What Is a Drag Queen? A Gender-Bending Performance

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade (and, honestly, even if you have), chances are you’ve seen a drag queen.

Whether in real life, on TV, scrolling on your phone, or in some godforsaken legislation attempting to ban them — drag queens are everywhere these days. But before there was RuPaul’s Drag Race and the seemingly endless international iterations of the show, drag queens ruled the underground. 

Beyond their show-stopping drag performances, bold and outspoken queens have long been purveyors of queer culture and activists at the forefront of gay rights and racial justice movements. They have always been fierce and fabulous, but only recently have they been free to soak up the mainstream spotlight.

Ready to dive deeper, diva? Let’s explore the history of drag queens and how drag has evolved over the years.

What is drag?

For fans of Gia Gunn and William Shakespeare alike (we’re betting the overlap is huge), you may have heard that “DRAG” is actually an acronym originating in the theater that stands for “dressing up as girls” or “dressed resembling a girl.” That logic feels about as tight as our backsides after a big hit of poppers, but the general idea is there.

Drag is the art of dressing up and performing an exaggerated expression of gender — either your own or (more often than not) another gender. RuPaul, the current queen of drag, once said, “We’re all born naked, and the rest is drag,” and that’s true! But not everyone suits up in a lace front wig and hip pads.

What is a drag queen?

Drag queens are drag artists who perform a caricature of femininity. For a long time, when most people thought of a drag queen, they envisioned a cisgender man acting as a female impersonator, dressing up to mimic a famous gay icon like Cher, Liza Minnelli, or Whitney Houston. Although that style of drag is still incredibly popular, drag performers as we know them today do so much more.

There are look queens and fashion queens on the pages of Vogue magazine and walking the runway for brands like Marc Jacobs, Prada, and Moschino. There are pageant queens, like Sasha Colby, who’ve crossed into the mainstream and won Drag Race. You even have drag queens to thank for many modern makeup techniques (the Kardashians should be tipping the queens extra for showing them how to contour).

The moral of the story: Drag queens are everything. 

The history of drag

The acronym explanation is an unlikely story. So, where did drag really come from?

Some experts do agree the term’s origin lies in theater. Historically, women weren’t allowed on the stage, so women’s roles were performed by men. The actors’ flamboyant dresses would “drag” on the ground. Although the term first appeared in the 1870s, the tradition goes back to ancient Greece. Maybe the togas dragged, too? 

Either way, by the 1880s, drag had left the stage and made its way into people’s homes. William Dorsey Swann, a formerly enslaved man, was the first person on record to refer to themself as the queen of drag. He held drag balls in his home with a group called the House of Swan; many were also formerly enslaved men. Despite drag’s popularity on stage, drag performances were increasingly criminalized, forcing them to move underground in the 1900s.

Despite discriminatory laws, drag pageants continued to thrive in queer spaces, taking on a competitive element with prizes for the most impressive costumes and drag performances. The 1960s saw Black and Latino drag artists start their own ballroom scene to escape racism in predominantly white pageants. Ball culture laid the foundation for voguing and many other modern drag performance staples.

The documentary Paris Is Burning famously captured ballroom culture. The House of LaBeija, the House of St. Laurent, the House of Xtravaganza — all micro families made up of drag performers and trans women, many of whom had been abandoned by their families for being part of the LGBTQ community. Around the same time, movies like The Birdcage and To Wong Foo brought mainstream awareness to drag.

What is a drag show?

Regardless of what some right-wing media outlets and Congressional nutjobs would have you believe, drag shows aren’t inherently hotbeds for debauchery and sexual impropriety. But they totally can be!

Just like any form of media, drag shows exist on a spectrum. On one end, you have Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. On the other, you’ve got Game of Thrones and Sex and the City. If you use your senses, you can make an informed decision about which kind you’d like to see. 

The content of drag shows is just as diverse as the age-appropriateness level. Nightclub shows feature dance routines and lip-synching, whereas drag brunches might sprinkle in a comedy act. Drag queen story hours keep it wholesome by reading books to kids.

No matter what drag show you’re at, follow the golden rule: Tip your queens! Despite their royal heritage, drag queens need money to survive, just like the rest of us. So, stock up on singles before you step into a drag show, or else you’ll look like a drag peasant.

Are drag queens gay?

Considering its origins in theater, it’s safe to say drag has always been inextricably linked with the LGBTQ community. On the whole, drag artists are as queer as apple pie is American. However, contrary to popular belief, not all drag queens are gay men. Plenty of trans women and nonbinary people participate in drag performances.

Even a cisgender woman can be a drag queen — just ask Chappell Roan. Although women have long been part of the drag queen community, there has recently been more mainstream representation on international spin-offs of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the popular web series Dragula. 

Of course, a conversation about drag performers wouldn’t be complete without talking about drag kings. Drag kings are essentially drag queens’ diametrical opposite; instead of female impersonation or exaggeration, drag kings impersonate and perform as men. Just as most drag queens are men dressing up as women, most drag kings are women performing as men — but that’s a trend, not a rule. There are drag kings of every gender out there doing their thing. 

Drag in mainstream culture

Most conversations about mainstream drag start and end with RuPaul’s Drag Race. Although RuPaul and her show certainly had a (major) hand in drag’s rise to fame, drag was a blockbuster success way, way before Trixie Mattel hit our TV screens. 

We’ve already name-checked To Wong Foo and The Birdcage, but examples of drag in film are limitless. Mary Poppins herself, Julie Andrews, was nominated for an Oscar for her gender-bending performance in Victor/Victoria. Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire may be the most notable example, but you can’t forget Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Barbra Streisand in Yentl, or Divine in Hairspray.

And we couldn’t possibly wrap this whole thing up without addressing the influence drag lingo has had on the way gay people and society at large communicate. Shade, spilling tea, slay, boots, reading, calling Lady Gaga “mother” — none of that would exist were it not for the drag balls and the queens who created the vernacular we throw around today.

At the end of the day, it’s a drag queen’s world, and we’re just living in it.