Running head: FIERCE IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

Fierce is She: The Reality of a Drag Queen

Rachel Pulver

Arizona State University Downtown Campus

FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

Abstract

The following composition is an example of an ethnography that is based on primary and

secondary sources. The continence is devoted on informing the reader of the drag queen

community, which is a sub community of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Plus

(LGBTQ+) culture. The primary research that is being used as the primary resource was

collected from first-hand interviews, several drag performances and the Rainbow Festival, a gay

pride event. The secondary resources were taken from popular and scholarly fields that are

directly connected to the drag queen community. An investigation was also conducted on the

LGBTQ+ culture in order to more fully understand the drag community. The overlying purpose

of this ethnography is to reveal the man facets of the drag queen community to replace the myths

about the drag queens with reality by exploring the life of a drag queens, dispelling stereotypes

and explaining the art of drag shows.

Keywords​: LGBTQ+, drag queen, stereotypes

FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

Fierce is She: The Reality of a Drag Queen

She may snatch your wig off, making you do a double take when you see her in the midst

of her art form. What is a drag queen? I’m glad you asked, due to popular belief people

automatically tend to turn to what they can visually observe about drag queens. At first glance it

is a biological man dressing in clothing that is associated with the opposite sex. The drag queen

has fully transformed herself fooling the eye and challenging human logic. Drag and drag queens

have an amorphous spectrum that surpasses superficial reality. Sadly, drag queens have been

stereotyped and wrongly labeled, frankly, in part of misjudgment and a way to compensate for a

lack of knowledge about this particular community of individuals. For example, drag queens

have been stereotyped as the underbelly of the LGBTQ+ community leading one to believe that

they are poorly educated, homeless, or associated among negative connotations. In addition,

queens can be seen as cold, bitchy, idyll, strippers, whores, or even as freaks of nature. Similarly,

the art of drag has been classified as a joke or gag. Stripping away its authentic art expression

that gives an individual a creative outlet. The following primary resources were comprised of

interviews with drag queens, observations at a gay pride event including a drag show. The

inquiry was successfully facilitated through the drag queen interviews and attending the gay

pride festival to further the purpose. I hope to inform and dispel any myths replacing the false

with reality.

In order to properly conduct primary research on the drag queen community I attended

the Rainbow Festival ,which is a gay pride event, hosted at Heritage Square located in Phoenix.

The Rainbow Festival is the second largest gay pride event in Arizona. The festival was free

admissions, so anyone can attend and join in on the celebratory atmosphere. Live music was
FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

being performed and could be heard from the furthest points of the festival. As I ventured, I saw

a myriad of colorful booths lined up against both sides of the walkway hosted by a variety of

corporations and organizations.. Among these stands was: State Farm, Red Bull, Neson, Cox,

Volkswagen, Arizona Federal, CVS Pharmacy, local insurance brokers, fertility clinics and

outreach organizations.

One interesting aspect of the Rainbow Festival was the distribution of condoms. IGNITE

Your Status an outreach program was handing out an assortment of free condoms to whomever

wanted them. I was walking pass the stands when a volunteer from IGNITE Your Status was in

the crowd was encouraging people to come and take condoms. He asked me if I wanted a bag to

carry the condoms in and told me to take as much as I wanted. The assortment of condoms were

finite in number and design. One could find different sizes, glow in the dark, studded, colored

and even condoms for the opposite sex. The presence of condoms normally insinuates the action

of sex, but I knew there had to be a more profound message surrounding the push of condoms.

I had the opportunity to sit down with A.J., the director of IGNITE Your Status. During the

interview A.J. said:“Our mission is to go around and be open with people and get them to be

comfortable about safe sex. Talking about prevention whether that be condoms, PREP which is a

pill you take once a day to help prevent HIV or meeting them wherever they are at […] we want

to encourage them to take ownership and control over their health and well-being and making

sure they are taking the precautions to keep themselves negative or undetectable.” The condoms

being handed out for free were to benefit the health and well-being of each individual at the

Rainbow Festival. Showed how caring the LGBTQ+ culture is no matter who you are..
FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

The Rainbow Festival was cultivated to rejoice in the differences that unite us as a

whole. Walking through the crowd of strangers, I noticed that the population was comprised of

no single demographic. The festival was a melting pot of characters stretching in age and

ethnicity. It stands to point out that there was just as many elderly folks as there was anyone else.

This was a noted observation due to the fact that the older generation typically leans toward the

acceptance of heterosexuality. No single person was the same. Being unorthodoxly yourself was

embraced beyond measure and nowhere close to being shameful. There was a kind of energizing

vibrancy that was felt. While sitting in the audience of the drag show the host, Carnita Asada a

drag queen herself said: “Here at the Rainbow Festival, it’s really nice to come to a place where

you can be yourself and be celebrated for our differences, but more importantly to look around

and consider everyone family.” The festival is a warrior’s cry meant to empower and strengthen

those that need love and compassion.

To further illustrate the planes and dimensions that create the drag queen community I

interviewed several drag queens ranging from novice to guru. During my interviews, I was able

to strip down the barriers that naturally are formed between two strangers, in fact, all of the drag

queens aided in the authentic interviewing process. I thought I was going to be met with

judgement and scorn, but every queen came in with a genuine, open disposition to the inquiry.

For this section I will be referring to the drag queens in the feminine pronoun and only using

their drag names.

The first queen interviewed was G.G. Good through the means of a phone conversation.

G.G. lives in Los Angeles, California. When she made the move she dropped out of college to

further pursue her passion of drag and recently quit her job and is now doing drag full time. One
FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

of the first questions I asked G.G. Good was to tell me about her drag story she began by saying,

“The first time I ever put myself in drag I was 13[…] I remember seeing RuPaul and realizing

his existence and being like oh my gosh, I’ve been putting makeup on myself for so long. I didn’t

even realize transforming myself from head to toe was even an option. I did that for a couple

years at midnight in my bedroom on a school night, because I could not tell my parents.” She

furthered her story by telling me that her first drag performance was in secret when she was 15.

One aspect of a drag queen’s life that was investigate was how the decision of drag

affected the party’s family. I asked G.G. how her drag has changed her and her relationships she

replied by saying, “I think without drag I wouldn’t have been able to express who I am and being

able to do that with my family, it has brought everyone together, because it has forced everyone

to open up their minds a little and understand one another not just with me. It’s made every

member of my family sensitive to one another.” G.G. continued her story by saying her mom is

her biggest supporter; she is her seamstress and costumer. G.G.’s two older brothers are her

biggest fans. In G.G.’s own words, “It’s nothing, but support now.” But with every story there is

an opposing side. Her father is not as supportive as the rest of her family. I asked her if she was

afraid at the beginning to tell her parents about her doing drag due to their reaction that would

have accompanied the situation. She responded with a yes and further explained that her father is

a professor at a Christian University and if anyone found out to this day that her father had a gay

son who did drag, he would get fired. She went on by relaying her relationship with her father

related to drag by saying, “It’s gotten to the point if I still lived at home, where I could get in

drag in my bedroom and then come down stairs, and leave the house and he would be able to

look at me, and that is kind of all I could ask for, I guess. Two years ago, my mom had to warn
FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

him that I was coming down the stairs. He would have to get out of the room and wait until I had

left before he could come back and now, I have a conversation with him in drag and that is a big,

big step for him.” Hearing her talk about her story I found G.G. to be a true dream catcher:

keeping a strong head about her path in drag but also in her true identity revealed the fire that

drag queens possess.

The next inquiries took place at the Rainbow Festival. The first queen interviewed was

Dr. Sheila. She was not dressed up in drag but the first thing noticed was her blueish-pink hair

along with her knee-high boots she was rocking. Dr. Sheila began her story by saying she was

born in India and grew up there until she moved to America when she was 20 to further her

education. She moved to Mississippi to gain her PhD. Dr. Sheila is in the biomedical field and

helps to conduct research on chemotherapy. I asked her about her family. She told me she had

not told her family back in India that she is gay or even that she does drag. I asked her why and

she responded by telling me India is a very conservative place and she knows that when she does

it will not go smoothly. She expressed to me that since moving to Phoenix she has found herself

surrounded by a multitude of individuals who have supported her in her journey.

The next queen was Takenya Breathaway. During our conversation, she told me that she

just recently did her first drag show. She said it took her three hours to do her makeup, but it was

worth it. Takenya also told me that people from her work came to support her. I found this to be

an interesting observation on how others responded to Takenya’s choice to participate in drag.

Takenya explained her first drag experience as, “I could be what I wanted, and no one could

judge me.” She repeatedly used the words freeing, liberating, and therapeutic to describe her
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drag experience. Takenya pointed out that she was glad she tried out drag, because it was an

experience she needed to have, but she probably won’t continue.

Alexus Montoya was the next queen who shared the message of love. She told me that all the

revenue collected from her drag shows go directly to charity. While talking to her it was evident

that her craft was a devoted form of community service. She told me that she actively helps to

raise scholarship money for the LGBTQ+ community. Alexus has raises around 35 to 45

thousand dollars in scholarship money.

The last interview I had was with two Queens by the name of Rosie Bush and Carnita

Asada. These two queens bounced off of each other’s personalities and made the atmosphere

around them light and fun. Rosie Bush was a poised lady in lace, while Carnita Asada was a

funky fresh queen in neon. Carnita did not exhibit the normal connotations of a drag queen’s

appearance. Both of these queens work closely with charitable organizations. Rosie Bush is a

spokeswoman for Fierce Friends of Phoenix which provides safe spaces and meetings for gay,

straight, bisexual, pansexual, transgender individuals. Carnita Asada is involved with Ripple

PHX which is a nonprofit organization devoted to HIV education and prevention. She is also part

of the Queer Agenda and is on several Phoenix Pride committees.

One question that I asked both of these queens was to identify three main beliefs that their

community represents. Carnita started off by saying, “We are resilient, we are strong, but more

importantly we are courageous.” Rosie Bush said, “Creative, resilient, and I’m going to use a

word from the Simpson’s Family, ​embiggening​.” Both responses showed the depth contained in

the Drag Queen community as well as the LGBTQ+ culture.

FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

The topic of stereotypes in the drag community was touched on with several of the

queens. G.G. responded to this question by dispelling the myth that,“Drag Queens are not

strippers or whores. They’re not trying to dance on a pole to an extent. Some drag queens that’s

their thing […] The masses need to realize that is not what drag specifically is like.” To expound

Carnita stated, “Ever since I came out as a little queer child, I always tried to break barriers and

stereotypes, because I think even though society wants to put us in an ​LGBTQIAcategoryi​ t’s still

a label and still a category I don’t agree with.” Carnita went on to say, in the drag community she

has fought an uphill battle to get rid of labels among the drag queens. She noted how the

community is growing beyond what it was in the past. She said you don’t have to wear makeup,

lashes, hip pads, nails, and tights to be considered drag. She has been told that her drag is not

right and does not constitute as drag. She has gone out of her way to dispel the notion that you

have to be a female illusionist and that’s it, to be seen as drag, because that is not the case.

Rosie Bush responded by sharing her thoughts when she first was starting out in drag,

“When I came into it, I was expecting some really catty, bitchy, horrible at least a couple people

like that. I encountered a bunch of very creative, warm, wonderful people who want to help

you…It’s not about knocking you down and taking you out, because I’m better than you. And

that’s been surprising and refreshing and really overturned my thoughts about Drag Queens in

general. Most of them are just art nerds-the theater kids.” Stereotypes in this community is

common among the masses, because not many people fully comprehend what makes a drag

queen.

A drag show is what ignites the sparks in a queen. Drag shows are an iconic staple in a

drag queen’s life. Not many people know that drag dates back centuries through history,
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Paraphrased from the book ​Drag Diaries,​ The thread of drag can be found in Native American,

Aztec and Egyptian rituals in the form of cross dressing. It can even be linked to Kabuki

,Japanese theater, where men would act as women by adorning themselves with painted masks

and disguising their voices. Drag can even be found in the performance of Shakespeare’s plays.

Today you can find examples of drag in movies: ​Psycho, Hair Spray ​and ​Paris is Burning

(Chermayeff,David,& Richardson 1995). The Rainbow Festival hosted several drag

performances. From observation during the drag show, the queen’s personal aesthetics was found

to be a form of art: her clothing, music, dance and lip syncing. She is the hand and her drag is the

clay. Her drag persona is capable of taking a single moment in the audience’s life and sculpting

it. This is further explained in the article ​Sashay Through the History of Drag Queen Culture​, “A

drag queen challenges you to laugh with her, and laugh at her. That’s what makes her so alluring

and captivating” (​Roschike, 2018). ​There is a science behind the art of drag and it was evident in

these drag shows.

Takenya Breathaway explained drag shows as,​“You put all of this emotional stuff in one

moment [...] it was liberating.” Drag goes deeper than what the eye of the beholder can see. It is

a way to creatively express yourself beyond the spoken word. In addition, the art of being a drag

queen is more work and emotional effort than what is realized by stereotypes that are wrongfully

attached to the name of drag. Queens are fierce and bold individuals who carry the message of

self-love. One can make drag into whatever they want. There are no rules.

Drag queens challenge the human logic of gender and stretch what is capable. They

exhibit a whimsical reality that they have made for themselves. Queens are not this unobtainable

figure. They are like you and me underneath it all, but when whey summon upon their drag they
FIER IS SHE: THE REALITY OF A DRAG QUEEN

are beyond stereotypes. “In the 21​st​century, a drag queen is not just a man who wears women’s

clothes; a drag queen is an entirely separate entity” (​Roschike, 2018). Stereotypes that are made

about drag queens are truly error and do not fully comprehend the realism of the drag world.
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References

Chermayeff, C., & David, J., & Richardson N. (1995) ​Drag Diaries.​ San Francisco, California:

Chronicle Books.

Roschike, R. (2018).Sashay Through the History of Drag Queen Culture. ​Sugarpop​, Retrieved

from ​https://www.popsugar.com/news/History-Drag-Drag-Queen-Culture-44512387

Von, B. (2013).​10 Myths About Drag Queens. ​Huffpost,​ Retrieved from

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-bartolomei/10-myths-about-drag-queens_b
_2979249.html