It’s a seemingly typical night in Kerrytown. My roommate and I sit at the kitchen table cramming for the last of our winter term exams, when suddenly the silence is broken by the clicking of size 12 heels and a deep male voice greeting hello. In walks our friend, a man, dressed as his drag queen alter ego. My initial shock isn’t because a drag queen has just interrupted my AmCult studying, but that he is so convincing! His nails are long, his hair long and perfectly coiffed, his eyes popping with bright bursts of blue and subtle hints of purple. He looks utterly fabulous.
This young man’s story certainly echoes the sentiments of today’s materials. He is a gay man, who enjoys his feminine side and has always struggled to fit in. He has a strong background in theatre (as do many drag queens according to the article by Rupp and Taylor). He doesn’t identify as transgender, but rather as a homosexual man with a penchant for bending gender roles and stereotypes. He transforms his appearance and behaviors on a daily basis to match the environment in which he is participating. When surrounded by straight men he displays a vastly more masculine side- wearing backwards caps, lowering his voice dramatically, and referring to the other men in the room as “bro” or “dude.” Other times he can be found painting his nails or suiting up for an important professional opportunity. As Libby Hill writes in “Drag Is Raw: Wrestlers, Queens And Gender As Performance Art”: “No one wants to fail at being a man or being a woman. So perhaps true victory comes in realizing we're all just approximating.” There is immense truth in this statement. My friend is approximating who he thinks he is expected to be in each of the situations he encounters. We all do it! In a single day, most U of M students approximate several different roles- who they are supposed to be as student, friend, child, sibling, coworker, etc.
In the 2012 State of Drag Survey we are given an interesting look into the world of drag queens. Most are 20-29 years old, identifying putting on their mother's heels as children as their first exposure to drag, and reporting that dresses are the most expensive item on their drag shopping list. I found it particularly interesting that most thought of putting on high heels as a child as their first taste of drag. Most little boys parade around in their mothers' heels, thinking nothing of it. If the implications surrounding such an innocent act of childhood curiosity were made more public, it makes me wonder if fathers everywhere would be stowing away their wives’ shoes and shunning their sons from their mothers’ closets? What a sad reality that would be, a world even more affected by the constant struggle to be who you are supposed to be according to your gender.
The website www.dragofficial.com markets itself as “The #1 for Official Drag Queen News.” Visitors to the site can view photos, videos, news regarding the drag world, they can even see when the next drag event is happening in their state. I found an interesting article on the site titled “12 Types of Drag Queens.” Reading through the list it occurred to me that the “12 Types of Drag Queens” is no different from the 12 types of men, or 12 types of women. There’s “the diva,” “the showstopper,” “the professional,” “under the radar,” “the original one,” “the dancer,” “the fashionista,” “the career queen,” “the headliner,” “the rule breaker, “the orphan,” and “the beauty queen.” The titles are pretty self explanatory, and upon reading their descriptions as interpreted by the author, it only solidified what was becoming more and more evident. Drag queens, a group of people normally deemed “different” by most of society, aren’t really that different than anyone in reality. They take on different roles in society in the same way that everyone does. Some are outgoing, others are introverted, some crave attention, others strive to reinvent what has already been done. Drag queens are no different than anyone else, they just happen to look better in 6 inch heels than most of us.
What your saying makes complete sense. While you were naming off the 12 different types of drag queens I had the same thought that you did, that those are the same types that men and women alike share. What I find really interesting about Drag Queens is the fact that they are contempt with having a male body but dressing like a girl at the same time. However, when you think about it, it's just clothes and makeup. I don't think Drag Queens should be looked at in such a "different" way, as you were saying that most of them have a background in theatre, they enjoy playing the role of someone else and playing a role of a woman is just a part of their life. So fathers should let their little boys play around in their mothers heels if they want to, they are just shoes and shouldn't be looked at as a deciding factor of someone turning into a Drag Queen in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe articles by Rupp and Taylor and Hill really give some insight into what the word gender really means. You highlight some important facts with your own thoughts and information from the readings that gender should not be a binary construct. Gender should really be about people being themselves. Expressing how they feel about their identity on the inside on the outer surface to others. I found it interesting that the idea of the drag queen is a type of third gender stuck in the middle between masculine and feminine. It allows the traditional thoughts of gender to be rightly challenged and plausible alternatives to the traditional meanings to be brought to light, which should happen more frequently in society. I'd have to agree that children should be able to wear all the high heels they want because no matter how "different" we appear, we're all really quite similar.
ReplyDeleteBecoming friends with folks recently has opened my eyes to the world of drag as an observer. My first time experiencing a drag show in the vivid lit night club Live in downtown Ann Arbor was phenomenal. The queens put on their faces (the colloquial term for putting on make up and such) and get ready for what the host, Andygeronous expertly called Drag Wars. A show full of excitement seeing experienced drag queens and the first ever drag king perform on stage to handpicked music. Just like anyone going to a dance club or fancy engagement they dressed up for the parts they are going to play out as entertainers for crowd of people that came to see them. Drag queens, whether they dress up as a lifestyle or as a performer are in no way "different" than an individual who has to where a specific work attire. Only difference between an individual who doesn't wear drag and one who does is that those that wear drag are more confident and enlightened to what they perceive as fine and dandy to them. Something that many people could focus on for themselves. Great blog post. Definitely agreed on multiple points, specially the 12 different types of queens and their parallels.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting what you said about approximating roles. I definitely agree that we all perform our roles. We change and adapt our personas based on our surroundings. This led me to thinking about whether some people are more adapt at changing their performance than others. You say that your friend shifts his voice, vocabulary, and style depending on who he is around. All though we all may do the same, this seems like a skill that can be improved upon. I also wonder whether if for most people these "performances" come more naturally and don't require as much effort as someone who may feel like they don't quite fit into a socially constructed identity. I am going to think about this some more. Thanks for sparking some thoughts.
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