Drag Queens

What is the actual meaning of “drag queen”? Is it a fetish, an expression of personal identification or merely art? Read it in the article.

 

Drag queen is actually the term for artists. (jlp)

 

Have you ever dressed in female clothes? Have you ever wanted to do it just for fun? Do you find the mere thought of it strange and you consider such people as “eccentric” artists, transvestites and gays?

Whatever your response was, let us look at several interesting and accurate facts that demystify the term and definitely break taboos!

What is the meaning of the term “drag queen”?

The term drag queen is derived from English slang popular in the early part of the 20th century in gay communities and it applies to a man who dresses in a female gender role. Generally, drag queens are artists who do drag for comic, dramatic or satirical effect, while some men just try it once (e.g. at masquerades). Does this make them gays and transvestites? Do they depersonalize women? Definitely not! American drag queen RuPaul said in defense of the feminist thesis about female impersonation: “I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven-inch heels, four-foot wigs, and skin-tight dresses? I don’t dress like a woman; I dress like a drag queen!”

 
There is a fine line between drag queens and transvestites. (jlp)

Drag vs. transvestism

Most drag queens perform for personal fulfillment – as a hobby or a profession, or an art form. They want to be in the spotlight, or achieve local or international fame. It is, however, true that there is a fine line between heterosexual, artistic drag queens and those who do it for the purpose of expressing their real identity and cross-dressing represents a fetish to them or a perfect sexual stimulant.

 
Drag queens are artists who do drag for comic, dramatic or satirical effect. (jlp)

Which names are used most often?

There are three types of drag names;

 - satirical names that play on words; Miss Understood, Holly Woodlawn, Peaches Christ, Lypsinka and Candis Cayne;

 - glamour and extravagance; Dame Edna Everage, Chi Chi LaRue, Margo Howard-Howard, Betty “Legs” Diamond and The Lady Chablis. The latter name is used by the character Albin in the movie La Cage Aux Folles for his drag queen “Miss ZaZa Napoli”.

 - names with an in-depth back-story, cultural or geographical significance, or simply a feminine form of the “boy” name; Verka Serduchka, Miss Coco Peru, Shequida, Rikki Reeves and Divine.

For some people, cross-dressing can therefore be a fetish, an expression of personal identification or merely art. One the one hand we applaud drag queens and on the other they make us laugh. On the one hand, through them – women, we accept the critiques of men in a positive way and on the other drag queens are faced with disagreement expressed by lesbians, gays, bisexuals and feminists about depersonalization and stereotypes that they achieve by cross-dressing. Whatever side you are on, remember, whether it is art or something more personal, the world is big enough for everybody!

 

 

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