I know this is perhaps not the most appropriate, but I find them really sexy (perhaps because I have always been attracted to butch women). I think it would be really cool to do performance, as well. (I am asking this question because I noticed in the thread about drag queens someone asked this question, and it's been on my mind as well).
It's coming from a group who is oppressed and does not hold the political power of the group it is performing as. I also would not say most of these drag kings are "parodies" so much as very well put-together, with amazing makeup and incredible artistry, and some really cool and creative performances. It seems more like gender-bending performance theater to me, in a good way. (In fact, if drag queens were not such heavily sexualized caricatures of women, and incorporated more gender-bending as drag kings do--some drag kings wear beards and chest hair, others wear makeup and glitter, a la Bowie and Prince--and incorporated more elements of theater and creative performance--which I know some drag queens certainly do--I would find the majority of drag queen performances both less offensive and also less boring).
I have been watching stuff about drag kings and actually they're really amazing, not boring at all. As long as we're clear that they are women (and to me that's a part of what this is about), I think it really does challenge the gender binary in surprising and for some people uncomfortable ways, especially as their interpretations of masculinity run the gamut from the dapper and dainty to the "uber-masculine" and incorporate a lot of dance, music and visual performance which is neither masculine nor feminine but simply the art of the theater.
I know some drag queens are like this too, and create original performances and don't always lip sync to female performers' songs or impersonate them (and I know some of those are amazing homages, and that drag kings do that with male performers, too). It just seems that that is the stereotype of drag queens, to be over-the-top caricatures of hyper-sexualized, "sassy" women, whereas drag kings create more original set pieces. Also, the history of drag kings is amazing and spans many cultures (I think a documentary is in the works about this), and it doesn't get nearly the press that the history of drag queens does.
It reminds me of an essay I read by a male author who assigned his college students to write a narrative essay from the point of view of a week in the life of the opposite sex. His female students tackled this assignment with gusto, writing about their cool hobbies, about sports, road trips, outdoor adventures with their friends, male bonding, their taste in music, the kind of car or other transportation they had, their exciting night life, and how they would dress and act to seduce beautiful women, and how they would have sex with them, going into detail.
In contrast, not one single male student could think of what to write. They seemed to think women had no inner lives and not a single one of the men in the class completed more than a page, and of that page most of it was things like doing nails, daydreaming about boys, talking to their girlfriends about boys, dieting, or watching women's movies on the Lifetime channel. They could not write about women with hobbies, ideas, adventures, sex drives, and did not show the desire that women had to write about women taking charge of their sexuality and going out and conquering men. The author concluded that this was the single most depressing outcome of an assignment to date and that it revealed in a very stark manner the difference between the imaginations and interests of men and women regarding the opposite sex's inner lives and humanity.
This might explain the difference between drag kings and queens? I have watched lots of drag queens, and while they are fun after a while they are boring. Drag kings seem to me so much more creative in their performance, it's amazing.
This might also say something about the difference between the way some trans men and some trans women act. Certainly there are trans women who are not transitioning out of identification with misogynistic stereotypes or due to fetishes, but due to dysphoria. I have a friend who transitioned (medically transitioned) due to dysphoria, who spends their time biking around the world and whose hobbies haven't changed much, because it doesn't seem to cross their mind that they should (which makes sense. I also love to ride and fix bikes, always have and always will). This to me is strikingly different from those who transition and seem to focus their lives after transition around feminine stereotypes of what it means to be a woman, and this kind of early socialization (the male as the default, fully actualized human) might also account for why trans men don't seem as over-the-top in their stereotypes/personality change, usually? (I know there are exceptions).
I also know that both trans women and trans men might feel pressure to perform gender stereotypes more to fit in; but still, I think the gender socialization we receive growing up--male socialization that dehumanizes women and casts them in the role as empty-headed sex objects, female socialization that centers men and male experience and casts them in the role of dynamic, conquering heroes--is formative for most people and is going to play a role in both drag performances and transgender transition.
Submitted February 09, 2019 at 03:15PM by Unabashed_Calabash http://bit.ly/2Gj4SOy
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