On Drag Going to Church
by Mike Starkey, Psephizo:
In recent years drag has gone mainstream. Actually, it’s bigger than that. Drag has become all-conquering, ubiquitous, the performance art of the moment.
The art of cross-dressing for entertainment has a long history, often confined to spaces frequented by consenting adults. By the late 20th century in Britain, drag was drawing an enthusiastic subculture to gay bars such as London’s Vauxhall Tavern, where Lily Savage (aka Paul O’Grady) became a cult figure. O’Grady consciously built on a gentler British tradition of cross-dressing in pantomime, music hall and TV comedy (think Alastair Sim, Danny La Rue, Hinge & Bracket, Dick Emery, Les Dawson). In the UK, cross-dressing has always had a strong association with comedy. This seam was mined to great effect by Australian comic Barry Humphries’ Dame Edna Everage—in Humphries’ case, affectionately satirising suburban life, snobbery and the cult of celebrity.
But in the past couple of decades drag has broken out of its comedy and gay bar niche and conquered the world. This is thanks in no small part to RuPaul’s Drag Race and its many TV and stage spin-offs, as well as the promotion of Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) in libraries and galleries, in which drag performers read children’s books to young audiences.
The recent rise of drag has been accompanied by a rhetoric of personal empowerment and self-discovery, carried along on a tidal wave of gender theory. The latest stride in drag’s inexorable, high-heeled advance has been, improbably, into church.
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