Tag Archives: Drag Queens

‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ Is Groundbreaking Queer TV

Nothing good ever happens in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Countless villains exploit the newly orphaned trio, the Baudelaire children, and wherever the children look, they run into more danger, sadness and tragedy.

Although it’s a children’s book and TV series, the show is incredibly dark. The Advocate said it best when they said, “Evil characters do not always get what they deserve, and neither do the good.”

A Series of Unfortunate Events has no happy endings. None. So don’t get your hopes up.

It does, however, have plenty of queer and gender non-conforming characters. It’s one of the first children’s television shows to do so.

If you thought the casual gay moment in ParaNorman and the oh-so-brief lesbian couple in Finding Dory were cause for applause, then get ready to break into a standing ovation.

Count Olaf, the Drag Queen

Neil Patrick Harris, an openly gay actor, is excellent in the role of Count Olaf. He’s funny, layered and unafraid to wear a dress in order to get his hands on the Baudelaire children. In order to kidnap the children, he dresses in drag. In this universe, it’s completely normal.

Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender

Any old villain can have a henchman. But Count Olaf, the equal-opportunity employer, hires a gender non-conforming henchperson whose gender is deliberately indeterminate. It doesn’t matter what gender the henchperson is as long as that person gets the job done. In one scene, the henchperson says, “It doesn’t matter what gender you are.”

Gay Lumberjacks

Gay couple Sir and Charles operate a lumber mill and take in the Baudelaire children. The pair are introduced as “partners.”

The show’s narrator frequently defines words for the young audience. In the opening scene, the following occurs:

NARRATOR: In fact, ‘partners’ can mean several things. It could mean two people who own a lumber mill together or a cupcakery. And now, with the advent of more progressive cultural mores, not to mention certain high-court rulings, it could also mean –

SIR: I do all the work, he irons my clothes!

CHARLES: I also cook your omelets!

NARRATOR: The definitions are not mutually exclusive.

A Caveat…

Sharp-eyed viewers may point out that all of these queer characters are villains. Yes, that is true. However, in this universe, everyone is a villain. You get used to it.

Grab your girlfriend and catch the first season on Netflix.

To learn more about queer representation in children’s programming, check out this article.

Drag queens: the bridge between queer men and women

As a fan of drag queens and the art of drag, I have always wondered: do other lesbians love drag as much as I do? Why aren’t there more drag kings?

As a loyal fan of Rupaul’s Drag Race and ~~an avid stalker~~ a fan of several drag queens on social media, it’s hard not to notice that the fans are mainly gay men. So why isn’t there a bridge between queer men and women when it comes to drag?

Lesbian Drag fans, are you out there?

I have tried time and time again to reach out and find others who, like me, feel like drag is the ultimate art form; a way to connect us all through music, dance and comedy. And, after hours of reading comments and Facebook posts, there really is only a few of us out there who have the same opinion as me about drag.

Why? Perhaps the majority of lesbians just don’t feel that connected to most drag queens.

I get that it can be hard to have to go through the struggles and daily hurdles we as women have to go through to then see someone else portraying an exaggerated and over the top version of what it means to be a woman and take all the fame, credit and praise for it.

On the other hand, historically, drag has had a bigger gay following than lesbian one. As time passed, we drifted further apart until this day. But why hasn’t there a larger lesbian “fan-base” from the start?

And this leads me to my next question: where are all the drag kings?

Are the kings missing…or just not in sight?

Perhaps it’s my mistake to think that the number of drag kings is much lower than the number of drag queens and perhaps, this is in fact a matter of visibility. There’s no America’s Next Top Drag King on TV, nor there is this big celebration of drag when it comes to women performing as men.

It is always seen as a dirty taboo if a woman deliberately lets go of her own femininity. So are we actually faced with a huge double-standard where femininity in a man is praised while masculinity in a woman is frowned upon?

Maybe our big break is still to arrive! Who’s to say that soon our own RuPaul will become a huge star and put drag kings back on the map. Perhaps, sooner rather than later drag kings will become as mainstream as drag queens!

Whether it happens tomorrow or 30 years from now, I am sure the day will come.

Until then, I will be binging Drag Race and stalking Adore Delano’s Instagram (seriously, I need some help).

Meet London’s Female Drag Queens (Video)

Female drag is seen as gay man’s art, but their are a group of women challenging that concept.

While they’ve traditionally the subject of imitation, female-identified performers are now taking centre stage in London’s drag scene by dressing up in exaggerated tropes of femininity.

“Faux queens” however, are not yet fully accepted in the drag community; some gay male performers question whether women have the right to compete next to their male counterparts.

In the video below, Broadly explores a day in the life of three women who are reclaiming drag for themselves, redefining its heritage, and proving that the art form is genderless.

Facebook’s Chris Cox Apologizes To LGBT Community for Proposed ‘Real Names’ Policy

Facebook is apologizing to drag queens and the transgender community for deleting accounts that used drag names like Lil Miss Hot Mess rather than legal names such as Bob Smith.

The world’s biggest online social network caught heat recently when it deleted several hundred accounts belonging to self-described drag queens and kings, other performers and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Facebook has long required its users to go by their “real names” on the site for security purposes, to stand out from other social networks and so it can better target advertising to people.

Now, the company says the spirit of its policy doesn’t mean a person’s legal name but “the authentic name they use in real life.”Last month, the company suggested that performers such as drag queens have other ways of maintaining their stage identities on the site, such as creating pages that are meant for businesses and public figures. But a fan page is not the same as a regular Facebook account and users were not happy with the suggestion.

“We owe you a better service and a better experience using Facebook, and we’re going to fix the way this policy gets handled so everyone affected here can go back to using Facebook as you were. We see through this event that there’s lots of room for improvement in the reporting and enforcement mechanisms, tools for understanding who’s real and who’s not, and the customer service for anyone who’s affected.”

Chris Cox, Facebook Chief Product Officer

The Transgender Law Center, a San Francisco based transgender rights advocacy group that met with Facebook over the issue on Wednesday, said it is

“[We’re] excited to work in good faith with Facebook to address all the concerns raised in today’s meeting. What was made clear today is that Facebook is ready to collaborate with our communities and shares our values of making sure everyone is able to safely be their authentic self online.”

Cox also shed some light on why so many accounts with drag names and other stage names suddenly started getting deleted.

“An individual on Facebook decided to report several hundred of these accounts as fake. These reports were among the several hundred thousand fake name reports we process every single week, 99 percent of which are bad actors doing bad things: impersonation, bullying, trolling, domestic violence, scams, hate speech, and more – so we didn’t notice the pattern.”

Chris Cox, Facebook Chief Product Officer

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation had representatives at the meeting. Later, GLAAD published a statement on its website:

“GLAAD was happy to participate in this meeting with Facebook, and we look forward to working with them and the coalition partners on implementing a solution that allows people to be their authentic selves on Facebook.”

Coming Soon, an in Depth Look at London’s Drag Queen Scene

On March 31 a new channel London Live will launch in the UK, and with this launch comes a new twist to reality TV, which is planning to give all other reality shows a run for their money. Entitled Drag Queens of London, the show will feature the “dramatic double lives and sensational secrets” of the capital city’s drag queen scene.

The Standard reports that one of the show’s stars, Lady Lloyd, said of it, “There’ll be more glamour and drama than all those shows put together!”

The show, which is described as an “observational documentary” will air eight episodes following the lives of a selection of drag queens.

“The world of the London Drag Queen isn’t exactly as you would imagine… These are incredibly talented artists, but they’re real people as well, and sometimes the drama isn’t just on the stage. Drag Queens Of London is the first of what we hope will be many shows where audiences are introduced to unexpected and unknown subcultures that exist in London. I want other people with their own unusual stories to come and talk to us as well.”

Jonathan Boseley, Head of Programming for London Live

If you want to know more – and even submit your own ideas for a show on the new channel – then click here to go to its website.

Some of the worlds most Powerful Political Figures get the Drag Treatment

Fantastic work from Saint Hoax; War Drags You Out is a photo series which takes the world’s most controversial leaders, past and present, and transforms them into drag queens. Why you ask, well Hoax realized the recipe for a great drag queen – fierce persona, defining outfits, and “one hell of a PR team” – was eerily similar to the makings of a powerful political figure. So now Hoax (a self-described POPlitical artist) focuses much of his work on “rewriting history through visual lies.”

“Just like drag queens, political leaders are expected to entertain, perform and occasionally lip-sync a public speech.”

You can see Saint Hoax’s complete collection here.

Tag Archives: Drag Queens