THE ART OF DRAG
QUICK HISTORY A drag queen is a person, who uses clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, most drag queens have been men dressing as women, but there are many types of Drag in today’s society. Androgynous / genderfuck, Goth, Pageant, Fluid etc… Back in the 19th century female impersonation was born through William Dorsey Swann, an American gay liberation activist. He was the first person to identify as a ‘Drag Queen’. In the 1900s, Drag became tied with the LGBTQ+ community, making it’s art form illegal and something which only happened at night. Those nights evolved into the ballroom scene, an underground community in NYC for LGBTQ+ community to feel accepted.
FEMALE IMPERSONATION Although this research diary focusses particularly on female impersonation side of Drag, Drag is so much more than that for all, it is an art form which requires skills such as make-up, dancing, singing, sewing, lip-syncing, stage presence and more. This zine touches upon Drag as the celebration of women. This activity goes way further than putting on a wig and some lipstick. People often mistake men doing drag with them being transgender, this is one of the biggest misconceptions in our society. Of course Drag has has been the gateway for individuals to realise their true selves but ultimately to many, Drag is a form of self expression and a beautiful way of celebrating women by exaggerating their features.
RESEARCH
Showing people (range of ages) a picture of Trixie Mattel, a famous drag queen in and out of drag and asking them to write 1 sentence about the photo.
TRIXIE MATTEL
AIM
The aim was to see if people in out society would comment on the fact that Trixie is a man dressing up as a woman. I didn’t want to prompt anyone, so sending the photo with little context and with no expectations was what I wanted.
RESULTS
I am neither happy or unhappy with the results, I wanted to conduct an experiment with no huge expectation, what I did find out is that in my circle of people, whatever the age, nobody was ‘bothered’ by the act of Trixie dressing up as a woman.
REAPPROPRIATION Drag (female impersonation) is reappropriating women in a positive way, in my opinion, as women were oppressed for so long. Drag is a form of celebration of the female body and mind. To me, it is beautiful that a community would want to use women as their muses. For as long as we can remember the female body has been seen as something overly sexual, wrong, too feminine, not feminine enough, unpure etc...
But what can I reappropriate? The feeling of how Drag Queens make me feel as a woman. How they make it ok in my eyes to have large breasts or none, to have all types of body sizes.