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Drag queen

(dragqueen)





Drag queens Luc D'Arcy and Jerry Cyr and friend at Montreal's 2003 Divers-Cité prideparade

Drag queens are performers - usually gay men, sometimes transgendered women - who dress in drag, clothing associated with the female gender , usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. Drag queens often dodrag to perform, singing or lip-synching and dancing, participating in events such as gaypride parades, cabarets, discotheques, and other celebrations and venues.

Female-bodied people who perform in usually exaggerated men's clothes and personae are called drag kings , though this term has a wider meaning than drag queen.

Drag is a part of Western gay culture - drag queens fought at the Stonewall riots in June 1969 , and drag shows are traditional at prideparades . Prominent drag queens in the lesbigay community of a city often serveas official or unofficial spokespersons, fundraisers, chroniclers, or community leaders.

Non-western cultures have traditions similar to drag, often existing among their GLBT communities; the western notion of drag is also becoming more common in non-western GLBT communities.

Contents

Genres

Drag queen Mado Lamotte performs at Mascara: La nuit des drags inMontreal
  • High camp drag queens employ a drag aesthetic based on clown -like values like exaggeration, satire , dirty jokes , "putting on airs," and so forth. Divine is an example of a camp queen.
  • Some drag queens, though not as outré as camp queens, employ highly exaggerated feminine personae.
  • Some drag queens exaggerate in the dimension of elegance and fashion, employing jewelry and beautiful gowns. The Lady Chablis , who can be seen in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Goodand Evil is an example of this type of performer. Many such drag queens impersonate specific actresses and other popdivas, such as Cher , Madonna , Céline Dion , and so forth.
  • Some drag queens either do not perform or perform only rarely. Their forte is participating in pageants , hence the term pageant queen.Pageant queens gear their act toward winning titles and prizes in various contests and pageantry systems. Some of these havegrand prizes that rival those of pageants such as Miss America .

Terminology

The term drag queen originates in Polari , the language of gay men inEngland in the early part of the last century. Drag meant "clothes", and was also theatre slang for a woman's costumeworn by a male actor. A queen is an effeminate gay man.

Another term for drag queen, female impersonator, is common in some areas, but considered dated in others.Drag queens are generally not literally "female impersonators" in that they do not attempt to pass as women. Female impersonation, under that name, used to be illegal in many places, which inspiredthe famous drag queen José Sarria to hand out labels to his friends reading"I am a boy," so they could not be accused of female impersonation. [1] American drag queen RuPaul famously said "I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven-inch heels,four-foot wigs, and skintight dresses?"

Most drag queens prefer to be referred to as " she "while in drag. Many performers protect their character quite vigorously and will be offended if they are referred to as "he" orby their legal name while they are in drag.

Drag and transgender

Most drag queens perform for fulfilment as a hobby , a profession , or an art form; as a way to be in the spotlight; or as aroad to local or wider fame.

Drag queens are sometimes called transvestites, however, transvestism is a word with many different meanings, most of which do not apply to or include Drag queens.Drag queens do not do drag for reasons of sexual pleasure, and are also not transvestic fetishists , people who have a sexual fetish for the clothing of another gender role . Furthermore, most people whoare called or self-identify as transvestites are heterosexual men, whereas most drag queens are gay or transgendered .

Also, there is a (small) community of female-bodied drag queens, who may have one of several gender identities, with queer being rather common.

Drag itself is often thought of as part of transgenderism because itsubverts gender roles. However, most drag queens are cisgendered gay men (thatis, they identify, appear, and are embodied as men) in the remainder of their lives when not in drag.

Nevertheless, a number of people identifying as transgendered or transsexual women perform as drag queens, and a number of drag queens who do not identify as transgenderedregard drag as being an important part of their understanding of their gender identity .

Opinions

Drag queens are often rejected by parts of the transgender community - especially, but not exclusively, by many transsexual women - because those people are afraid that they might be stereotyped asDrag Queens, too, which they are not. (Canadian transgender activist Star Maris wrote a song entitled I'm Not A Fucking DragQueen to express her feelings on the subject.)

Some feminists believe that drag promotes harmful stereotypes of women. Mostdrag artists would respond that drag is a very specific aesthetic and is not meant to satirize women in general. Many gendertheorists see drag as a subversion of gender roles.

Some members of the lesbigay community also disdain drag queens. Some are distressed by the participation of drag queens inpride parades, believing that this projects a harmful image of the lesbigay community and impedes acceptance. However, others seethis point of view as intolerant of the diversity in the community, and still others simply regard drag as traditional fun thatneed not be politically analyzed.

Famous drag queens

Some of the more well-known drag performers include:

External links

See also: List oftransgender-related topics



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This article is completely or partly from Wikipedia - The Free Online Encyclopedia. Original Article. The text on this site is made available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence. We take no responsibility for the content, accuracy and use of this article.

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