Members of GW’s chapter of Delta Lambda Phi social aterny and a faculty expert discs the history of drag and s tersectn wh gay liberatn.
Contents:
DRAG AND GAY CULTURE UNR SIEGE
While watchg a screeng of Paris is Burng hosted by the Smhsonian Lato Center, I was entranced by the dazzlg participants as they peted, fiercely owng the floor their glamoro gowns. Twenty-five years ago, this famo cult documentary ptured the liv and culture of Ain Amerin, Lato, gay, and transgenr muni volved New York Cy drag * drag gay culture *
And sce the 20th century, 's an activy that's bee closely associated wh gay culture. The mon misnceptn about drag is that only cis gay men do , Walsh said.
Drag queens, otherwise known as “female impersonators, " are most typilly gay cisgenr men (though there are many drag queens of varyg sexual orientatns and genr inti) who perform and enterta on stage nightclubs and bars. Although ’s unclear exactly why, drag kgs are ls mon gay muni, and are also ls visible popular culture and rearch on drag. That started to change the late 1960s and ’70s durg the sexual revolutn, when drag beme more proment wh gay male muni, and eventually, thanks part to RuPl, a part of popular culture.
While watchg a screeng of Paris is Burng hosted by the Smhsonian Lato Center, I was entranced by the dazzlg participants as they peted, fiercely owng the floor their glamoro gowns. Twenty-five years ago, this famo cult documentary ptured the liv and culture of Ain Amerin, Lato, gay, and transgenr muni volved New York Cy drag * drag gay culture *
Moncrieff & Lienard relay that the gay muni which drag was born serve as a backdrop due to their exclive and protected nature that was once necsary for the survival of the muni. In the study, Moncrieff & Lienard surveyed 133 gay men along wh a ntrol group of heterosexual men and women, about their perceptns of drag queens.
It is thought that this part due to the donng of overtly feme attire and stereotypil behavrs which are seen as ls sirable tras among gay men. They also risk beg discrimated agast not only public, but also wh the gay muny. The ma takeaway om the study is the hypothis that drag performers are motivated, spe the many sts, by how signalg, or performg wh the gay muny, promot “upward mobily” and stat wh a small, protected muny.
The history of drag queens as an art form dat back to theater and earlier, even before was associated wh the gay muny. * drag gay culture *
The rearch fdgs scribed here shed some light on potential motivatg factors of those who perform drag, at least through the ey of some the gay muny. ”By the 1920s, the term “drag” was beg ed by gay people.
* drag gay culture *
One theory is that entered the muny om Polari, a secret language born out of the crimalizatn of homosexualy England that drew on theatre 1927, “drag” was clearly lked wh the LGBTQ+ muny.
Rosanoff’s 1927 Manual of Psychiatry fed drag as “an outf of female drs worn by a homosexual” or as an actual event, “a social gatherg of homosexuals at which some are female drs.
)In the 1950s, drag queens began performg bars and spac that specifilly tered to gay people, like the Black Cat San, as more gay bars began to pop up, drag solidified self as a gay art form — not jt straight men impersonatg women for the sake of rise of masculy 1970s gay culture dimished the populary of drag queens, but drag found s way to pop culture. The public started to bee aware of the difference between beg trans, gay, and dog 2000s ma way for the fn of “drag” to broan om rigidly beg about “realns” to a more expansive art form for gay men, trans folks, queer women, and 2009, the show RuPl’s Drag Race premiered on Logo TV, a realy petn pursu of “Ameri’s next drag superstar. To many, the stereotypil image of a drag queen is one of a gay man drsed exaggerated feme getup, oversized wigs and heavy makp.