Expression

Drag queen

A performer, usually a man, who does exaggerated femininity as a craft. It is a show, not a gender.

A way of presenting, not an identity
No settled flag
4 min read

A way of presenting, not a gender identity. Drag is a way of presenting and performing, not a gender identity; a drag queen can be a man, a woman or non-binary once the make-up comes off.

A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

A drag queen is someone, usually a man, who puts femininity on at full volume — the wig, the padding, the lashes, the name — and performs it. Wikipedia's definition is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and make-up to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment. The key word is entertainment. Drag is something you do, on a stage or a bar top or a phone screen, and then take off.

It is not a gender identity, and this site lists it under expression for that reason. Most drag queens are cis gay men who are entirely men when the face comes off. Some are trans women, some are non-binary, some are cis women doing drag as bio queens or hyper queens. Drag kings do the same craft in the masculine direction. Not everyone who has done drag is a drag queen, and being one says nothing about who you are at breakfast.

The confusion runs both ways and costs people. Trans women get called drag queens by people who think transition is a costume; drag queens get assumed to be trans by people who think the wig is a confession. Both are wrong in the same way: they read the outfit as the person. Some trans women do drag and are proud of both. Some drag queens later come out as trans. Neither fact turns one thing into the other.

Pronouns

In drag, a queen is usually "she" and goes by her drag name — that is part of the act and the etiquette of the room. Out of drag, use whatever the person uses, which for most is he/him and for some is she/her or they/them. Asking is cheap. Assuming from the eyelashes is the mistake everyone makes.

Does this sound like you?

You have a second name, and people who have only seen you at night do not know your first one.

Your make-up bag costs more than your rent, and you can do a full face in a car park mirror in forty minutes.

When the face comes off, the person in the mirror is a bloke and that is fine. That is the point.

You have been asked, gently or not, whether you are "really" a woman, and the honest answer is that you are really a performer.

Tucking, padding and lace-front glue are technical problems to you, not identity questions.

You have a sharper sense of what femininity is made of than most women you know, because you build it from parts every weekend.

Someone has called you a trans woman as an insult, or as a compliment, and both missed.

Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Crossdresser

Also feminine clothes on a man, but private and personal rather than performed for an audience. A crossdresser is not doing a number; a drag queen is.

Compare Drag queen and Crossdresser →

Transgender Female

A woman who was assigned male at birth. That is an identity, all day, not a look for the show. Some trans women do drag; drag does not make anyone a trans woman.

Compare Drag queen and Transgender Female →

Transfeminine

The umbrella for people whose gender runs towards the feminine. Drag is where some transfeminine people first met themselves, and where many drag queens never go, because the femininity is the job and not the self.

Compare Drag queen and Transfeminine →

Femboy

Feminine presentation on a boy in ordinary life — the pastel hoodie at the supermarket, not the sequins on a stage. Same direction, no performance frame.

Compare Drag queen and Femboy →

Genderfuck

Deliberately mixing signals so nobody can resolve them. Drag usually commits hard to one exaggerated direction; genderfuck refuses to.

Compare Drag queen and Genderfuck →

Compare Drag queen with…

It might not be you if…

You are a woman assigned male at birth and the dress is not a costume. That is a trans woman, and calling it drag hides it from you.
You wear feminine clothes at home for your own reasons and would hate an audience. That is crossdressing, a private thing with its own page.
You are a man who wants softer clothes, painted nails and longer hair in daily life. That is expression — femboy or gender nonconforming — and it does not need a stage.
You have never done a number, a look, a night. You can love drag and not be a queen, the way you can love football and not be a footballer.

Questions people ask

Are drag queens transgender?

Usually not. Most drag queens are cis men, often gay, who are men when the face comes off. Some are trans women or non-binary people — Wikipedia names trans-feminine drag queens, sometimes called trans queens — and some inside drag argue that a drag queen is by definition a man portraying a woman, so a trans woman cannot be one. That argument is live. What is not live: drag is a performance, and being trans is not.

Can a woman be a drag queen?

Yes. Cis women who perform in the same exaggerated register are called bio queens, faux queens or hyper queens, and non-binary people do drag too. Women who perform as exaggerated men are drag kings. The craft is the exaggeration, not the starting body.

Is doing drag a sign that I'm trans?

On its own, no. Plenty of drag queens have done thousands of shows and are settled men. Some trans women did find themselves through drag, because it was the only room where the femininity was allowed. The tell is not the wig. It is whether you want the woman to stay when the wig comes off.