Out of the closet: the story of drag
Drag queens are enjoying increased visibility in pop culture. chronicles the art of drag in South Africa
WHEN Billy Porter glided on the red carpet at the Oscars on Sunday, jaws understandably dropped. The Tony Award-winning performer, who is enjoying a newfound mainstream fame after starring in Ryan Murphy’s Pose, was wearing a black velvet ball gown and such was his impact that there’s a video of an impressed Glenn Close marvelling at his bravado.
But what many don’t realise, is that Porter’s fashion statement was reinforcing how much of an impact the world of drag has had on pop culture and where better to remind people than at the biggest awards show in the world.
The art of drag performance is at an all-time high in pop culture with the American reality TV show, Rupaul’s Drag Race taking the world by storm, even winning several Emmy Awards in 2018.
Pose is also a critically acclaimed show that has shed light on the ballroom scenes of the early years of drag culture in the States.
We see more people using words and phrases made popular by drag queens, beauty trends are heavily influenced by the make-up styles of drag queens. But most importantly, drag performers have opened up conversations that many were afraid to tackle previously.
Back home, drag has played an important part in the LGBTQIA+ community, with Cape Town commonly seen as the drag capital of the country. Ranging from pageants, cabaret shows and nightclub performances, drag culture has become even more visible in the city. But that doesn’t mean it is only confined to Cape Town – Johannesburg and Durban also have their own take on drag culture.
Where did it all start?
Drag has been around for centuries. In the 17th century female impersonators appeared in Shakespearean plays. This was because women were not allowed to perform in plays.
Drag remained a big part of the theatre community in the UK and took on a different form once it came to America.
From the 18th to 19th century in America, drag was an underground performing art with many drag performers using vaudevillian entertainment as a means to perform in drag. Drag queens performed predominately in bars that sold alcohol illegally – this was during the time of prohibition.
The genesis for the modern incarnation of drag took place in the 1960s with the boom of gay bars in New York City which were the venue for drag performers.
During the same period, “moffie” drag underground parties in Cape Town became a safe place for gay men to be in drag and pictures from the parties were published by Drum magazine. Similar parties were held in Johannesburg with one of the biggest published ones being the Forest Town raid when police raided a private property where a large group of gay men were. This led to the Immorality Bill which banned homosexuality.
Similarly, in the US, the Stonewall Riots took place in 1969 when police started to crack down on gay clubs.
The Stonewall Inn patrons, consisting of drag queens, trans women and the broader queer community, fought back. Drag performer and trans woman Marsha P Johnson threw the first stone. The riot is thought of by many as the launch of the gay rights movement.
In the 1980s, drag queen culture included familial units formed in conjunction with the underground ballroom scene in New York. The “family” included the “mother” of the house and the drag “children” taken in by her. These were usual gay men and transwomen who were kicked out of their homes because of their sexuality. The house would act as the headquarters for the drag underground where drag performers could take part in pageants, balls and perform at various drag bars.
Once apartheid ended, drag culture started to become more prominent within the South African queer community. However, pre democracy prominent drag performer Pieter-dirk Uys used the persona of Evita Bezuidenhout to give political commentary.
As queer acceptance became the norm across the country and more gay-friendly bars and clubs opened in big cities, more drag performers started emerging. Drag performers would be used in pantomimes which also became the most family-friendly introduction to drag on a large scale.
In 2009, the art of drag entered a new frontier with the debut of Rupaul’s Drag Race. This brought what was once something you could only see at nightclub, theatre show and those once-a-year pantomimes on Dstv to a broader audience.
THE success of the American show had a ripple effect in South Africa with more and more of the local queer community wanting to watch a live drag show.
“Gentleman, start your engines and may the best woman win!” A phrase coined by Rupaul in every episode of Rupaul’s Drag Race that has changed the world of drag since 2009, when the reality TV show premiered.
Ten years later, drag performers are not only popular within the queer community but have crossed over into the general public, even walking the red carpet at the Oscars. We are in the golden age of drag and the international success has spilt over into South Africa.
The local drag scene has flourished since Drag Race became one of the biggest reality TV phenomenons. Drag performers have been a part of South African entertainment landscape for years. But mainly in pantomimes and drag pageants, which portray a very uniform perception of what a drag queen looks like. Drag Race was able to not only showcase drag on an international platform, but also introduce different types of drag to a wider audience. This enabled local queens to explore drag as more than just a man dressing up as a woman.
One of the biggest local drag performers to have gained major popularity is Manila Von Teez. The Cape Town-based drag queen has become a well-known public figure after she finished second on SA’S Got
Talent in 2016. Manila said local drag had “changed quite significantly” since she got started. “This is due to
Rupaul’s Drag Race as well as access to information.”
Johannesburg-based drag queen Pieter “Jaquilation” Serton shared Manila’s sentiments, saying Drag Race had made the art of drag available to a broader audience.
“The show has changed people’s perception of drag. Where people have been able to see that drag is not a man wanting to dress up as a woman, but a true performance art form.”
Manila and Jaquilation had different starts to their drag careers. Manila said that she started experimenting with drag at costume parties, but drag pageants were where she really got started. Jaquilation got started in theatre and studied the behind-the-scenes aspects of drag.
Compared with Cape Town, the Johannesburg scene is still growing as a performance art. Queens mostly perform in clubs and restaurants such as Beefcakes.
Manila says that pageants are about “grooming” and that “pageant Queens are specifically trying to achieve a certain aesthetic and give more of a fishy girl look. Nightclub queens are freer to express themselves however they feel want to”.
Another young drag performer who is making waves in the Cape Town drag scene is Inappropriate. The drag ingénue has been a breath of fresh air in the local scene, forgoing the need to look “fishy” – a term used to describe a drag queen who convincingly resembles a cis woman – and has a more unconventional approach to drag. Inappropriate wears more risqué clothes and modern make-up, which is different to the look chosen by other drag and pageant queens. She is very much a product of Drag Race and got her inspiration from watching the show.
However, Ina, as she is known, feels that there are actually three categories of drag queen: the pageant girls, the club girls and the performers. Pageants are the biggest platform for drag in Cape Town; there’s a pageant almost every month and the title winners are seen as drag royalty. The club queens are the ones who dress as a means of expression, while the performers are very much the worker bees.
Jaquilation agrees that the Johannesburg drag scene, being young, is only getting bigger and bigger.
In the past couple of years,
Rupaul’s Drag Race alumni Bianca del Rio, Dusty Ray Bottoms and Morgan Mcmichaels all performing in the country to sold-out venues.
The popularity of Drag Race has not only made drag queens superstars but also has done a lot for queer representation.
And while the show is mostly made for entertainment, it has also been able to showcase real issues within the queer community, such as homophobia, conversion therapy, racism, and has helped to give people the tools to understand the difference between a drag queen and transgender woman.
It seems that this race isn’t ending any time soon with Thailand and the UK producing local versions of the show.
Hopefully, South Africa will join in and we will be watching our screens to find out who will be South Africa’s next drag superstar.
“It’s a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I’d be a drag queen.” – DOLLY PARTON