But the whims of a patriarchal society-founded on fragile, easily bruised masculinity-are always mercurial. At certain times, these performers gained notoriety for their work, even fame. Performers have been challenging the age-old sentiment that men are the best interpreters of drag for nearly 200 years in the United States. In other words, where are all the drag kings? Finding Male Pantomime This reality is obvious in the fact that only persons pantomiming femininity-drag queens-have been accepted into the race. These precedents, among others, are hugely positive.īut further questions over the show remain, and nobody could pretend it broadcasts real representation. saw Gottmik, the show’s first trans man competitor. For its second season, Bimini Bon Boulash and Ginny Lemon, both nonbinary performers, joined, and in the third season Victoria Scone became the first cisgender lesbian to enter the race as a queen. The first season of Drag Race UK cast Scaredy Kat, its first openly bisexual contestant. In the following years, Drag Race made pronounced efforts on the inclusivity front. These misguided remarks were met with intense backlash, and RuPaul issued an apology statement. It takes on a different thing it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing.”īenjamin Butch Photo: Jack Taylor (Getty Images) RuPaul clarified that Peppermint had yet to “really transition” before competing on the show, asserting, “You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. The following year, RuPaul was asked by the Guardian how a trans woman could be a queen. In 2017, Peppermint became the first trans woman queen to join the show. For years now, controversy has raged over Drag Race’s lack of inclusiveness. This simmering discontent hasn’t emerged from nowhere. I just don’t think he’s seen one that he likes enough yet, to be honest.” That’s problematic as fuck.” LoUis CYfer stressed that queens are often advocates for kings like him. “In their minds, men are people who do drag the best. “This casting choice shows just how sexist the show’s perspective really is,” said Hugo Grrrl, a king who recently won New Zealand’s House of Drag. So, either they tend to lean into that problematic thing, or they display what healthy masculinity could be. “But to those of us who do actually make up the people the show tries to represent on a global scale, it really does the opposite of reflecting that.” “Most people who are drag kings very likely experienced oppression or misogyny from the kinds of characters they are portraying. To Sigi Moonlight, a London-based king and member of the queer, pan-Asian cabaret collective the Bitten Peach, Maddy’s casting on Drag Race was a cop-out that “fulfills everything that people might think is needed to bash a heteronormative society,” he told Jezebel via email-“people” meaning the general public who may be unfamiliar with the lived realities of queer politics and identities. “So, either they tend to lean into that problematic thing, or they display what healthy masculinity could be-or in the case of nonbinary and trans drag kings, showing off your own masculinity and embracing it after society has told you that you can’t have it.” Drag has become a livelihood, a profession for a whole host of LGBTQ+ people, and for some, it’s the only place where they feel they can perform. “Most people who are drag kings very likely experienced oppression or misogyny from the kinds of characters they are portraying,” mused Beau Jangles. It’s no wonder that many are turning to drag as a creative tool of self-expression and liberation from the bounds of living in a heteronormative society. But the old guidelines of who can perform what kind of drag have gone out the window, along with the assumption that gender and sexuality exist within a strict binary. In the past, queens were cisgender men dressing as cisgender women, and drag kings were thought of as cisgender women dressing up as cisgender men.
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