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
Contents:
‘FALLY! A SPORT FOR GAY PEOPLE!’: HOW DRAG WENT MASTREAM
* drag queens gay culture *
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.
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 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.