Draggg It Out: 101

 What is drag? Drag is considered the conventional apparel of the opposite sex. A drag performer is typically defined as an individual who dresses recognizably in the clothes of the opposite sex and theatrically performs as that sex[i]. Several scholars and performers have since made distinctions between male/female impersonators and drag kings/queens[ii] The distinctions between drag kings and queens will be covered more thoroughly later. Much scholarship on drag has been devoted to discerning whether drag reinforces or undermines dominant, heteronormative gender roles and sexuality[iii]. Historically, much drag culture—drag shows, drag court, etc.—has been cultivated and limited to the gay bar scene. In Mother Camp, Newton maintains that drag is not imitation of the gender-conforming, heterosexual “original.” Instead, drag enacts the system of impersonation that bolsters any gender[iv]. Similarly, Judith Butler asserts that there is no “proper” or natural gender belonging to one sex; rather, gender is a continuum of imitations without an original. Drag is a prime example of this mimesis. Drag illustrates the myriad ways of appropriating, performing, and doing genders[v].




[i] Judith Halberstam, Female Masculinity (Durham: Duke UP, 1998), 232.


[ii] Ibid., 232; Verta Taylor and Leila J. Rupp, “Chicks with Dicks, Men in Dresses: What It Means to Be a Drag Queen,” The Drag Queen Anthology: the Absolutely Fabulous but Flawless Customary World of Female Impersonators, eds. Steven P. Schacht and Lisa Underwood (New York: Harrington Park Press, 2004), 115.


[iii] Taylor and Rupp, 115.


[iv] Newton, xv


[v] Judith Butler, “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” Queer Cultures, eds. Deborah Carlin and Jennifer DiGrazia (Pearson/Prentice Hall Publishers, 2004), 360-361.