Deconstructing Drag: Gender performance and the art of masculinity

Charmaine de Silva, The Peak (Simon Fraser University)

   

BURNABY, BC (CUP)—When most
people hear the word “drag,” certain
images come to mind: men in sequined
dresses and stilettos, with painted-on eye-
brows and stuffed bras, their bodies
tucked and taped into an image of hyper-
bolic femininity (RuPaul, for example, or
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert). 'The reality of
drag, however, is much more complex.
People of different genders and sexuali-
ties are using drag performances to
express diverse identities and politics.

Drag kings are particularly misunder-
stood. Drag kings are usually thought of
quite simplistically as women “dressed
up” as men, but in fact, the term encom-
passes anyone who performs masculinity,
regardless of their gender or sexuality.

During travels through
Vancouver’s drag scene, we encountered
many diverse drag kings, some who iden-
tified as lesbian women, others as straight
men, transgendered, or gender-neutral.
All of these performers use drag to
express their own notions of masculini-
ty—be they personal, artistic, or political.

In Vancouver, the drag-king scene is
an important part of the gay and lesbian
communities. At most special events,
fundraisers, and big parties in these com-
munities, you can count on seeing a drag
performance. Different troupes have
formed over the past few years, such as
the Kings of Vancouver (now disbanded),
DKV (Drag Kings Vancouver), and 3 $
Bill. Drag kings inspire a committed fol-
lowing of fans who regularly attend
shows at Vancouver's lesbian and gay bars
to see their favourite performers.

Buttah and Kyle are two of the best-
known performers in Vancouver’s drag
scene. They are best friends and perform
together often. They both challenge

our

20 | www.theotherpress.ca

assumptions of what drag is, because
both are transgendered and identify as
men. Although the two shate many simi-
larities (and are almost inseparable), drag
has affected their lives in markedly differ-
ent ways.

Ethan—Buttah is his drag persona—a
Burnaby, BC, native, first tried drag a year
and a half ago during an impromptu per-
formance at a queer conference in
Kamloops. He recalls, “Devin came up to
me and said, ‘So, you’re performing,
right?” Hesitant at first, Ethan tried drag
and loved it. This was a life-changing
moment, because at that time, he had not
begun his transition, and it was through
trying on male personas in his drag per-
formances that Ethan’s identity as male
formed.

Kyle, Ethan’s best friend and frequent
artistic collaborator, is originally from
Hope. He moved to BC’s Lower Mainland
a couple of years ago and began perform-
ing shortly after Ethan. Unlike Ethan,
Kyle already identified as a man before
discovering and performing drag. For
Kyle, drag was a way to affirm and cele-
brate his identity, performing masculinity
in front of an appreciative and supportive
(even adoring) audience.

Watching Kyle and Buttah perform, a
first-time audience member may be sur-
prised at how impeccable their
performances of maleness are. During
one performance, when Kyle performed
as a woman (Alicia Keyes, in her duet with
Usher), he simply looked like a guy pranc-
ing awkwardly around the stage in his
girlfriend’s high heels.

Both Ethan and Kyle are in the midst
of the medical transition process,
although Kyle is a little bit “older” (ahead
in the process) than Ethan. As perform-
ers, Kyle and Buttah enrich and broaden
what drag means, because not only are
they two straight-male performers, they
are two immensely popular and successful
straight-male performers. Their populari-
ty and success challenges the notion that
drag kings can only be female-identified
people in typically female bodies, “dress-
ing-up” like men for fun and
entertainment.

The drag artist who first urged Buttah
to perform, and who he lists as an impor-
tant inspiration, was Devin, also a
well-known local drag king, although one
who is not currently performing. Devin
was one of the original Kings of
Vancouver and invited Buttah to join the
troupe. Though Kings of Vancouver has
since disbanded, Devin continues to influ-
ence Vancouver’s drag kings. Devin
identifies as neither male nor female, and

hence uses third-person plural pronouns
[they, them, their] to refer to themselves.
Devin was unavailable for interview but
recently ran a workshop on drag at this
yeat’s Rock for Choice, where they shared
many views and ideas about drag with us.

For Devin, drag is a chance to explore
gender critically. Devin performs both
masculinity and femininity, and uses per-
formances to break down gender
constructs of all types. Particularly
inspired by last year’s International Drag
King Extravaganza held in Chicago,
where they witnessed a massive array of
diverse gender performances that went
beyond simple cross-dressing, Devin rec-
ognizes and emphasizes the power that
entertainers and performers have to edu-
cate audiences and spread awareness.
Devin comments, “It’s got to be about
more than being hot and how hot that is!”

Devin is highly critical of the type of
drag that performs and reproduces
oppressive masculine stereotypes. A
recent book, The Art of Drag Kinging by
Dante DiFranco, displays this tendency
explicitly. A section of the book on creat-
ing a drag character lists options like
“Pimp,” “Redtieck,” ~ -and -\ “Stud,”
Unfortunately, Devin sees sexist perform-
ance techniques happening all too
frequently in the local scene, things like
using a woman as a prop on stage, or per-
forming sexist or racist lyrics without a
consciously critical approach.

One of the reasons Devin stopped
performing was a sense that there were
too few other drag kings interested in the
kind of drag they wanted to do. They felt
quite alone in their expressly political and
critical form of drag artistry.

We saw a wide variety of drag per-
formances, mostly held at Vancouvet’s
handful of lesbian venues, including Lick
and Club 23. Some were funny; others
were sexy, angry, dramatic, or cute. Some
were explicitly political in their message,
while others were entertaining or just
plain hot, and all underscored one of the
most interesting aspects of drag king-
ing—its inherent differences from drag
queening and the unique perspective on
gender that it holds.

A drag king is sometimes described as,
“like a drag queen, but in reverse.” Yet,
this explanation falls vastly short of cap-
turing what masculine
gender-performances are really like, and
how different they are from feminine gen-
der-performances.

Performances of femininity are all
about adding on—breasts, makeup, spark-
ly boas, frills, and flounces. Even the
mannerisms ate about playing up the

body’s motions, swaying the hips more,
tossing hair, and batting eyelashes. In a
society where masculinity is normative
and femininity is the “other,” stereotypes
of femininity lend themselves to extrava-
gant performance.

Masculine stereotypes, however, are
somewhat different. Of course, drag
kings do add on some bits and pieces—
usually facial hair and some kind of
penis-like bulge—but performing mas-
culinity is a great deal trickier. It is easy to
see why drag kings might resort to sexist
stereotypes—without aggression, domi-
nance, or machismo, what signifiers can a
performer use to communicate masculin-
ity to the audience? A person who puts on
a skirt or makeup sends an obvious signal
that he or she is dressed femininely, but a
person in pants and no makeup could be
dressed as any gendet.

While an audience member would be
unlikely to mistake a typical Vegas-style
drag queen for a “normal” woman, some
of the most polished (and well-received)
drag-king performances we saw could
easily be mistaken for normal men lip-
synching and dancing. Of course, this
becomes more complicated with critical
performances like Devin’s, where per-
formers explicitly deconstruct
masculinity. Nevertheless, this odd situa-
tion of performing what is usually seen as
straightforwardly “normal” gives a unique
role and perspective to drag kinging.

Because the drag king community is so
open to gender diversity—welcoming
self-identified women, men, and trans
people as its own—it deconstructs
notions of who can and cannot be male,
and in what ways. Even when not explic-
itly political, each performance makes its
own small statement of what masculinity
is. Because masculinity, unlike femininity,
is privileged in our society, the act of per-
forming as a drag king is one of taking
back power. While it would certainly be
great to see more drag queens performing
femininity in a questioning, critical man-
ner, this act of reclaiming gender power is
especially embodied in the performances
of drag kings. When we can open the bor-
ders of who gets to be masculine or male,
it becomes possible to weaken gender
hierarchies and break down oppressive
social norms.

Politics aside, drag-king shows are fab-
ulous and fun. It is amazing and inspiring
to see gender and sexual diversity cele-
brated openly and warmly, with humour
and sexiness. The very best performances
entertain you, thrill you, and leave you
with something to chew on.

March 23/2005