![]() ![]() KUT The audience at Coconut Club laughs during Brigitte's performance. “And now there's a ton of drag queens everywhere.” “You know, everyone was just locked in their rooms with makeup,” she said. Austin’s drag scene exploded, Brigitte said, despite many shows being forced to cancel. The pandemic loosened the rigidity of many of these traditions. It’s a more fabulous version of networking. Your drag family is your support, answering questions and helping you get booked. Some drag mothers have many children, and some drag families are around for generations. In pre-internet days, when drag was far more taboo, many baby queens needed to go to older figures in the community to learn how to apply body-contour makeup, hide a 5 o’clock shadow and conceal certain parts of their anatomy. While breaking into the scene, baby queens often meet their "drag mothers." A drag mother is not unlike a fairy godmother: an experienced queen with wisdom to share and the ability to make dreams come true. ![]() Winning a baby queen competition secures your place in the drag community and will immediately help an up-and-comer secure a booking. In Austin, Brigitte said, drag competitions - specifically competitions for “baby queens” - are held to promote the next generation of queens. “But to actually get booked and do shows, you have to do a drag competition.” “You want to go to shows to support other girls, make yourself known and active in the community,” Brigitte said. Queens had to first establish themselves in the community. Traditionally, one could not simply decide to become a drag queen and begin performing in Austin. “The idea that drag can only be a man dressed as a woman or a woman dressed as a man only reinforces the gender binary even more when drag is actually supposed to be deconstructing the gender binary,” Brigitte Bandit, a drag queen who identifies as nonbinary, said. Today, drag is performed by women, straight men and everyone in between. “It is this exaggeration of beauty and glamor and performance art.” Maxine describes modern drag as an embodiment and celebration of “the divine feminine.” Though these men were often gay, straight men would participate, too. In the late 20th century, drag was typically done by men who dressed up and performed as women. Johnson, a transgender woman who protested in the Stonewall riots and is often hailed as a drag icon. In the United States, modern drag evolved from the performances of many LGBTQ queens, including Marsha P. The custom continued in Shakespearean performances because of the Church of England’s ban on women performing in plays. Its roots can be traced back to ancient Greece where men played female roles in theater. ![]() Though "RuPaul’s Drag Race" and other TV shows have popularized drag, it’s not a new style of performance art. “It's a very wholesome and rewarding thing to be around and to be a part of,” Maxine said. The audience members were wide-eyed and glued on the performers’ exaggerated dance moves and acrobatic feats. About a half dozen drag queens pranced and lip-synched between the tables to classic songs. Wedding parties took shots and participated in dance competitions. Maxine LaQueene moved to Austin around four years ago, excited to be a part of the city she described as “an oasis of gay.” She hosts a weekly drag brunch at Halcyon in the Fourth Street District, and performs in drag nearly every other day of the week.Ī man sat in the corner on this June Saturday wearing headphones and furiously working on his laptop. ![]() Her hair rivaled Dolly Parton’s both in height and color, and her makeup accentuated her cartoonishly large lashes, lips and cheeks.įour separate tables of bachelorette parties excitedly replied: “Yassssssss!” Standing in her stilettos at about 6-foot-6, she wore an iridescent rainbow leotard. The self-described "suspiciously large woman"'s voice boomed across the crowded restaurant as she posed the question: “Are y’all ready to see some drag?” ![]()
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