Faux Queens
Cue:
With RuPaul’s popular reality competition show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ playing a huge part in bringing Drag Queens further into the mainstream consciousness are boundaries beginning to be broken as more and more females are getting involved in the culture? Samantha Friend met with a drag queen to find out why it is so hard for a female to be accepted into the culture of drag…
IN WORDS: “So what’s the plan for tonight?…
OUT WORDS: … getting together to help one another make it big”
DUR: 9’24
Drag has been round for years, it could be said that it even began way back in Shakespearian times when women weren’t allowed to perform therefore men would play the roles of both genders. But I wanted to know why now it is still seen as an art that only men take part in, as in today’s society you can be pretty much anything you want to be. I did some research and realised that there is a lot of discussion online about females getting involved in the community, many people disagree with females being accepted and that they think it is a big game whereas for some it is a respected art or even a passion that also pays.
I noticed RuPaul was really against allowing females onto his show as he felt that they belong to a beauty pageant, because they are simply creating no illusion but dressing as a more extravagant version of themselves.
I wanted to find out why there is such a stigma around females playing a part within the art and was interested to see what reactions they face from the public when they leave the safety of their home dressed up as something extraordinary. So I met with a female drag queen to see if I could find answers to these questions and followed her on a night out to get a real feel of the drag experience.