Drag king
Drag kings are female bodied or identified performance artists who dress in masculine "drag" (clothing) as part of their routine. A typical drag king performance involves dancing and singing or lip-synching. Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly macho male characters or impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley. Several drag kings became British music hall stars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and British pantomime has preserved the tradition of women performing in male roles. Yet only recently have drag kings begun to gain some of the fame and attention that drag queens have known for years.
The term drag king is sometimes used in a broader sense, to include female-bodied people who dress in traditionally masculine clothing for other reasons. This usage includes women temporarily attempting to pass as men and women who wish to present themselves in a masculine gender role without identifying as a man. Some transmen ("female-to-male" transgendered and transsexual people) also self-identify as drag kings.
Many modern women wear men's hats, ties, jackets, or even full suits for fashion reasons (e.g. the "Annie Hall style"). These women are not considered drag kings.
Drag kings are largely a phenomenon of lesbian culture and can most often be seen at lesbian bars or festivals. However, not all drag kings are lesbians, and some participants in the drag king subculture are not otherwise involved in lesbian culture, society, or politics. Bio queens (also called femme queens, faux queens, or femme performers) often perform alongside drag kings and may or may not be lesbian-identified.
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Drag king names
Drag Kings often take on playful names to reflect their stage personas. Sexual based names like "Buster Hymen" or "Smack Diaz" are common, as are general macho names like "Stanley Knife" and "Razor Blade". Similar to practices in the drag queen world, kings will also join "houses," taking on the last name of a specific house.
Drag Community
Unlike drag queens, who pride themselves on making individual names for themselves and creating a "lineage," drag kings tend to form troupes or performance groups. While they may join houses and maintain a solo persona, this is increasingly rare in the drag king community. Many troupes are created out of the desire to forge a cohesive unit in order to book shows and performances.
The International Drag KingCommunity Extravaganza (IDKE) is a yearly gathering of drag performers aimed at celebrating gender performance and exploration of gender issues. Delegates from various troupes throughout America, Canada and Europe congregate at IDKE to perform and engage in discussion and debate at a series of workshops organized by the host city under the guidance of the IDKE Board. A different city hosts this event each year. As such, there is no centralised website, but sites can be found using search engines. Typically the websites are created using domain names with "IDKE" followed by its host city for that year, as in "IDKEvancouver".
The Tools of Gender Illusion
Drag kings, being women, face the opposite challenge drag queens do in terms of creating the illusion of gender. They must hide their breasts, add the illusion of male genitalia and make feminine features appear masculine. Clothing is the easiest change to make.
By far, the most challenging piece of the gender illusion puzzle for a drag king is hiding the breasts. While some drag kings are small-breasted and may succeed using a tight sports bra, many kings resort to one of the following, or several of the following used in conjunction with other methods: ace bandages, duct tape, soft back braces (worn backwards), hard or ribbed back braces (worn backwards), and some use a method involving cutting a hole in the crotch of tights for the head and making sleeves out of the legs. This creates a tight stocking shirt that compresses the breasts. While it is uncomfortable to bind one's breasts in any way for any period of time, duct tape is the most immediately damaging. Prolonged use has resulted, in some cases, in tearing off skin and excessive blistering after removal.
The second challenge is creating facial hair. While transexual performers may have facial hair from the hormones they are taking to aid in their transformation, this is not typical of most drag kings throughout the western world. There are many drag kings who use shadow makeup to create the illusion of "five o' clock shadow" and forego the look of longer facial hair, sometimes out of simplicity or because of the act they are performing. As for hair application, there are two major methods: loose or piece.
The first is the application of loose hair using an adhesive. Drag Kings obtain hair through their own haircuts or purchase braids of synthetic hair in a variety of colours from costume shops. Once the hair is chopped very finely, it is typically applied using a skin-safe adhesive like spirit gum or liquid latex, also available at costume shops. Using liquid latex creates a facial hair piece that can be removed and re-used and is considered a better choice for those with very sensitive skin that doesn't tolerate the spirit gum or spirit gum-removal chemicals well.
The second method of applying hair is using a woven facial hair piece made by skilled artisans who often supply costume shops. Far superior in look and feel to mass-produced costume moustaches found in party supply stores, professionally created pieces are typically made from real hair and are woven onto a thin netting that is attached to the face using spirit gum or liquid latex. They are usually more expensive than those found at party stores, but create a more realistic effect.
The last great challenge in creating the female to male gender illusion is the masking of feminine features and movements. Despite a lack of scientific research on the subject, it is obvious that women move differently from men in general, whether due to genetic predisposition or social programming. The stereotypical portrayal of a man finds the performer using masculine gesture and motion: decisive, crisp movements and dance, rather than smooth, sweeping motions drag queens may display during their performances while imitating women. Even smoking a cigarette during an act must be monitored by the performer; men tend to hold cigarettes with their fingers slightly curled, while women tend to smoke with index and middle finger straight and outstretched.
Masking feminine features includes dealing with hairstyle. While many drag kings have short hair, some performers that live their everyday lives with longer hair or feminine haircuts must manage this part of their appearance to make the illusion complete. While some performers with long hair opt to leave it down and styled in a masculine way, others tuck their hair into stocking caps and wear a variety of men's hats as part of their costumes. The same can be said with kings that tend to sport more feminine hairstyles in their everyday lives. Other features that must be masked or compensated for are the eyebrows, skin colour and sideburns.
Eyebrows are usually thickened using eye shadow or eye pencils, since women's eyebrows tend to be thinner and less substantial in general than men's. Skin colour is sometimes darkened on the face of performers as women are typically lighter in skin colour than their male counterparts. A slightly darker face powder or bronzer creates this illusion with much subtlety when applied correctly. Additionally, sideburns must be considered.
Men tend to have coarse hair growth beginning at the jaw bone where a beard would begin to grow. This hair differs noticeably in texture from the hair on their heads and is a feature women, rarely growing such impressive facial hair, lack. Drag kings use loose hair applications, piece applications or shadowing to imitate this look.
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