Behind the lipstick and sex jokes

The metaphorical curtain was about to go up on the Queer Student Alliance’s fifth-annual drag show, and backstage the drag queens were already dancing. They exuded both fear and pride — fear that everything would go wrong and pride that they had made it that far.

Hopping with excitement, College freshman Ernest Owens raved about his mid-act costume change into a sheer black leotard that would emulate Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” video.

College junior Victor Galli talked about creating his drag queen identity, Hedda Kale. He was proud of his hair-free body — “It took four hours to shave everything” — and his fake breasts — “I want to get a shirt that says, ‘I’m down here,’ and points to them.”

Meanwhile, College junior Mr. Lee, who asked not to use his first name in case future employers disapprove of his drag-show participation, seemed more nervous than most.

“Oh my God,” he exclaimed as College junior Lauren Yarger did his makeup. “Why am I doing this?”

But even with the excitement and nerves permeating the air, the last night of QPenn — a week dedicated to awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues — Friday at the ARCH auditorium was clearly more than a good time.

The art of drag

After jokingly suggesting a “boob war” with another drag queen, Galli paused and took on a more serious tone.

“I’m really drawn to feminine power, and I feel like breasts are one representation of strong femininity.”

With few feminine — not to be confused with female — leaders, drag shows offer a change from the norm, Galli said. Even female politicians and business leaders tend to take on masculine traits.

Drag is a way of life — a culture and an art that “has been around forever,” explained Lambda Alliance Chair Corinne Rich, a College junior.

It is also an opportunity to challenge stereotypes, LGBT Center director Bob Schoenberg said.

The show helps “break the walls” of gender norms, added College senior Jason Goodman, who performed as Queen Esther.

“To see a varsity athlete who happens to be gay dressed performing as Lady Gaga is a complex and hilarious statement,” Schoenberg said, referring to one of the performances in last year’s show.

With proceeds benefiting the Vivek A. Patel Foundation, which aids the fight against depression and bipolar disorder, the drag show is also a method of supporting mental-health awareness. This is particularly relevant in the LGBT community, said College juniors Quintin Marcus and Ross Kelley, the show organizers and co-chairs of QSA, especially in light of the suicides that happened across the collegiate LGBT community last year.

In her shoes

On Friday, March 18, College freshmen Jesse Franklin and Margaret Borowczyk went shopping for Franklin’s drag identity, Summer Clearance.

Within minutes, Borowczyk had helped Franklin pick out a loose, black midriff tee with the words “Why not” scribbled across. Then she handed him a black bra, size 42 C.

At the next store, the duo found a black mini skirt to match. The shoes were the only thing missing.

Up until this point, Franklin had been adamant — he would not try anything on.

“I don’t feel like a lady, so I don’t feel comfortable being in [a woman’s dressing room].”

However, Borowczyk urged him to try on the shoes.

It was hard to find an adequately high heel that was both wide and long enough for Franklin’s foot. Not to mention that he had never worn women’s shoes before and had no idea how to put them on.

After trying to force his men’s-size-10 foot into a few strappy platforms, he found a pair that worked and let out a cry of relief.

His relief was at finding not just the right shoes, but also the courage to try them on.

“I realized, ‘Be proud of who you are, even if it means people giving you weird looks,’” Franklin said. “I feel like I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone.”

Dancing away the fear

In the seminar room of Harrison College House, Wharton sophomore Dan Wolfe pulled on a long, dark-brown wig and strapped on his black heels.

“What do we do when our wig falls off?” asked College freshman Marcus Mundy, the drag show’s unofficial choreographer. “We swing it and we throw it.”

When the music turned on, the fringes on the back of Wolfe’s shoes began to sway.

He lip-synced along with the song “I Can’t Say No” from Oklahoma. Known as She-Wolfe in the show, he said he picked the song for its unapologetic “sex-positive” attitude.

When the song ended, Mundy said he detected “conservativity” in Wolfe’s choreography.

“I want more hands in the air, more twirls.”

Then he reminded Wolfe not to be afraid. Wolfe assured him he wasn’t.

However, as Lee and his dance partner, College junior Mr. Yang, practiced their dance the night before the show, they couldn’t hide their fear.

“One of my biggest concerns is that I’m going to be terrible,” Lee said.

The only straight performers in the show, Lee and Yang — who wished to omit his first name for the same reason as Lee — agreed to perform as a favor to their friend Yarger, who works at the LGBT Center.

A ‘safe zone’

The show offers a “safe zone” for audience members who don’t identify as LGBT, Rich said, and who might otherwise fear that attending an LGBT event will draw assumptions about their gender identities. But with the drag show, they feel comfortable in the audience because they don’t have to participate.

Performing, however, requires psychological readiness, Galli said. You have to be comfortable with the assumptions others might make.

People who are not ready to be entirely open about their sexual or gender identity may not be ready, he added.

Donning a wig and heels and dancing or singing on stage “means that you’re okay with who you are and showing it to other people,” Rich said.

However, there are those who are very comfortable with their gender identities but disagree with the drag show for other reasons.

“Many people are reluctant to participate in it because it gives credence to stereotypes that aren’t true,” Schoenberg said. For example, when parents hear for the first time that their son is gay, they often fear he will wear women’s clothing, though that’s usually not the case.

There are also those who resent the show and think, “It’s tough enough for me to present myself as gay … and [drag] represents the misconceptions that my less-informed straight friends have,” he added.

But for those who do feel comfortable participating in the show, the experience can be transformative.

Wolfe described his first drag show performance last year as “a public coming out.”

For Galli, the show offers a level of acceptance he can’t find at home in Dallas, Texas.

“When I go home, I completely change my voice, the way I dress, the things that I say,” he said, explaining that his family doesn’t know that he’s gay. “It’s a seamless transition because I had 18 years of experience.”

Because he doesn’t have a support system at home, Galli wants to offer support to those who need it, and “something as superficially innocuous as a drag show is so much more to the person sitting in the audience trying to figure these things out.”

Sex jokes on stage

“If you could play an instrument,” Summer Clearance asked, “what would you play?”

“The harp … because you can do that whole fingering thing,” answered Queen Esther, the heroine of the Jewish holiday Purim.

“That was a sex joke, y’all!” Summer Clearance squealed into the mic.

Backstage the drag queens — straight, gay, male and female — continued to dance.

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