92
Drag Patricia McCabe The keyword I have chosen is drag, in reference to drag queens and drag balls. According to a definition from Wikipedia, drag queen means: “Drag is parsed as changing one's clothes to those of a different sex, while queen is said to refer to a homosexual man.” (Wikipedia, 2022). Although this website is not the most reliable, Wikipedia can be a relevant source to adolescents who want to learn about vernacular that they ‘should’ know living in a media centred society. Despite this, I believe this definition does not show today’s current representation that can include people in drag of any gender or sexuality. Drag’s history starts with the term “cross-dressing”, meaning dressing alike to the opposite sex, which led to what became more popularly known as a drag queen in the late 1900s (Wikipedia, 2022). Drag is known for the idea of someone creating another persona of themselves to perform and provide entertainment for others. This usually includes the LGBTQ+ community, especially in spaces such as drag bars or shows, but has sometimes become an activity for straight people to enjoy as well. What started as a simple idea seen as playing dress up became an entire artform and community. For instance, the scene became popular in New York in the 80s when gay and trans people would host ballroom shows in underground clubs categorizing and competing for their drag looks. Understanding drag is essential to understand the experiences of young people due to the vernacular that is used in their everyday life. These terms consist of “slay”, “queen”, “boots”, “fierce”, “tea”, and many others. These stem from AAVE (African American Vernacular English), but at its root comes from Black and Latin drag queens. What is common of today’s young people on social media is to appropriate the culture and slang of Black people, and in this
