The grotesque queens: How drag-queen interpret femininity
The drag culture is experiencing another boom. The Internet has only recently calmed down on Conchita, the most popular show on the LGBT-TV channel Logo, owned by MTV, RuPaul's Drag Race, and bold cosmetic brands are shooting transgender people in their campaigns. Drag-makeup is a necessary element of the image of any drag-quin and in itself is a separate and extremely interesting phenomenon.
Before analyzing it, you need to understand who drag-queen are and dispel stereotypes about this subculture, for example, that all drag-quine are gay. The transformation of men into women took place in different historical periods, but tangible reflection caused only when it became linked to homosexuality. In fact, in the "queens" (let us allow ourselves to call them that, although the etymology of the term is not fully clarified) men of different orientations reincarnate. They may have different goals: for someone staying in an exaggerated woman is an integral part of the personality, and for someone - a way of relaxation or an interesting, sometimes single, experience.
Not all drag quins want to become women, as is commonly believed. With makeup and behavior, they do not try to abandon their biological sex, but create a new one. As makeup artist John Macklin put it (although most drag-quin prefers to be treated as a woman even outside the image, there are exceptions): "I don’t distinguish myself by gender or sexual orientation, I am an art." The most famous drag queen of our time, Ru Paul (who also accepts both male and female treatment) says that she wears it not as a woman, but as a drag queen: "How many women do you know who wear 15 cm hairpins, high wigs and tight dresses? " And one more important point: drag quin is often mistakenly called transvestite, although in the latter, dressing up is a form of sexual behavior, while drag queen is not.
So, all drag-quin has in common that they were born as men and impersonated the invented image. It can be as unique, with a certain character and aesthetics, and each time different. The winner of the fourth season, "RuPaul's Drag Race" and singer Sharon Needles, for example, describes herself as "a stupid genius and a princess of beer", and looks, compared to her colleagues, not conventional. The images, in turn, must correspond to the activities of drag-quin. She can lead parties, participate in a theatrical performance, dance and sing on stage and, in general, do all the things that other artists do.
Drag Quin is still available to participate in the so-called balls - events where LGBT people compete with each other in different categories that they have invented. Ball culture originated half a century ago in New York, and was then one of the few ways LGBT people can express themselves and search for community; In the Jennie Livingston documentary film "Paris is burning", it is colorfully shown. Now that society has become more tolerant of different forms of searching for themselves, balls have become a little less popular.
Make-up drag-quin, perhaps, like no other allows you to express yourself and even make a new one yourself. The anatomy of a male face is different from that of a woman, and since all the “queens” have a goal to appear as a woman (as they imagine her), similarities can be traced in their make-up. For example, almost every drag queen makes exaggerated contouring today, although photographer Linda Simpson recalls that in the 90s there was no fashion for him, and the heroines tried to give the face a natural-looking relief. But regardless of the degree of intensity of contouring, drag-quin always make it according to the female scheme, which differs significantly from the male one in that other parts of the face are darkened.
Make-up drag-quin is more correct to call a make-up. At first, the actresses are forced to do it themselves, so that the aspiring heroine may have uneven arrows and a poorly feathery tone, but this does not confuse anyone. Over time, drag queen also stuffed his hand on the Smokey and in a matter of seconds glue the false eyelashes. They have, oddly enough, you can search for ideas for everyday makeup - more than drag queen, nobody uses cosmetics, so their faces can be seen as illustrated aids. Or as swatches - artists often use inexpensive and little-known cosmetics or tame strange means of famous brands like the NYX. And definitely it is worth referring to the “queens” on the eve of Halloween: some beauty bloggers record video tutorials on how to repeat a particular image of drag queen, and divas themselves like to show their tricks.
In general, make-up attributes are entirely dependent on the style to which a particular drag queen. The reality show Roo Paul gave the world a lot of slang words, one of which is fishy. They represent the drag-quin, which even by the standards of the subculture does not look very feminine. An example is Kenya Michaels: even before the sex change operation (some still do it), she looked like a woman without any reservations. But Kenya’s case is unique: not all men, if they didn’t resort to serious face modifications, like other well-known actress Chad Michaels, manage to look like a biological woman even with the help of cosmetics. But, as we have said, the majority of drag-queen is to be beautiful drag-quine, so not to be born fishy is not a sentence.
The mentioned Chad Michaels is one of those who prefer to transform into celebrities. Choice Chad - Cher. The latter is generally often impersonated, like other burlesque divas, whose aesthetics have much in common with drag. "Queens" like Chad, despite the fact that they can not always be fishy, tend to look elegant and, if possible, naturally. That is, their make-up will be bright, but not hyperbolic (some ballet soloists make up more). The participants of LGBT beauty contests are painted the same way.
Camp Quin prefer comical images in which harmony gives way to the ability to laugh at yourself and love for excesses. Devine, which People magazine called the drag queen of the century, looked just like that. Her typical make-up consisted of aggressive accents such as eyebrows that crawl onto her forehead, glitter, super-long false eyelashes, and an exaggerated lip contour. The modern drag star Milk, too, is precisely to satirical images, but for obvious reasons, they are more in tune with the times than Divine. In general, the camps are not shy about looking ridiculous and tasteless and, perhaps, more successful than others, they embody an attitude not to take life too seriously, which was voiced by Ru Paul.
Over the past ten years, another branch of the subculture has been formed. Tranima-diva, such as Jer Ben Jones, Skuiki Blonde and Mato Andersen, create images at the intersection of modern art and the usual drag-aesthetics. They also use cosmetics, but often other items are also used, somehow or other correlated with femininity. For example, Jer Ben Jones constructs images with the help of an artificial breast and exposed bras, and Skouiki Blond - nets and furs. Appearance for the tool is not only a tool for self-expression, but also reports of important ideas for them. Vaginal Davis, for example, conducts performances to stir up the conservative mores of the gay community. By the way, there is plenty of disagreement inside him: other LGBT people often reproach drag-quine for creating an unreliable image of the whole community. Among their inspirations, the trainee often referred to the psychedelic troupe The Cockettes and the artist Lee Bowery, who greatly influenced modern fashion.
Despite all the unexpected variety of drag-queen make-up, all his styles rest on the same pillars. At the moment of birth of drag culture, balls and other events allowed people, who often suffered from their otherness, to be themselves. The community took any form of self-expression, but they were more or less standard: everything that the outside world rejected found an outlet in closed "houses." Since men in the heyday of the culture of balls, society forbade expressing femininity, most of the members of the community simply dressed up as women. Now drag culture is becoming more popular, causing less negative, and therefore its course is changing. In the near future, society probably will not completely get rid of gender prejudices, but drag-quine will have to fight less for its rights, which means that they will have resources for some other activity, like Sharon Needles.
Photo: Austin young
