynistic equivalent of ‘blackface’?! These are strong words. It is fair to say that despite there being a long history of Drag Kings, Drag is overwhelmingly represented by white men who dress in hyper-feminine costumes and act in stereotypically feminine ways. But this position is only surface deep.

Firstly, while there is some overlap, Drag is different from transgenderism. The term ‘transgender’ is a personal gender identity and is an authentic and lasting sense of self, whereas Drag is a temporary and deliberate performance of gender expression. Gender expression is what we considered masculine and feminine traits that traditionally aligned with sex; Male = masculine – Female = feminine. While Trans folk have existed throughout history, Drag is especially related to theatrical performance. In the western context, Drag originated in Shakespearean theatres where it was illegal for females to perform. The term ‘Drag’ is believed to originated from the men’s dresses that would drag along the floor.

Consequently, acting became a choice occupation for men who wanted to express femininity. Male performances of femininity then became a mechanism in gay culture, to signal homosexuality and gender queerness. It is important to note that Drag was simply cross-dressing until the late 19th century, when female impersonators aligned with heterosexual culture split from the Drag Queens, who became synonymous and essential to the development of gay culture.

During the 20th century, Drag culture developed through a boom of underground gay bars throughout the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s law enforcement began to seriously crackdown on the Queer community through ‘appropriate’ gendered clothing laws. During this time Drag was vital to the LGBT resistance. From the 1970s, Drag enjoyed a slow but rich creep into the mainstream gaze partly due to movies and television programs such as Paris is Burning, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and most recently Ru Paul’s Drag Race. This brings us to the Drag culture of today.

Now there is no denying that Drag, especially in the early years, built caricatures of women and mocking personas of the ‘slut’, ‘diva’ or ‘dowdy housewife’, at the expense of femininity. However, Drag arose from a desire to be free from the crush of enforced masculinity. Today’s Drag culture has stepped so far away from female impersonation, it quite literally has become its own cultural brand of femininity. Yes, its bitchy, but it also places a profound emphasis on freedom of expression and promotes a gorgeously powerful, determined, independent, creative and a fiercely loving style of femininity.

In this way, Drag exposes the performative nature of gender expression and reveals that ‘masculinity’ or ‘femininity’ is not exclusively owned by any sex. Male, Female or Intersexed, the existence of the Drag performer reveals both the restrictions and amazing possibilities of gender expressions. For example, female Drag uses ‘flamboyance’ which reveals the effort feminine performance requires. Whereas male Drag uses ‘controlled’ and ‘restrained’ performance, which exposes how male status alone can make a joke funnier or a voice more authoritative. The ambiguity between ‘pretending’ and ‘being’, reveals the falsehoods and mythology around gender norms.

Drag benefits the entire community as it critiques and challenges gender norms. Drag through humor, and by virtue of its origins in entertainment, remains one of the most effective ways of challenging those norms. This is crucial because unchallenged dysfunctional gender norms lead to gendered and family violence, environmental exploitation, sexism, homophobia and transphobia.

As RuPaul himself says “I don’t dress like a woman; I dress like a drag queen!