An AFAB queen, diva queen or hyper queen [1] is a drag queen who is a woman, or a non-binary person who was assigned female at birth. These performers are generally indistinguishable from the more common male or transgender female drag queens in artistic style and techniques. [2] [3]
"AFAB" stands for "assigned female at birth". While this is somewhat controversial, other terms still used both by performers and in the media are also considered offensive. The term "faux queen" is rejected and considered outdated by many drag artists for implying that female drag queens are not as "real" as male drag queens, [4] [5] [6] and the term "female queen" is considered by many performers to be transphobic as they imply that a transgender woman who performs as a drag queen is not female. [7] [6] Other descriptions include "biologically challenged" drag queen, "female female impersonator", [8] or "female impersonator impersonator." [9] In recent years "AFAB queen" has been adopted to be inclusive of any performer who is discriminated against based on their assigned sex at birth, including non-binary and trans male performers. [10] However, this term is disliked by some trans male performers who believe there should not be any term to distinguish between drag artists on the basis of their gender identity, and who find that being called an AFAB queen means they are mistakenly believed to be women. [11]
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Like all drag performers, female drag queens play with traditional gender roles and gender norms to educate and entertain. Female queens can appear alongside drag kings, transgender drag queens, or male drag queens at drag shows and are interchangeable with other drag queens as emcees, performers, hostesses, and spokesmodels. [12]
For some it can be a way to redefine postmodern feminism; female drag queen Ms. Lucia Love stated, "Drag queens would be nowhere without women." [13] For others it simply is about dressing up and having fun. [14]
In San Francisco, the first ever "faux queen" pageant was produced as a benefit for the drag performer Diet Popstitute. [15] The first title-holder was Coca Dietetica, a.k.a. Laurie Bushman. The Klubstitute Kollective [16] was formed after Diet Popstitute's 1995 death to continue to raise funds and provide a space for the performers who, at the time, were not always welcome in typical drag venues. Pageant organizer Ruby Toosday had "friends who got fired (from drag clubs) for being women...it seemed like we had definitely hit a nerve. [8] Contestants were judged on drag, talent, and personality by a panel of judges [17] and the winner helped "femcee" the following year. The pageants were held from 1996 to 2005. The Faux Queen Pageant was resurrected in 2012 by former title holder Bea Dazzler, and will continue to be a yearly competition in San Francisco.
The dancer and performance artist Fauxnique (Monique Jenkinson) became the first female drag queen to win a major drag pageant—competing against cisgender male or trans female drag queens—when she was crowned Miss Trannyshack 2003. From Bust Magazine: "'(drag) comes down to a sort of self-awareness, a self-consciousness about playing around with femininity,' says Fauxnique. She adds that while drag for her is primarily about performance, it's also a 'rejection of traditional oppressive forms of masculinity—and that's part of an affinity with gay men as well. I wouldn't say every faux queen is a feminist, but I would say that a part of them is in some way.'" [18]
In the 1970s and 1980s, German-born Brazilian female queen Elke Maravilha became a popular TV personality after participating as a judge in the Chacrinha and Silvio Santos talent shows. According to her, "many people think I am a transvestite. When they ask me this, I jokingly reply that I'm a man indeed. And of the most gifted ones". [19]
The comedy films Connie and Carla [20] and Victor/Victoria both center on female drag queens, but the main characters of both films are women who are forced by circumstance to work as drag queens. They keep their gender a secret and impersonate men when off-stage, unlike their real-life counterparts.
The 2020 US reality TV vogue competition Legendary was the first US reality television show to include women performing and competing as drag queens, including the all-female team representing House of Ninja. [21] The reality competition Dragula featured two performers who were assigned female at birth in their third season, but winner Landon Cider (a cis woman) performs as a drag king and contestant Hollow Eve (a non-binary person) identifies as a drag artist, not specifically a drag queen. Female drag queen Sigourney Beaver competed in season 4, being one of the four finalists. [22] In 2021, the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK was the first season in the franchise to feature a queen who was both assigned female at birth and identified as female, Victoria Scone.
Singer-songwriter Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, known professionally as Chappell Roan, performs with an aesthetic and makeup heavily influenced by drag queens, and has described her stage name as a drag persona. [23]
Drag queens who were assigned female at birth, regardless of gender identity are not always permitted or welcomed within drag spaces, which are typically owned and run by gay men. RuPaul, the producer and host of the reality TV competition RuPaul's Drag Race , originally banned female artists from his shows, stating "Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it's not men doing it, because at its core it's a social statement and a big f-you to male-dominated culture. So for men to do it, it's really punk rock, because it's a real rejection of masculinity." [24] After significant backlash, RuPaul amended this response in 2019 to state "I've learnt to never say never." [25]
There are widely-held beliefs within the community that female and non-binary AFAB drag queens do not face the same challenges as cisgender male drag queens, and do not need to use padding, makeup, or tucking to appear feminine. AFAB drag artists typically counter that they use the same makeup techniques to create exaggerated femininity, and many do use padding and corsets to create an extreme body shape. [26] [5] These queens on Instagram often mock this belief that they do not "transform" their bodies by sharing strikingly different images of themselves in and out of drag with the hashtag #wheresthetransformationsis, started by female queen Creme Fatale. [27]
The rejection of AFAB drag queens is often closely linked to other reports of discrimination and objectification that women, transgender men, and non-binary people assigned female at birth face within LGBT spaces. These artists frequently report groping and harassment from cisgender gay men in gay bars and performance spaces, and report less pay and less tips from audiences. [28] Artists also have complained about drag terminology that they state is exclusionary or offensive; non-binary artist Hollow Eve sparked a significant debate in 2019 when an episode of Dragula aired where they spoke out against the term "fishy," used to mean a drag queen who looks like a woman and referring negatively to the smell of a vulva. [29]
The rising prominence of non-male drag queens and increased dialogue around inclusivity has resulted in many drag artists rejecting any distinction based on their gender and calling for drag competitions to remove all gender and assigned sex requirements for contestants. [30]
However, the first female Drag Queen Victoria Scone competed on RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 3, and Canada's Drag Race vs The World, where she was a finalist. The second ever female Drag Queen to compete of a Drag Race franchise is Clover Bish, who competed on Drag Race España and placed 5th overall, just falling short of the finale. The third female drag queen to compete is Pandora Nox, who won the first season of Drag Race Germany. She is the first cisgender woman to win any Drag Race franchise.
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and have been a part of gay culture.
Drag kings have historically been mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. As documented in the 2003 Journal of Homosexuality, in more recent years the world of drag kings has broadened to include performers of all gender expressions. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, either live or lip-synching to pre-recorded tracks. Drag kings often perform as exaggeratedly macho male characters, portray characters such as construction workers and rappers, or impersonate male celebrities like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Tim McGraw. Drag kings may also perform as personas that do not clearly align with the gender binary. Drag personas that combine both stereotypically masculine and feminine traits are common in modern drag king shows.
Drag is a performance of exaggerated femininity, masculinity, or other forms of gender expression, usually for entertainment purposes. Drag usually involves cross-dressing. A drag queen is someone who performs femininely and a drag king is someone who performs masculinely. Performances often involve comedy, social satire, and at times political commentary. The term may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag or as an adjective as in drag show.
A gender bender is a person who dresses up and presents themselves in a way that defies societal expectations of their gender, especially as the opposite sex. Bending expected gender roles may also be called a genderfuck.
RuPaul's Drag Race is an American reality competition television series, the first in the Drag Race franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV, WOW Presents Plus, VH1 and, beginning with the fifteenth season, MTV. The show documents RuPaul in the search for "America's next drag superstar". RuPaul plays the role of host, mentor, and head judge for this series, as contestants are given different challenges each week. Contestants are judged by a panel that includes RuPaul, Michelle Visage, one of three rotating judges, as well as one or more guest judges, who critique their progress throughout the competition. The title of the show is a play on drag queen and drag racing, and the title sequence and song "Drag Race" both have a drag-racing theme.
Jade Jolie is the stage name of Jules Green, an American drag queen and impersonator of Taylor Swift, known for competing in the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the fourth season of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula.
James Andrew Leyva, better known by the stage name Valentina, is an American drag performer, actor, television personality and singer who came to international fame as a contestant on the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race and the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. In 2023, she was announced as the co-host of season one of Drag Race México alongside Lolita Banana.
Eureka, also known as Eureka O'Hara and Eureka!, is the stage name of Eureka D. Huggard, an American drag queen and reality television personality. Eureka rose to prominence competing on the ninth and tenth seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race. She was removed from the ninth season due to a knee injury, becoming the first contestant in the history of the show to be sent home due to injury; she was then given an automatic berth to season 10, where she placed as runner-up. In 2021, Eureka competed on the sixth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, where she once more placed as a runner-up. In 2024, she competed on the second season of Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World.
The Boulet Brothers' Dragula is an American reality competition television series produced by Boulet Brothers Productions, hosted by the Boulet Brothers. The series originally aired on YouTube and has aired on Netflix in the United States, OUTtv in Canada, and Amazon Prime in the United Kingdom and Australia. Starting with season 4, the series moved to Shudder in all territories. The series will become a Shudder exclusive, with all seasons being hosted on the platform.
Maxi Glamour is the stage name of Maximus Ademaus Glamour, a non-binary multi-disciplinary drag artist from St. Louis, Missouri, and the self-titled "Demon Queen of Polka and Baklava". They were a contestant in Season 3 of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula.
Landon Cider is an American drag king, actor and host. He won season 3 of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula and was crowned the "World's Next Drag Supermonster".
Call Me Mother is a Canadian reality television series, which premiered on OutTV in 2021. Hosted by Entertainment Tonight Canada reporter Dallas Dixon, the series is a drag competition which will see up-and-coming drag performers join one of three drag houses to compete in group challenges, with one drag artist eliminated each week until the winner of the competition is crowned the "First Child of Drag".
Dollya Black is the stage name of Mason Hartenstein, a drag performer from Orlando, Florida who competed on season 3 of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula
Victoria Scone is the stage name of Emily Diapre, a British drag queen and cabaret performer based in Cardiff, Wales. She is best known for competing on the third series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK in 2021, where she was the first cisgender female contestant on any series of the Drag Race franchise. She returned to compete in the first season of Canada's Drag Race: Canada vs. the World in 2022.
Maddy Morphosis is the stage name of Daniel Truitt, a drag performer most known for competing on season 14 of RuPaul's Drag Race. He is the show's first openly heterosexual male contestant. Since 2023, he has hosted his own talk show webseries Give It to Me Straight.
Astrid Basson, professionally known as Dakota Schiffer, is an English drag performer and model who competed on the fourth series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.
Denim, formerly known as Denim Pussy, is the stage name of Emerson Sanderson, a Canadian drag performer who competed on season 4 of Canada's Drag Race.
Amanda Tori Meating is the stage name of Amanda Stock, an American drag performer, theatrical actor, and wig stylist who competed on season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race.
