Is Drag... Anti-Feminist?

By King Markiss: Drag king, philosopher, feminist, queer woman (he/him)

Drag performers catch a lot of shit. We’re called mentally ill, satanic, perverts, and.. bigots? 

Drag performers are criticised for a lot of things, and while most are obviously false, the criticism that drag queens are misogynists because they culturally appropriate femininity is ripe for philosophical consideration. So, I want to sit with this criticism. I want to investigate what it might mean to appropriate femininity, and whether femininity is something that can be appropriated in the first place. My opinion, while largely unimportant here, is one of disagreement but understanding. So I hope you stay and linger with me, dear reader, because threatening ideas can not be ignored. They must be dissected. 

Patti Tamara Lenard and Peter Balint (2019) say that cultural appropriation occurs when you take and use a valuable, but reusable aspect of a group’s culture (like a cultural practice or tradition), and you reasonably ought to know that you are taking and using this valuable cultural resource, and your taking of it is controversial. To them, it is controversial when the alleged appropriators can be said to be wronging the original group merely by using the cultural resource. 

The core questions we must answer (if we accept Lenard and Balint’s definition) are (1) whether drag queens are ‘‘taking and using” cultural practices that belong to women, and (2) whether this action is wronging- in other words, committing an act that is morally wrong against- women as a class. 

1. Does Femininity Belong to Women? 

The primary argument brought by critics is that drag queens’ taking and using the cultural practice of feminine embodiment (i.e. dressing and looking feminine) mocks femininity, thereby misogynistically mocking women as a class. This is made worse, they say, by the fact that those engaging in the mockery enjoy a position of social domination over women. 

Playwright and ex-university lecturer Dr. Grace Barnes expressed this opinion in a letter written to The Guardian. Upset with an opinion article published on the site that praised Ru Paul’s Drag Race, she claimed “drag queens take the trappings of femininity and exaggerate these to create a grotesque caricature which, at its core, humiliates women.” She goes on to say that this “grotesque caricature” is so harmful because “those holding the reins of power [men] utilise performance to mock those without power [women] through a demeaning parody” (Barnes 2024). 

Her core point in this scathing letter is that drag queens miss the true nature of femininity by prioritising the explicit, perhaps less valuable, external signifiers of femininity. She says this trivialises womanhood, becoming only more harmful when the powerful use these inaccurate ‘caricatures’ to mock their subjects. 

Before I criticise this argument, let’s see where she might be right. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Drag is a highly visual art form. A major goal of a drag queen is to look like a woman. As such, it becomes the goal of a drag queen to emphasise stereotypical feminine features so that when we see her, we think she is meant to be a woman. No one thinks Trixie Mattel looks like a ‘real woman’, but from her huge eyelashes and perky breasts we can tell she wants us to look at her and think ‘woman’. Barnes is right, then, to say that drag queens take and exaggerate the trappings of femininity. An anonymous contributor to TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) internet forum Women’s Rights Network echoes this point, saying:

“we’re told that drag subverts gender norms, [...] challenging gender norms and stereotypes. But what we see performed so enthusiastically embraces and exploits pornified stereotypes and takes them to another level. Drag queens act out the very stereotypes they claim to dismantle”. 

In a limited sense, this contributor is right. Some drag queens do lean heavily into ‘pornified’ stereotypes of femininity, throwing themselves onto a stage three-quarters naked with a bouncing breastplate. They ‘subvert’ femininity by embodying a standard and harmful form of it. Cis men have naturally lower body fat percentages than women, too, and since a silicone breastplate and hip pads can never go saggy like natural hips and breasts, male drag queens can conform to the impossible female beauty standard with far more ease than a cisgender woman can. 

Before I critique this argument, I want to say that I think this argument comes from a genuine place. I think the people who make this argument genuinely feel insulted or slighted when they see a drag queen. Even I feel insulted by some drag queens’ portrayal of femininity on occasion (in particular, Spice’s tragic portrayal of Miley Cyrus on Ru Paul’s Drag Race). We can not control these emotional reactions. 

What we can control, however, and where these critics get it wrong, is the equation of feminine embodiment to women as a class (think back to question 1 in the introduction). Think about it: if drag is insulting to women because drag misrepresents femininity, and drag misrepresents femininity because drag queens neglect large components of womanhood, then the implication here is that femininity is womanhood- to be feminine is to be a woman to be a woman is to be feminine. 

This connection isn’t necessary, is it? Feminine embodiment and the female identity are separate. Women do not simply cease being women when they put on a pair of pants and fix a car (or, to re-state the slogan so often misused by transphobes, a man does not become a woman when he puts on a dress). In fact, dictating that this connection between femininity and womanhood is strict and necessary- that any misuse of femininity is itself an attack on women- upholds sexist norms that keep women chained to feminine beauty and behavioural standards. Makeup, thinness, domesticity, beauty, etc. 

Nonetheless, femininity and womanhood are closely connected in practice, and insisting on their separation only gets us so far. Comedian and drag critic Kirsten Anderberg complained in 2006 that the feminine embodiment drag queens were so excited to ‘celebrate’ were 

“the things I have shunned as part of the ancient ‘cult of womanhood,’ all the superficial, commercialized, and fake aspects of ‘femininity’ that I have fought to be freed from.” (Cohen 2019).

Indeed, the bulk of second-wave feminist scholarship argued that traditionally feminine practices- makeup, weight loss, beauty, sexual desirability and more- are themselves tools of oppression (Bordo 2003, 169; 172). They are the chains of many women, so while they can be worn by others, it is ignorant to assume women don’t have some special relationship to it, however small. 

2. Queens Acting Badly? 

Now we turn to answering question (2). Even if drag queens are ‘taking something that belongs to women’ (femininity) in their performance, the question still remains as to whether this act of taking commits a morally wrong act against women as a class. We turn, then, to considering the behaviour of drag queens. 

The anti-drag critic’s case here is that, even if drag queens don’t take something that ‘belongs’ to women, when they get on stage they mock women through their performance and mannerisms. Using the cultural language of performance, a drag queen will communicate ‘I am a woman’ or ‘I am feminine’ by acting hypersexual, like a bimbo, like a model, and nothing else. This shallowness, these folks would say, reinforces negative stereotypes about women, rather than challenging them. Anderberg made this complaint, pointing out that when drag queens think ‘I am going to act like a woman’, they decide to act hypersexual, “giddy, stupid, shallow”. This doesn’t seem to challenge hierarchical gender roles at all, does it? 

Many critics also point to the language used by drag queens to say that their performance, rather than being a one-off mistake, represents a deep-held misogyny. For example, insistent use of the word ‘fishy’. This term, while not invented by drag queens, is used to describe someone who looks so much like a ‘natural woman’ that you can smell her vagina. It calls women unclean, associating womanhood and women not just with our genitals, but with dirty genitals. Often, the only people calling out this misogynistic language in queer spaces are AFABs (Duncan 2022). ‘Fishy’ is the most egregious example (alongside the physical ‘joke’ of a drag queen indicating disgust at the smell of her vagina), but some feminists, considering these terms to be slurs against women, also take issue with drag performers’ use of terms like ‘cunt’, ‘cunty’, ‘bitch’, and more. They say these terms aren’t for cisgeneder men to ‘reclaim’, but cisgender women’s. 

In my radical feminist theory opinion, these criticisms are strong. In my grounded drag performer opinion, these criticisms are misguided. It does piss me off to see drag queens constantly act like bimbos, mock pregnancy, periods, and the smell of vaginas, even if it is part of their ‘character’. If you can’t serve ‘woman’ without relying on actively harmful stereotypes about women- our intelligence, our sexuality, our competence- you need to reassess your drag persona entirely. You need to reassess your beliefs about women. 

Drag as an art form, still, is not an inherently misogynistic one. Like every art medium we enjoy, individual artists can let misogynistic beliefs seep in. Photography is not a misogynistic art form because some male photographers are obsessed with photographing naked women. Theatre is not inherently racist because it was used for so long as a vessel for racism. That is my first response to this criticism. My second, and connected, response is that the people who make this criticism have not seen a lot of drag. The majority of drag

queens do not act “giddy, stupid, and shallow”. They dance like regular people dance at a club (sometimes better!), and they often act like themselves in real life. Many drag queens have a great reverence for women, and this translates into their performances. I think anti-drag feminists have this opinion simply because they have not seen much drag at all. Their aversion to drag is what causes their ignorance, and their ignorance causes their aversion. While some drag queens’ performances reflect misogyny, that is a consequence of their misogyny, not a consequence of the medium of drag. 

3. Conclusions 

I want to close this analysis by bringing attention to the innumerous transgender drag queens who have come to realise that they are women. The medium of drag has made many queens (including my dearest drag mother, grandmother, sisters, and friends) realise that femininity and womanhood makes them feel like themselves- it makes their body feel like home. I think this reinforces the two core points I have tried to make in this analysis. 

First, that femininity and womanhood enjoy some special connection. Through engaging in feminine practices traditionally connected to womanhood, people came to realise that they didn’t just like those practices, but that they are women. This connection is not necessary, but it is strong. Therefore, it is quite reasonable indeed to expect drag queens to pay respect to the people who have a special connection to the cultural practices they adopt in their performances. Along this line, our beloved cis male drag queens need to be aware of the privilege they have in being able to take off femininity- to merely put it on as a costume- and to not live under conditions where feminine embodiment is a daily and mandatory practice. 

Second, the transwoman drag queens in my life demonstrate that drag is not a misogynistic mode of performance. If drag queens did drag because they wanted to ridicule women, they would not begin the arduous and dangerous process of transition in order to make themselves seen as one off stage. The oppressor does not want to become a member of the class they oppress. In fact, they do everything they can to separate themselves from them! 

In the end, I don’t think anti-drag feminists are evil for being bothered by drag in the ways I have described here. Their right to be bothered, though, does not supersede the right of drag queens to exist in public, for two reasons. (1) Femininity does not exclusively belong to women, and (2) whether one’s performance of femininity is misogynistic can only be determined on a case-by-case basis, as it is not a necessary feature of drag to act “giddy, stupid, shallow”. I’d recommend the drag haters go to some more shows to see just how diverse, enriching, and empowering drag can be.

Cited:

Barnes, Grace. 2024. “Drag: a Sexist Caricature, or a Fabulous Art Form?” The Guardian, April 7. 

Bordo, Susan. 2003. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body: 10th Anniversary Edition. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Cohen, Liz. 2019. “From Drags to Bitches: The Implications of Mainstreamed Drag Culture on Women.” Medium, June 12. 

Duncan, Charlie. 2022. “Victoria Scone Calls out ‘Misogyny’ in Drag on Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs the World.” Pink News, November 28. 

Lenard, P. T., and Balint, P. 2019. “What is (the wrong of) cultural appropriation?” Ethnicities 20 (2), 331-352.