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Drag in its broadest sense means a Costume or outfit that carries symbolic significance, but usually refers to the clothing associated with one Gender Role when worn by a person of the other gender. The term originated either in gay or theater slang in the 1870s, where the official long-established theater term for " Cross-dressing " on-stage was ''travesti'' (French, "cross-dressed," giving rise to "travesty" which took on further connotations as a genre of critical vocabulary). The term "drag" may have been given a wider circulation in Polari , a gay street argot in England in the early part of the last century. Unlike "threads," "drag" never simply meant "clothes." Someone wearing drag is said to be "in drag." " Drag Queen " appeared in print in 1941 . The verb form is to "'''do drag'''." A Folk Etymology whose Acronym basis reveals a characteristically late 20th-century bias, would make "drag" an abbreviation of "dressed as girl" in description of male Transvestism ; the converse, "drab" for "dressed as boy," is unrecorded. Drag is practiced by people of all Sexual Orientation s and Gender Identities . DRAG IN THE PERFORMING ARTS "Drag" is too casual and culturally freighted a term to be used for the cross-dressing elements in Shamanism , but there is a long history of drag in the performing arts, spanning a wide range of cultural as well as artistic traditions. Drag in the theater arts manifests two kinds of phenomenon. One is cross-dressing in the performance, which is part of the Social History of theater. The other is cross-dressing ''within'' the theatrical fiction, which is part of literary history. Cross-dressing elements of performance traditions are widespread cultural phenomena. Kabuki , the traditional theatre of Japan, has always featured drag. Originally kabuki troupes were all female; now they are all male, and female roles are played by ''Onnagata'', actors who specialize in playing female roles. Conversely, the Takarazuka Revue is a popular all-female troupe that specializes in putting on romantic plays. All the male roles are played by young women. Earlier, in England, Actor s in Shakespeare an Play s, and indeed in all Elizabethan theater, tragedy as well as comedy, were all male; female parts were played by young men in drag. Shakespeare used the conventions to enrich the gender confusions of '' As You Like It ,'' and Ben Jonson manipulated the same conventions in ''Epicoene, or The Silent Woman,'' (1609) an elaborate vindictive and misogynist sight gag that builds up to the Wedding from Hell. The plot device of the film '' Shakespeare In Love '' (1998) turns upon this Elizabethan convention. By the reign of Charles I, actresses were allowed on the London stage in the French fashion, and serious ''travesti'' roles disappeared. Within the dramatic fiction a " but ''as'' a drag queen (as, for example, RuPaul ), modern drag has transformed its conventions, its meaning, and its audience. In Baroque opera, where soprano roles for men were sung by 's ''Benvenuto Cellini'', even a page in Verdi's ''Don Carlo''. The convention was beginning to die out with Siebel, the ingenuous youth in Charles Gounod 's ''Faust'' (1859) and the gypsy boy Beppe in Mascagni's ''L'Amico Fritz'', so that Offenbach gave the role of Cupid to a real boy in ''Orphée aux Enfers''. But the divine Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in tights, giving French audiences a glimpse of Leg (the other in fact being a prosthesis) and Prince Orlovsky, who gives the ball in '' Die Fledermaus '', is a soprano, to somewhat androgynous effect. The use of ''travesti'' in Richard Strauss 's ''Rosenkavalier'' (1912) is a special case, unusually subtle and evocative of its 18th century setting, and should be discussed in detail at '' Der Rosenkavalier ''. The self-consciously risqué bourgeois high jinks of Brandon Thomas' '''' (1959). Drag broke out from underground theater as personified by " Divine " in John Waters ' '' Pink Flamingos '' (1972) (See also Charles Pierce .) The world of Popular Music has a similarly venerable history of drag, starting with Sylvester . Pop singers Boy George (of Culture Club ) and Pete Burns (of Dead Or Alive ) frequently appear in a sort of semi-drag. In Japan there are several popular singers (such as Mana of Visual Kei bands " Moi Dix Mois " and " Malice Mizer ) who always or usually appear in full or semi-drag. On American Television , only the broadest slapstick drag tradition was represented, and one of the few American TV comedians who consistently used drag as a comedy device was Milton Berle . Current rules are less strict: Dame Edna , the drag persona of Australian actor Barry Humphries , is the host of several specials, including the ''Dame Edna Experience''. Dame Edna also tours internationally, playing to sell-out crowds, and has appeared on TV's Ally McBeal . Dame Edna, however, represents an anomalous example of the drag concept. Although her earliest incarnation was unmistakably a man dressed (badly) as a suburban housewife, over the years Edna's manner and appearance has been so greatly feminised and glamorised that even some of her TV show guests appear not realise that the Edna character is actually played by a man. The furore surrounding Dame Edna's 'advice' column in '' Vanity Fair '' magazine also suggests that one of her harshest critics, actress Selma Hayek , was apparently unaware that Dame Edna was actually a female character played by a man. DRAG KINGS AND QUEENS In gay slang, a "queen" is an effeminate gay man, or a gay man with a specializied quality (e.g. "rice queen," for a gay man who prefers Asian men). Along with "drag," the term "drag queen" has entered the general lexicon. Drag Queen s (first use in print, 1941) are usually, but not exclusively, Gay men who dress in drag, either as part of a performance or for personal fulfillment. Doing drag here often includes wearing makeup, wigs and prosthetic devices as part of the costume. Female-bodied persons who do drag (many of whom do not identify as women) are called Drag King s; however, ''drag king'' also has a much wider range of meanings. ''See also:'' List Of Transgender-related Topics |
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