Workhorse Queen • Discussion Prompt
When was the first time you experienced a live drag performance?
When was the first time you experienced a live drag performance?
For me, it was when I was 18 at LIPS, an iconic drag venue in midtown Manhattan. The drag queens were the most engaging and charismatic performers I had ever seen. They were bold and funny, and since the club is modeled for audiences 18 and over, their jokes were hilariously lewd. I was there with my best friend and her mom, which would have been uncomfortable but this mom was designed differently from my other friends’ moms. When the staff found out it was my friend’s 18th birthday, they paraded her around the restaurant and one said “She’s legal! Someone take her to the back and stick it to her!” This happened 23 years ago and we both still remember the night vividly.
Drag shows back in the early 2000s were usually akin to our experience, designed for an older audience and sexually suggestive, but not explicit. Now, drag performers have content for all ages, often engaging kids at Drag Story Hour or Drag Brunch. But for people of my generation, our introduction to drag came from music like Supermodel by RuPaul or movies like To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Even though many of the movies about drag performers starred non-LGBTQ+ actors, they opened new audiences to the spectrum of gender expression. And for the movies that did star drag performers, like any of the John Waters movies featuring Divine or RuPaul’s role in the Brady Bunch movies, the characters were women, not men in drag. But when RuPaul’s Drag Race debuted in 2009, drag performance was seen by even more as an art, breaking down the experience and motivations for its performers. Some contestants, like Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova, became entertainment media superstars. Others, like Mrs. Kasha Davis, expanded their brand and grew their live audiences, but not without obstacles. Be sure to watch Workhorse Queen, this month’s documentary selection, to learn more about Mrs. Kasha Davis’s struggles and triumphs. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the main post with your thoughts on the documentary.
