Drag queen terminology question
A friend and I were talking about drag queens yesterday, and I said I've never enjoyed the kind who are on "RuPaul's Drag Race": the ones who wear so much over-the-top make-up they look like they're Kabuki performers, and who wear outrageous costumes with lots of glitter and sequins, and who behave cuntily and outrageously and harass people in clubs.
But my friend pointed out (and I agreed) that I enormously love drag queens like Charles Busch and Clinton "Miss Coco Peru" Leupp and Justin "Kiki Durane" Bond (from "Kiki and Herb"), who are all trying to play recognizable (if exaggerated) versions of real women, and who are not trying to get attention by being simply flashy and obnoxious, but who are genuinely funny and often charmingly self-deprecating in their acts. (Coco Peru does wear heavy makeup and has that outrageous wig, but she doesn't wear glitter or sequins, and she doesn't often act like a cunt to other people.) Does this latter kind of performer have a name to differentiate them from the other kinds of drag queens?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | October 16, 2020 7:52 PM
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Drag Race is a competition show, which incentivises outdoing the other contestants.
Drag is a wide and varied artform.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | October 16, 2020 6:37 PM
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OK, r1: but is there indeed a term for the two different kinds of drag queens I've outlined? That's my question.
I would be hard pressed to call Charles Busch or Drew Droege "drag queens," even though they are most memorable as performers when they are dressed as women. (Drew Droege does the hilarious Chloe Sevigny videos)
by Anonymous | reply 2 | October 16, 2020 6:40 PM
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I love bad, silly drag way more than "formal" drag.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | October 16, 2020 6:43 PM
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I think of queens who entertain live vs. lip-syncing and twirling and being fishy as "female impersonators."
by Anonymous | reply 4 | October 16, 2020 6:44 PM
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I like Lady Bunny better than all of em.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | October 16, 2020 6:45 PM
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Paul O'Grady aka Lily Savage had this to say about RuPaul's Drag Race
[quote]No, I can’t bear it. No really I can’t. That’s not drag! It’s all about shading and contouring your face now and being like supermodels. In my day we had the likes of Phil Starr, who was a glorious comedian… we had Marc Fleming, Auntie Flo, Mrs Shufflewick. We had great comedians in drag. This new brigade who just parade around going, sashay, shantay – that’s not drag to me. Drag is doing an act. That’s dressing up. That [Drag Race] is transvestism. Drag is an act, where you get up, you do your act, you get changed and you go home – you don’t parade round the streets doing all this business. I’ve no interest in it whatsoever, none at all.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | October 16, 2020 6:59 PM
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But straight women contour now.
Which forces drag queens to up their ante.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | October 16, 2020 7:02 PM
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I agree...I've always considered the type Lily Savage describes as "camp"--the comedy type, like Bunny, Bianca and Bob. Then you have the "pageant" which are the "look at me I am a beautiful woman" type (where performers get cosmetic surgeries, implants, etc. Instagram has created the "costume" types (Kim Chi, etc) who are more of the photo variety (filters, lighting, etc).
I always preferred camp.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | October 16, 2020 7:08 PM
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[quote] Then you have the "pageant" which are the "look at me I am a beautiful woman" type (where performers get cosmetic surgeries, implants, etc. Instagram has created the "costume" types (Kim Chi, etc) who are more of the photo variety (filters, lighting, etc).
Women do all those things now.
So drag queens have to.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | October 16, 2020 7:13 PM
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This feels like a stealth homophobic anti-drag thread.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | October 16, 2020 7:14 PM
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r10 feels like a woke witch-hunting asshole.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | October 16, 2020 7:37 PM
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[R10] is the Misogyny troll who hates women, thinks he's the most oppressed man in the history of history, calls women cunts, dykes, fish, gashes etc, and thinks women should give up their single sex spaces for gay men and trans women to share them but is repulsed by transgender men.
Is that a fair resume Troll?
by Anonymous | reply 12 | October 16, 2020 7:40 PM
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Not everyone in drag can be a Queen, hunty! Can I get an “Amen?”
by Anonymous | reply 13 | October 16, 2020 7:45 PM
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r6, Paul O'Grady made a grave error by omitting Flip Wilson's Geraldine. And what about the legions of Brits on the BBC shows?
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 14 | October 16, 2020 7:45 PM
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[quote] you don’t parade round the streets doing all this business. I’ve no interest in it whatsoever, none at all.
Every street needs a drag queen parading on it 24/7.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | October 16, 2020 7:52 PM
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