Drag culture is breaking mainstream barriers with style and sass
How did pop culture fall head over fabulous heels in love with drag? Let’s take a Deep Dive.
👗👠👑 Drag—dressing in clothes typically worn by the opposite sex—has long been part of human culture, with its origins in ancient civilisations.
📈 But in recent years its popularity has gone crazy, particularly since 2009, when RuPaul’s Drag Race debuted on a small cable channel, quickly becoming a cultural phenomenon.
😡 Sadly, drag has been taking over popular culture at exactly the same time as there’s been fairly vigorous pushback in certain places.
QUOTABLE
“Drag queen is a gender like no other, and with practice, I’d learned to rise to it.”
― Kate Bornstein, author, playwright and gender theorist
BY THE NUMBERS
1990 If there’s a Year Zero for the mainstreaming of drag culture, it’s probably 1990. That year brought us both the seminal drag documentary Paris is Burning and Madonna’s Vogue.
15 There have been 15 series of RuPaul’s Drag Race so far and 15 international editions beyond the US original, including Thailand and the Philippines.
161 In the year 2023, there were 161 anti-LGBTQ protests that targeted drag events in the US.
QUIZ
How many people attended the Drag Race spin-off, DragCon LA, on its 2022 post-Covid return?
A. 10,000
B. 50,000
C. 100,000
Scroll to the bottom for the answer.
DID YOU KNOW?
Drag has a long history, including in Asia. One of the Philippines’ most famous queens, Crispulo “Pulong” Luna, was born as long ago as 1903 and performed extensively during the period of US colonial rule.
THE EDIT
🗣️ Shady origins. Drag culture has had a big influence on the English language, but the context can sometimes get lost.
😐 Drag coefficient. While many laud Drag Race’s influences, some question whether it’s been entirely positive, while others wonder where all the drag kings are.
🧑🎤 Camp crossover. Unsurprisingly, drag culture has had a massive impact on the very gayest of all major annual public events, the Eurovision Song Contest.
♀️ No tuck necessary. An increasing number of drag queens are female.
THE FULL PICTURE
These are the most followed drag queens on Instagram worldwide, with Trixie Mattel being the most loved queen.
KEY PLAYER
RuPaul Andre Charles
The Queen of Drag, RuPaul Andre Charles forged his/her (s/he answers to both) act on New York’s queer scene before rising to fame in the early 1990s with the song Supermodel—shortly afterwards becoming the first drag queen to sign a major cosmetics contract. RuPaul then went on to almost singlehandedly send drag catapulting into the mainstream with Drag Race.
HONOUREE TO KNOW
Precious Paula Nicole
Precious Paula Nicole leapt to national consciousness when she won the inaugural season of Drag Race Philippines. The artist, born Rodolfo Hontiveros Gabriel II, has been performing drag for more than a decade. Since her win, she started the Precious Foundation. The Foundation aims to build a permanent home and sustainable livelihood for The Golden Gays, a community supporting marginalised, older gay individuals in the Philippines.
ONE FINAL THING
Drag has a long, detailed, complicated history. You can find out about most of it here.
