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Recently my gay friend decided he wanted to explore the world of drag. I think it's an awesome idea. I believe that being a Drag queen can be a beautiful art form. So that led me to the question what do other people think of Drag queens? I don't mind if you say you don't like it. I want to hear all opinions. Posts: 4 | From: USA | Registered: Apr 2011
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I love any kind of gender transgression, and as gender is a spectrum, it looks really natural and freeing. Are there Drag Kings? There must be...
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We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel Posts: 1231 | From: England | Registered: Oct 2010
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Are you kidding? I watch RuPaul's Drag Race! When I'm older, I want to have my own show of reverse drag, where women look like men. I always wanted to see a drag show! If i were a boy, I'd be a drag queen!
-------------------- ~Stephanie Gabriella Murray I'm very gay for being a lesbian, and not gay to be what I'm not Posts: 251 | From: Long Island | Registered: Dec 2010
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Drag Kings are a very real and vibrant part of the community. Check out Kings of the Hill and All The Kings Men for two well known groups!
-------------------- -Andy If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution - Emma Goldman Posts: 435 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Dec 2010
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We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. - Elie Wiesel Posts: 1231 | From: England | Registered: Oct 2010
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Several times I've been around good-looking female acquaintances without appreciating their looks on anything but an aesthetic level, and then found that when they put on a boy's shirt, for example, they are suddenly really hot to me. So yeah, drag kings are hot. Probably plenty of people have the same reaction to drag queens.
Posts: 170 | From: UK | Registered: Mar 2011
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Oddly enough, the older I get the more I realize that despite identifying as a woman and (probably, never had a test done, but it's pretty safe to assume), being XX, that doing things like wearing makeup and dresses and such feels like drag for me.
Now, I like drag-as-performance. I do find it transgressive as well as a whole lot of fun, so there's that. I've done a lot of photography of drag kings and queens, and it's always been a hoot.
But coming to that awareness was something I wish I'd come to a lot earlier because times I was pushed to be high-femme -- by family, by culture -- always really bothered me and felt very suffocating, and if I'd gotten the message that it could simply BE drag, be a costume, be like performance and having fun, rather than having to be something that felt or was presumed to be authentic, I would have felt a lot more positive about it.
-------------------- Heather Corinna, Executive Director & Founder, Scarleteen About Me • Get our book! Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead Posts: 63426 | From: An island near Seattle | Registered: May 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Heather: ... doing things like wearing makeup and dresses and such feels like drag for me... times I was pushed to be high-femme -- by family, by culture -- always really bothered me and felt very suffocating, and if I'd gotten the message that it could simply BE drag, be a costume, be like performance and having fun, rather than having to be something that felt or was presumed to be authentic, I would have felt a lot more positive about it.
My sentiments exactly.
Posts: 170 | From: UK | Registered: Mar 2011
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I personally, like exploring the world of drag kinging...I don't know what my friends think of it though. Most of them would freak out about it most likely...
-------------------- eh. Posts: 44 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2011
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I'm a little uncomfortable around drag, and I've been trying to figure out why. I feel like there's a difference between drag and cross-dressing. I cross-dress quite often, and I don't like it when people describe it as a drag (or worse, assume I'm doing a Rocky Horror reference. I never got that).
I think drag/cross-dressing are awesome and hot and so on, but a few times I've been invited to things described as "drag shows", and I haven't gone - I really don't want to. I feel like seeing something I do IRL put up on stage, as constituting entertainment, is very othering, and I don't know if it's my own internal issue, but I feel like the word "drag" (and, for that matter, the word "cross-dressing") reinforces traditional gender expectations.
I don't know, am I crazy? The Rocky Horror thing is a good example - it really annoys me if someone brings it up (I try not to vent that at people, but still). No, I'm not doing Rocky Horror - for that matter, I'm not doing drag, or cross-dressing. It's not about dressing in opposition to something more normal, it's about wearing what I want to for a night.
-------------------- “In a strange room, before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are filled with sleep you never were. I don’t know what I am. I don’t know if I am or not... how often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home.” Posts: 1269 | From: London, UK | Registered: Jun 2006
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I absolutely love drag, but some of my friends have a problem with is because it seems in reinforce gender binaries (which is following what some have posted here, as well). The way that I see drag, more so with Drag Queens, is that it's solely for entertainment. Some Queens dress so extravagantly (big feather boas, 6-inch platform shoes), that many people understand that it is solely for entertainment. With Kings (and I absolutely love Drag Kings), I think it can be a way for people to express an idea of masculinity that they may not feel comfortable showing in "real" life.
The biggest thing about Drag that I love is the confidence that the Queens and Kings have. I'm dating a girl that's performed as a King, and there's such a huge difference with how comfortable she is up on a stage in front of a ton of people in Drag, or dressed in her everyday clothes. I know some people that can spend hours in Drag and seem like the most confident people I've ever met, but once they get out of costume they're very shy.
I do wish that people wouldn't mistake crossdressing for Drag. They are different things.
-------------------- "Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!" Posts: 6 | From: Rochester, NY | Registered: Feb 2009
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