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Merging in some content from Wikipedia's articles "drag queen" and "drag king," and removing content that is less relevant to the focus of the nonbinary wiki. This article will still need work to bring the sensitivity of its wording to the same standards as our other articles.
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(Merging in some content from Wikipedia's articles "drag queen" and "drag king," and removing content that is less relevant to the focus of the nonbinary wiki. This article will still need work to bring the sensitivity of its wording to the same standards as our other articles.)
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==Etymology==
==Terminology, scope and etymology==
 
[[File:Drag Queens at High Heel Drag Race.jpg|thumb|Participants of the High Heel Drag Race in Washington, D.C.]]
[[File:Drag Queens at High Heel Drag Race.jpg|thumb|Participants of the High Heel Drag Race in Washington, D.C.]]
The use of "drag" in this sense appeared in print as early as 1870<ref name="ReferenceA">Oxford English Dictionary 2012 (Online version of 1989 2nd. Edition) Accessed 11 April</ref><ref>'I know what "in drag" means; it is the slang for going about in women's clothes.': ''The Times'' (London), 30 May 1870, p.13, "The Men in Women's Clothes'</ref> but its origin is uncertain.  One suggested etymological root is 19th-century theatre slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drag] Online Etymology Dictionary: Drag</ref>
==In folk custom==
Men dressed or disguised as women have featured in traditional customs and rituals for centuries. For example, the characters of some regional variants of the traditional mummers play, which were traditionally always performed by men, include Besom Bet(ty); numerous variations on Bessy or Betsy; Bucksome Nell; Mrs Clagdarse; Dame Dolly; Dame Dorothy; Mrs Finney; Mrs Frail and many others.<ref>[http://www.folkplay.info/Texts/CastIndex_.htm Master Mummers website: Character Name Index to Folk Play Scripts, Compiled by Peter Millington] Accessed 1 Dec 2011</ref>
The variant performed around Plough Monday in Eastern England is known as the Plough Play<ref name='Hole'>Hole, Christina (1978). ''A Dictionary of British Folk Customs'', p238, Paladin Granada, {{ISBN|0-586-08293-X}}</ref> (also Wooing Play or Bridal Play)<ref>[http://www.folkplay.info/Notts/Td00023.htm Folkplay Info: ''Bibliography of Nottinghamshire Folk Plays & Related Customs'', E.C. Cawte et al. (1967)] Accessed 1 Dec 2011</ref> and usually involves two female characters, the young "Lady Bright and Gay" and "Old Dame Jane" and a dispute about a bastard child.<ref>[http://www.folkplay.info/Texts/89sk63cm.htm Folkplay Info: Cropwell, Notts. Ploughboys' Play - 1890, Chaworth Musters (1890)] Accessed 1 Dec 2011</ref> A character called Bessy also accompanied the Plough Jags (aka Plough Jacks, Plough Stots, Plough Bullocks, etc.) even in places where no play was performed: "she" was a man dressed in women's clothes, who carried a collecting box<ref name='Hole'/> for money and other largesse.
"Maid Marian" of the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is played by a man, and the Maid Marians referred to in old documents as having taken part in May Games and other festivals with Morris dancers would most probably also have been men. The "consort" of the Castleton Garland King was traditionally a man (until 1956, when a woman took over the role) and was originally simply referred to as "The Woman".<ref>Hole, Christina (1978). ''A Dictionary of British Folk Customs,'' p.114, Paladin Granada, {{ISBN|0-586-08293-X}}. "Until 1956, 'she' was always a man in female dress, veiled and riding side-saddle – the Man-Woman of tradition."</ref>
==Theatre==
Cross-dressing elements of performance traditions are widespread cultural phenomena. In England, actors in Shakespearean plays, and all Elizabethan theatre, were all male; female parts were played by young men in drag. Shakespeare used the conventions to enrich the gender confusions of ''As You Like It,'' and Ben Jonson manipulated the same conventions in ''Epicœne, or The silent woman,'' (1609). The plot device of the film ''Shakespeare in Love'' (1998) turns upon this Elizabethan convention. During the reign of Charles II the rules were relaxed to allow women to play female roles on the London stage, reflecting the French fashion, and the convention of men routinely playing female roles consequently disappeared. However, in current-day British pantomime, the Pantomime dame is a traditional role played by a man in drag, while the Principal boy, such as Prince Charming or Dick Whittington, is played by a girl.
Within the dramatic fiction, a double standard historically affected the uses of drag. In male-dominated societies where active roles were reserved to men, a woman might dress as a man under the pressures of her dramatic predicament. In these societies a man's position was above a woman's, causing a rising action that suited itself to tragedy, sentimental melodrama and comedies of manners that involved confused identities. A man dressed as a woman was thought to be a falling action only suited to broad low comedy and burlesque. Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo are an all-male ballet troupe where much of the humor is in seeing male dancers ''en travesti;'' performing roles usually reserved to females, wearing tutus and dancing ''en pointe'' with considerable technical skill.
These conventions of male-dominated societies were largely unbroken before the 20th century, when rigid gender roles were undermined and began to dissolve. This evolution changed drag in the last decades of the 20th century. Among contemporary drag performers, the theatrical drag queen or street queen may at times be seen less as a "female impersonator" per se, but simply as a drag queen, and the role of the queen existing as an identity based in neither mainstream male nor mainstream female conventions. Examples include The Cockettes, Danny La Rue or RuPaul.
In the 1890s the slapstick drag traditions of undergraduate productions (notably Hasty Pudding Theatricals at Harvard College, annually since 1891 and at other Ivy League schools like Princeton University's Triangle Club or the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club) were permissible fare to the same middle-class American audiences that were scandalized to hear that in New York City, rouged young men in skirts were standing on tables to dance the Can-Can in Bowery dives like The Slide. Drag shows were popular night club entertainment in New York in the 20s, then were forced underground, until the "Jewel Box Revue" played Harlem's Apollo Theater in the 1950s: "49 men and a girl." The girl received a roar of applause, when she was revealed as the same smart young man in dinner clothes who had been introducing each of the evening's acts.
==Opera==
In Baroque opera, where soprano roles for men were sung by castrati, Handel's heroine Bradamante, in the opera ''Alcina,'' disguises herself as a man to save her lover, played by a male soprano; contemporary audiences were not the least confused. In Romantic opera, certain roles of young boys were written for alto and soprano voices and acted by women ''en travestie'' (in English, in "trouser roles").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bohemianopera.com/roles_af.htm|title=bohemianopera.com - bohemianopera Resources and Information.|author=|date=|website=www.bohemianopera.com|accessdate=27 March 2018}}</ref> The most familiar trouser role in pre-Romantic opera is Cherubino in Mozart's ''Marriage of Figaro'' (1786). Romantic opera continued the convention: there are trouser roles for women in drag in Rossini's ''Semiramide'' (Arsace), Donizetti's ''Rosamonda d'Inghilterra'' and ''Anna Bolena,'' Hector Berlioz's ''Benvenuto Cellini,'' and even a page in Verdi's ''Don Carlo.'' The convention was beginning to die out with Siebel, the ingenuous youth in Charles Gounod's ''Faust'' (1859) and the gypsy boy Beppe in Mascagni's ''L'Amico Fritz,'' so that Offenbach gave the role of Cupid to a cisgender boy in ''Orphée aux Enfers.'' But Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet in tights, giving French audiences a glimpse of Leg (the other in fact being a prosthesis) and Prince Orlovsky, who gives the ball in ''Die Fledermaus,'' is a mezzo-soprano, to somewhat androgynous effect. The use of ''travesti'' in Richard Strauss's ''Rosenkavalier'' (1912) is a special case, unusually subtle and evocative of its 18th-century setting, and should be discussed in detail at ''Der Rosenkavalier.''
==Film and television==
The self-consciously risqué bourgeois high jinks of Brandon Thomas' ''Charley's Aunt'' (London, 1892) were still viable theatre material in ''La Cage aux Folles (film)|La Cage aux Folles'' 1978, which was remade, as ''The Birdcage,'' as late as 1996.
Dame Edna, the drag persona of Australian actor Barry Humphries, is the host of several specials, including ''The Dame Edna Experience.'' Dame Edna also tours internationally, playing to sell-out crowds, and has appeared on TV's ''Ally McBeal.'' Dame Edna represents an anomalous example of the drag concept. Her earliest incarnation was unmistakably a man dressed (badly) as a suburban housewife. Edna's manner and appearance became so feminised and glamorised that even some of her TV show guests appear not to see that the Edna character is played by a man. The furor surrounding Dame Edna's "advice" column in ''Vanity Fair'' magazine suggests that one of her harshest critics, actress Salma Hayek, was unaware Dame Edna was a female character played by a man.
===United States===
Drag as a last-resort tactic in situational farce (its only permissible format at the time) made a big Hollywood splash in ''Some Like It Hot'' (1959).{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}
For the San Francisco drag troupe, The Cockettes (1970–72), who performed with glitter eyeshadow and gilded mustaches and beards, the term "genderf---" was coined. Drag broke out from underground theatre in the persona of Divine in John Waters's ''Pink Flamingos'' (1972): see also Charles Pierce. The crowd surrounding Andy Warhol's Factory scene of the 1960s–1980s also included some drag queens who achieved a certain amount of fame, such as Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn, both immortalized in the Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side." The cult hit movie musical ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' has inspired several generations of young people to attend performances in drag, although many of these fans would deny that they are actually transvestites.


On American network television, only the broadest slapstick drag tradition was generally represented. Few American TV comedians consistently used drag as a comedy device, among them Milton Berle, Flip Wilson and Martin Lawrence, although drag characters have occasionally been popular on sketch TV shows like ''In Living Color'' (with Jim Carrey's grotesque female bodybuilder) and ''Saturday Night Live'' (with the Gap Girls, among others). On the popular 1960s military sitcom, ''McHale's Navy,'' Ensign Parker (Tim Conway) sometimes had to dress in drag (often with hilarious results) whenever McHale and/or his crew had to disguise themselves in order to carry out their elaborate schemes. ''Gilligan's Island'' occasionally features men dressing in women's clothes, though this was not considered drag since it was not for a performance. The popular Canadian comedy group The Kids in the Hall also used drag in many of their skits.  
The origin of the term is uncertain;<ref name="Gerstner-2012">{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer Culture |editor-last1=Gerstner |editor-first1=David A. |title=Drag |last1=Baroni |first1=Monica |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=851qoMjA3icC&pg=PA191 |date=2012 |orig-year=1st pub. 2006 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |edition= |series= |volume= |isbn=978-1-136-76181-2 |oclc=815980386 |pages=191 |access-date=27 April 2018 |quote= }}</ref> the first recorded use of ''drag'' in reference to actors dressed in women's clothing is from 1870.<ref name="González-2008">{{cite book |editor1=María de los Ángeles Gómez González |editor2=J. Lachlan Mackenzie |editor3=Elsa M. González Álvarez |author1=Felix Rodriguez Gonzales |title=Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Sk6AAAAQBAJ |series=Pragmatics & beyond new series v 175 |date=26 June 2008 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |location=Philadelphia |page=231 |chapter=The feminine stereotype in gay characterization: A look at English and Spanish |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Sk6AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA221 |isbn=978-90-272-9052-6 |oclc=860469091  |accessdate=29 April 2017 }}</ref> The use of "drag" in this sense appeared in print as early as 1870<ref name="ReferenceA">Oxford English Dictionary 2012 (Online version of 1989 2nd. Edition) Accessed 11 April</ref><ref>'I know what "in drag" means; it is the slang for going about in women's clothes.': ''The Times'' (London), 30 May 1870, p.13, "The Men in Women's Clothes'</ref> but its origin is uncertain.  One suggested etymological root is 19th-century theatre slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor.<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=drag] Online Etymology Dictionary: Drag</ref> Drag queens are typically gay men, but there are drag queens of all different sexual orientations and genders,<ref name="PsyToday">{{cite web |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-things-lgbtq/201801/the-psychology-drag |title=The Psychology of Drag |last=O'Brien |first=Jennifer |publisher=Psychology Today |date=January 30, 2018 |access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref> including trans women who perform as drag queens<ref name="Guardian-MBH">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/08/rupaul-drag-race-transgender-performers-diversity |title=Who can be a drag queen? RuPaul's trans comments fuel calls for inclusion |last=Levin |first=Sam |publisher=The Guardian |date=March 8, 2018 |access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref><ref name="WaPo-MBH">{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/03/09/im-a-trans-woman-and-a-drag-queen-despite-what-rupaul-says-you-can-be-both/ |title=I’m a trans woman and a drag queen. Despite what RuPaul says, you can be both. |last=Beverly Hillz |first=Monica |publisher=The Washington Post| date=March 9, 2018 | access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Esquire-AMP">{{cite web |url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a19184923/peppermint-trans-drag-inclusion/ |title=Peppermint Is Taking on a New Fight for the Trans Community |last=Kirkland |first=Justin |publisher=Esquire |date=March 22, 2018 |access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref> (sometimes termed ''trans queens''),<ref name="Vox-TQ">{{cite web |url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/3/6/17085244/rupaul-trans-women-drag-queens-interview-controversy |title=How RuPaul’s comments on trans women led to a Drag Race revolt — and a rare apology |last=Framke |first=Caroline |publisher=Vox |date=March 7, 2018 |access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref> such as Monica Beverly Hillz<ref name="Guardian-MBH"/><ref name="WaPo-MBH"/> and Agnes Moore, known by her stage name Peppermint,<ref name="Esquire-AMP"/> and cisgender women<ref>{{cite thesis |type=PhD |last=Coull |first=Jamie Lee |date=2015 |title=Faux Queens: an exploration of gender, sexuality and queerness in cis-female drag queen performance |publisher=Curtin University}}</ref> who do, sometimes termed ''faux queens''.<ref name="Guardian-FQ">{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/10/workin-it-how-female-drag-queens-are-causing-a-scene |title=Workin’ it! How female drag queens are causing a scene |last=Nicholson |first=Rebecca |publisher=The Guardian |date=July 10, 2017 |access-date=August 7, 2018}}</ref> Drag queens' counterparts are ''drag kings'', women who dress in exaggeratedly masculine clothing; men who dress like drag kings are sometimes termed ''faux kings''.


On stage and screen, the actor-playwright-screenwriter-producer Tyler Perry has included his drag character of Madea in some of his most noted productions, such as the stage play ''Diary of a Mad Black Woman'' and the feature film he based upon it.
===Drag queens===
'''Drag queens''' are performance artists, typically cisgender men, who dress in women's clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine [[gender role]]s with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity. They vary widely by class, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who try drag very occasionally.


Maximilliana and RuPaul co-star together in the TV show ''Nash Bridges'' starring Don Johnson and Cheech Marin during the two-part episode "'Cuda Grace." Maximilliana.
The activity, which is called ''doing drag'', has many motivations, from individual self-expression to mainstream performance. Drag queen activities among stage and street performers may include lip-syncing, live singing, dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, drag pageants, or at venues such as cabarets and discotheques.


===United Kingdom===
Some drag queens may prefer to be referred to as "she" while in drag and desire to stay completely in character.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://transequality.org/issues/resources/understanding-drag |title=Understanding Drag |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2017-04-28 |website=transequality.org |publisher=National Center for Transgender Equality |access-date=2018-03-13}}</ref> Other drag performers say they are indifferent to which pronoun is used to refer to them. In drag queen RuPaul's words, "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don't care! Just so long as you call me."<ref>{{citation|author=Rupaul|title=Lettin' It All Hang Out: An Autobiography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mq-HAAAAIAAJ|publisher=Hyperion Books|date=June 1995|page=139}}</ref>
In the United Kingdom, drag has been more common in comedy, on both film and television. Alastair Sim plays the headmistress Miss Millicent Fritton in ''The Belles of St Trinian's'' (1954) and ''Blue Murder at St Trinian's'' (1957). He played the role straight; no direct joke about the actor's true gender is made. However, Miss Fritton is quite non-feminine in her pursuits of betting, drinking and smoking. The gag is that whilst her school sends out girls into a merciless world, it is the world that need beware. Despite this, or perhaps because of Sim's portrayal, subsequent films in the series went on to use actresses in the headmistress role (Dora Bryan and Sheila Hancock respectively). The 21st century re-boot of the series however reverted to drag, with Rupert Everett in the role.


On television, Benny Hill portrayed several female characters, the Monty Python troupe and The League of Gentlemen often played female parts in their skits. The League of Gentlemen are also credited with the first ever portrayal of "nude drag," where a man playing a female character is shown naked but still with the appropriate female anatomy, like fake breasts and a merkin. Within the conceit of the sketch/film, they are actually women: it is the audience who are in on the joke.
===Drag kings===
[[Image:kingsporch.jpg|thumb|All The Kings Men—a drag king performance troupe from Boston]]
'''Drag kings''' are performance artists, typically cisgender women, who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine.<ref name="Competitive Drag Kings Strut Stuff">{{cite web |last=Aronoff |first=Jen |title=Competitive Drag Kings Strut Stuff: With some spit and polish, women perform in growing world of cross-dressing pageantry |publisher=[[The Daily Gamecock|The University of South Carolina Daily Gamecock]] |date=2005-10-19 |url=http://media.www.dailygamecock.com/media/storage/paper247/news/2005/10/19/TheMix/Competitive.Drag.Kings.Strut.Stuff-1025370.shtml |accessdate=2007-07-29 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016152029/http://media.www.dailygamecock.com/media/storage/paper247/news/2005/10/19/TheMix/Competitive.Drag.Kings.Strut.Stuff-1025370.shtml |archivedate=2007-10-16 |df= }}</ref> They may be lesbian, bisexual, transgender, [[genderqueer]], or otherwise part of the [[LGBT]] community. They may also be straight. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy, and singing, either live or lip-synching to pre-recorded tracks.<ref name="Drag King Contest by Dujour">{{cite web  |last=Dujour  |first=Dick  |title=Drag King Contest  |publisher=[[San Francisco Bay Times]]  |date=2006-08-24  |url=http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=5448
|accessdate=2007-07-29}}</ref> Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly [[Machismo|macho]] male characters,<ref name="Best of Sacramento - Drag King: Buck Naked">{{cite web |last=Beckner  |first=Chrisanne  |title=Best of Sacramento - Drag King: Buck Naked  |publisher=[[Sacramento News & Review]]  |date=2005-09-29  |url=http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=44107  |accessdate=2007-07-29}}</ref> portray marginalized masculinities such as construction workers, rappers, or they will impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Tim McGraw.<ref name="Bring Out the Kings!">{{cite web  |last=Long  |first=Cris  |title=Bring Out the Kings!: Gage Gatlyn  |publisher=Out Impact  |date=2007-07-22  |url=http://www.outimpact.com/foldeddollarbillsready/dragkings/gagegatlyn.html  |accessdate=2007-07-29  |deadurl=yes  |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929120809/http://www.outimpact.com/foldeddollarbillsready/dragkings/gagegatlyn.html  |archivedate=2007-09-29  |df=  }}</ref>


Monty Python women, whom the troupe called pepperpots, are random middle-aged working/lower middle class typically wearing long brown coats that were common in the 1960s. Save for a few characters played by Eric Idle, they looked and sounded very little like actual women with their caricatural outfits and shrill falsettos. However, when a sketch called for a cisgender woman, the Pythons almost always called on Carol Cleveland. The joke is reversed in the Python film ''Life of Brian'' where "they" are pretending to be men, including obviously false beards, so that they can go to the stoning. When someone throws the first stone too early the Pharisee asks "who threw that," and they answer "she did, she did,..." in high voices. "Are there any women here today?" he says, "No no no" they say in gruff voices.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, several drag kings became British music hall stars, and British pantomime has preserved the tradition of women performing in male roles. Starting in the mid-1990s, drag kings started to gain some of the fame and attention that drag queens have known.<ref name="GAGE FOR YOURSELF">{{cite web  |title=Gage For Yourself  |publisher=Watermark Online  |date=2005-09-22  |issue=#1219  |url=http://www.watermarkonline.com/content.php?cid=313  |accessdate=2007-07-29  |deadurl=yes  |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070824144740/http://www.watermarkonline.com/content.php?cid=313  |archivedate=2007-08-24  |df=  }}</ref><ref name="Inside Sydney's drag king culture">{{cite web
|last=Caceda  |first=Eden  |title=Inside Sydney's drag king culture  |publisher=Hijacked  |date=2015-01-13  |url=http://hijacked.com.au/inside-drag-king-culture-with-sexy-galexy  |accessdate=2015-01-20}}</ref>


In the 1970s the most familiar drag artist on British television was Danny La Rue. La Rue's act was essentially a music hall one, following on from a much older, and less sexualised tradition of drag. His appearances were often in variety shows such as ''The Good Old Days'' (itself a pastiche of music hall) and ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium''. Such was his popularity that he made a film, ''Our Miss Fred'' (1972). Unlike the "St Trinians" films, the plot involved a man having to dress as a woman.
===Female impersonator===
Another term for a drag queen is ''female impersonator.''<ref>When Cross Dressing was a crime http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/books/2015/03/12/tbt-when-cross-dressing-was-crime?page=full</ref> Although this is still used, it is sometimes regarded as inaccurate, because not all contemporary drag performers are attempting to pass as women. Female impersonation has been and continues to be illegal in some places, which inspired the drag queen José Sarria to hand out labels to his friends reading, "I am a boy", so he could not be accused of female impersonation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/sarria_j.html |title=>> social sciences >> Sarria, José |publisher=glbtq |date=1923-12-12 |accessdate=2014-03-01 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203005833/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/sarria_j.html |archivedate=2013-12-03 |df= }}</ref> American drag queen RuPaul once said, "I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven-inch heels, four-foot wigs, and skintight dresses?" He also said, "I don't dress like a woman; I dress like a drag queen!".<ref>Dr. Susan Corso (April 15, 2009). [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-susan-corso/drag-queen-theology_b_175120.html Drag Queen Theology.] Retrieved: April 1, 2018.</ref>


Kenny Everett dragged up in his TV show as an OTT screen star called Cupid Stunt. Kenny was particularly unconvincing as a woman because he had a beard to which a lot of flesh-tone makeup was applied. However she says "all in the best possible taste" as she exposed her knickers as she re-crossed her legs. She is in more of the Dame Edna genre. David Walliams and (especially) Matt Lucas often play female roles in the television comedy ''Little Britain'';  Walliams plays Emily Howard – a "rubbish transvestite," who makes an unconvincing woman.
===Alternative terms===
[[File:2004-GayPrideBrazil-1.jpeg|thumb|200px|alt=4 individuals portraying women|Drag queens walking in a parade in São Paulo, Brazil.]]


In the UK, non-comedic representations of drag acts are less common, and usually a subsidiary feature of another story. A rare exception is the television play (1968) and film (1973), ''The Best Pair of Legs in the Business''. In the film version Reg Varney plays a holiday camp comedian and drag artist whose marriage is failing.
Drag queens are sometimes called transvestites, although that term also has many other connotations than the term ''drag queen'' and is not much favored by many drag queens themselves.<ref>Ford, Zack. "[https://thinkprogress.org/the-quiet-clash-between-transgender-women-and-drag-queens-297a9da4c5f6/ The Quiet Clash Between Transgender Women And Drag Queens]." ThinkProgress, 25 June 2014. Web. 9 September 2017.</ref> The term ''tranny'' has been adopted by some drag performers, notably RuPaul,<ref>{{cite web|first=Chris|last=Spargo |url=http://www.newnownext.com/rupaul-tranny-lance-bass-drag-race/01/2012/ |title=NEW: RuPaul's 'Tranny' Conroversy<!--sic--> |publisher=NewNowNext |date=2012-01-15 |accessdate=2013-10-06}}</ref> and the gay male community<ref>{{cite web |last=Musto |first=Michael |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2010/11/is_tranny_so_ba.php |title=Is "Tranny" So Bad? |publisher=Blogs.villagevoice.com |date=2010-11-12 |accessdate=2013-10-06 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004221132/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2010/11/is_tranny_so_ba.php |archivedate=2013-10-04 |df= }}</ref> in the United States, but it is considered offensive to most transgender and transsexual people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/is_tranny_offensive.php |title=Is 'Tranny' Offensive? |publisher=The Bilerico Project |date=2008-09-09 |accessdate=2013-10-06}}</ref>


==Music==
Many drag performers refer to themselves as drag artists, as opposed to drag queens, as contemporary forms of drag have become [[nonbinary]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Knauf |first1=Ana Sofia |title=Person of Interest: Arson Nicki |url=https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/02/01/24834816/person-of-interest |website=The Stranger |publisher=Tim Keck |accessdate=1 July 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Lam |first1=Teresa |title=Getting to Know Non-Binary Drag Artist Rose Butch |url=https://hypebae.com/2018/6/rose-butch-non-binary-drag-performer-lgbtq-pride-month-vancouver-canada-interview |website=Hypebae |accessdate=1 July 2018}}</ref>
The world of popular music has a venerable history of drag. Marlene Dietrich was a popular actress and singer who sometimes performed dressed as a man, such as in the films ''Blue Angel'' and ''Morocco.'' In the glam rock era many male performers (such as David Bowie and The New York Dolls) donned partial or full drag. This tradition waned somewhat in the late 1970s but was revived in the new wave era of the 1980s, as pop singers Boy George (of Culture Club), Pete Burns (of Dead or Alive), and  Philip Oakey (of The Human League), frequently appeared in a sort of semi-drag, while female musicians of the era dabbled in their own form of androgyny, with performers like Annie Lennox, Phranc and The Bloods sometimes performing as drag kings. The male grunge musicians of the 1990s sometimes performed wearing deliberately ugly drag – that is, wearing dresses but making no attempt to look feminine, not wearing makeup and often not even shaving their beards. (Nirvana did this several times, notably in the In Bloom video.) However, possibly the most famous drag artist in music in the 1990s was RuPaul. In Japan there are several musicians in the visual kei scene, such as Mana(Moi dix Mois and Malice Mizer), Kaya (Schwarz Stein), Hizaki and Jasmine You (both Versailles), who always or usually appear in full or semi-drag. Maximilliana worked with RuPual in the ''Nash Bridges'' episode "Cuda Grace" and was a regular at the now defunct Queen Mary Show Lounge in Studio City, California until the very end. Max (short for Maximilliana) is most well known for her performance as Charlie/Claire in ''Ringmaster: the Jerry Springer Movie.'' Max has also appeared in other movies including ''Shoot or Be Shot'' and ''10 Attitudes'' as well as on television shows including ''Nash Bridges'' as mentioned above, ''Clueless (TV series)|Clueless,'' ''Gilmore Girls,'' ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,'' ''Mas Vale Tarde with Alex Cambert,'' ''MadTV,'' ''The Tyra Banks Show,'' ''The Tom Joyner Show,'' ''America's Got Talent,'' and many others. As of November 11, 2011, Maximilliana had released her first album of all original, fun, dance music for the LGBT community and made it available on iTunes, Amazon.com and CdBaby.


==Drag kings and queens==
===Uncommon terms===
A drag queen (first use in print, 1941) is a man that dress in drag, either as part of a performance or for personal fulfillment. Though many of these men are in fact cisgender, the term "drag queen" distinguishes such men from transvestites, transsexuals or transgender people. Those who "perform drag" as comedy do so while wearing dramatically heavy and often elaborate makeup, wigs, and prosthetic devices (breasts) as part of the performance costume.
In the drag queen world today, there is an ongoing debate about whether transgender drag queens are actually considered "Drag Queens". This subject is argued because Drag Queens are defined as a man portraying a woman. Since transgender queens are now transitioned into women, many people do not consider them drag queens because they are no longer men dressing as women. Drag Kings are cisgender women who assume a masculine aesthetic. However this is not always the case, because there are also biokings, bio-queens, and faux queens, which are people who perform their own biological sex through a heightened or exaggerated gender presentation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://hf4vl6dz9y.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:book&rft.genre=book&rft.title=The+Drag+Queen+Anthology&rft.au=Lisa+Underwood&rft.date=2013-01-11&rft.pub=Taylor+and+Francis&rft.isbn=9781560232841&rft_id=info:doi/10.4324/9780203057094&rft.externalDBID=n/a&rft.externalDocID=9780203057094&paramdict=en-US|title=360 Link|website=hf4vl6dz9y.search.serialssolutions.com|doi=10.4324/9780203057094&rft.externaldbid=n/a&rft.externaldocid=9780203057094&paramdict=en-us|access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://academic.eb.com/?target=%2Flevels%2Fcollegiate%2Farticle%2Fdrag-queen%2F627517|title=Britannica Academic|website=academic.eb.com|access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Barnett|first=Joshua Trey|last2=Johnson|first2=Corey W.|date=November 2013|title=We Are All Royalty|url=https://dx.doi.org/10.18666/jlr-2013-v45-i5-4369|journal=Journal of Leisure Research|volume=45|issue=5|pages=677–694|doi=10.18666/jlr-2013-v45-i5-4369|issn=0022-2216}}</ref>
Women who dress as men and perform as hypermasculine men are sometimes called drag kings; however, ''drag king'' also has a much wider range of meanings. It is currently most often used to describe entertainment (singing or lip-synching) in which there is no necessarily firm correlation between a performer's deliberately macho onstage persona and offstage gender identity or sexual orientation, just as  cisgender|cis men who do female drag for the stage may or may not identify as being either gay or female in their real-life personal identities.  


A faux queen or bio queen<ref>Nicholson, Rebecca. “Workin' It! How Female Drag Queens Are Causing a Scene.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 July 2017, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/10/workin-it-how-female-drag-queens-are-causing-a-scene.</ref> or female-bodied queen, on the other hand, is usually a cisgender woman while performing in the same context as traditional (men-as-women) drag and displaying such features as exaggerated hair and makeup (as an example, the performance of the actress and singer Lady Gaga during her first appearance in the 2018 film A Star Is Born (2018 film)|A Star is Born).<ref name="Davisson-2013">{{cite book |author=Amber L. Davisson |title=Lady Gaga and the Remaking of Celebrity Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWEsAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |date=25 July 2013 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-7475-2 |page=55 |chapter=2. Dragging the Monster |oclc=862799660  |accessdate=12 April 2018 |quote=Within the drag community, "faux queen" is the title used for a woman who performs as a drag queen.}}</ref>
A faux queen or bio queen<ref>Nicholson, Rebecca. “Workin' It! How Female Drag Queens Are Causing a Scene.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 10 July 2017, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/10/workin-it-how-female-drag-queens-are-causing-a-scene.</ref> or female-bodied queen, on the other hand, is usually a cisgender woman while performing in the same context as traditional (men-as-women) drag and displaying such features as exaggerated hair and makeup (as an example, the performance of the actress and singer Lady Gaga during her first appearance in the 2018 film A Star Is Born (2018 film)|A Star is Born).<ref name="Davisson-2013">{{cite book |author=Amber L. Davisson |title=Lady Gaga and the Remaking of Celebrity Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uWEsAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |date=25 July 2013 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-7864-7475-2 |page=55 |chapter=2. Dragging the Monster |oclc=862799660  |accessdate=12 April 2018 |quote=Within the drag community, "faux queen" is the title used for a woman who performs as a drag queen.}}</ref>
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