Queen (slang)

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In gay slang, queen is a term used to refer to a flamboyant or effeminate gay man. The term can either be pejorative or celebrated as a type of self-identification.

Contents

History

In 1951, Karl Bowman, former president of the American Psychiatric Association, described patients who were called queens, in a report to the California State Legislature: [1]

I have records of two males, both of whom have asked for complete castration, including amputation of the penis, construction of an artificial vagina, and the administration of female sex hormones. [...] Male homosexuals of this type are called "Queens" and seem to differ markedly from the main group of homosexuals who are more nearly like the average man.

Such individuals in the 20th century would later be commonly termed transsexuals. [1]

Drag queen

RuPaul, arguably the world's most famous drag queen, is known for the series RuPaul's Drag Race, its international spin-offs, and related DragCons. RuPaul by David Shankbone cropped.jpg
RuPaul, arguably the world's most famous drag queen, is known for the series RuPaul's Drag Race , its international spin-offs, and related DragCons.
Drag queens at 2012 Sydney Mardi Gras Sydney Mardi Gras 2012 (6951029459).jpg
Drag queens at 2012 Sydney Mardi Gras

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, most drag queens have been men dressing as women. In modern times, drag queens are associated with gay men and gay culture, but they can be of any gender and sexual identity.

People partake in the activity of doing drag for reasons ranging from self-expression to mainstream performance or to simply have fun. Drag shows frequently include lip-syncing, live singing, and dancing. They occur at events like gay pride parades and drag pageants and in venues such as cabarets and nightclubs. Drag queens vary by type, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who do drag only occasionally.

Generally, drag queens dress in a female gender role, often exaggerating certain characteristics for comic, dramatic or satirical effect. Other drag performers include drag kings, who are women who perform in male roles, faux queens, who are women who dress in an exaggerated style to emulate drag queens and faux kings, who are men who dress to impersonate drag kings. A bedroom queen is a drag queen who mainly does their drag at home in the bedroom rather than publicly.

The term drag queen usually refers to people who dress in drag for the purpose of performing, whether singing or lip-synching, dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, drag pageants, or at venues such as cabarets and discotheques. Alongside traditional drag work such as shows and performances, many drag queens engage in 'mix-and-mingle' or hosting work at night clubs or at private parties/events. Drag is a part of Western gay culture; it is often noted that the Stonewall riots on June 27, 1969 in New York City were inspired and led by drag queens and, in part for this reason, drag queens remain a tradition at pride events. Prominent drag queens in the gay community of a city often serve as official or unofficial spokespersons, hosts or emcees, fund-raisers, chroniclers and community leaders.

Rice queen

A rice queen is a gay male, usually white, who prefers or exclusively dates East Asian men. [2] The term is considered gay slang and, depending on the context, may be considered derogatory and offensive internationally. [3]

Sticky rice refers to East Asian men who prefer other East Asian men, [4] [5] likewise to the term rice king, which is used to describe males who seek Asian women.

Yellow fever denotes the attraction certain non-Asian individuals may have for Asian men or women.

Bean queen

Bean queen or rice and bean queen are terms used in the English-speaking gay community to refer to a gay male, usually white, who is primarily attracted to Hispanic and Latino males. One source describes these as "Gay men who are attracted to gentlemen of the Latino flava." [6] [7] [8]

The term is probably derived from the better-established term "rice queen", substituting the rice that forms the basis of the Asian diet with the beans or rice and beans popular throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Other food-based variations such as taco queen, salsa queen and so on are heard occasionally. [7] [9]

Refried beans refers to Hispanic and Latino men who prefer other Hispanic and Latino men.[ citation needed ]

Much less frequently, these terms are used to describe gay Latino males themselves. [9]

Mitten queen

One who prefers to masturbate partners. [10]

Fire queen

One who likes to burn partners with cigarettes and/or vice versa. [10]

Size queen

A size queen is a gay male who prefers, or exclusively dates or has sex with men who have large penises or a large build. [11]

Gym queen

Gym queen refers to gay men who are into bodybuilding and working out either to bulk up and may include steroid use or those looking for a more lithe physique. [5] Although body building and male physique magazines were popular before the 1970s, the Castro clone look workboots, jeans, tight white T-shirt, shorter well-kept hair, and a well-muscled physique became widely known and emulated in the 1970s and 1980s, replacing the hippie artistic constructs and fashions. [12]

Show queen

According to Charles Isherwood in The New York Times , "Show queen is, of course, the technical term for a person, of either gender and any sexual orientation, who is inordinately fond of Broadway musicals." [13] Although a "reviled" gay stereotype in the past, many LGBT activists influenced by queer politics have sought to reclaim the stereotype in a positive way. [13] [14]

In literature

An early example of this usage of the word "queen" in modern mainstream literature occurs in the 1933 novel The Young and the Evil by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler: "While waiting Karel wet his hair and put his handkerchief smeared with mascara behind a pipe. You still look like a queen Frederick said..." [15]

In music

"Artificial Energy", the opening track from The Byrds' 1968 album The Notorious Byrd Brothers is an upbeat song about the effects of amphetamine use, but the lyrics take an unexpected dark turn at the end when the narrator reveals that he's landed "in jail 'cause [he] killed a queen."

The Pink Floyd song from 1979 album The Wall , "Waiting for the Worms", contains the line "Waiting, for the queens and the coons and the reds and the Jews". The Kinks song from 1970, "Top of the Pops", contains the line "I've been invited to a dinner with a prominent queen..." and may be one of the earliest recorded examples of this usage. Their 1966 song "Little Miss Queen of Darkness" may be an even earlier reference, though more ambiguous in its possible description of a drag queen "accidentally met" in a discotheque, whose "false eyelashes/ were not much of a disguise..." and who was "not all that it might seem..." [16]

The name of famous British rock group, Queen, can be seen as a reference to LGBT slang. According to singer Freddie Mercury, he "was certainly aware of the gay connotations" when suggesting the name, although, as he admitted, "that was just one facet of it". [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drag queen</span> Entertainer dressed and acting with exaggerated femininity

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures</span> Variety of communities and subcultures

Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of people who have shared experiences, backgrounds, or interests due to common sexual or gender identities. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can also constitute cultural minorities were Adolf Brand, Magnus Hirschfeld, and Leontine Sagan in Germany. These pioneers were later followed by the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drag king</span> Mostly female performance artists who dress and behave in masculine way for performance

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.

LGBTQ slang, LGBTQ speak, queer slang, or gay slang is a set of English slang lexicon used predominantly among LGBTQ+ people. It has been used in various languages since the early 20th century as a means by which members of the LGBTQ+ community identify themselves and speak in code with brevity and speed to others. The acronym LGBT was popularized in the 1990s and stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. It may refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender, instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant, LGBTQ, adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer or are questioning their sexual or gender identity.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay men</span> Men attracted to other men

Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may dually identify as gay and a number of gay men also identify as queer. Historic terminology for gay men has included inverts and uranians.

Faggot, often shortened to fag in American usage, is a derogatory slur used to refer to gay men. In American youth culture around the turn of the 21st century, its meaning extended as a broader reaching insult more related to masculinity and group power structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terminology of homosexuality</span>

Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, gay, effeminate, queer, homoaffective, and same-gender attracted. Some of these words are specific to women, some to men, and some can be used of either. Gay people may also be identified under the umbrella term LGBT.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gender bender</span> Person who disrupts expected gender roles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ stereotypes</span> Stereotypes around LGBTQ people and communities

LGBT stereotypes are stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people based on their sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions. Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers and mass media, or, more generally, through a lack of firsthand familiarity, resulting in an increased reliance on generalizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AFAB queen</span> Subtype of drag queen

An AFAB queen, diva queen or hyper queen 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBTQ culture in the Philippines</span>

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people in the Philippines are generally accepted in Filipino society, and it has been ranked among the most gay-friendly countries in Asia. It has the second highest social acceptance rate in the Asia-Pacific next to Australia, according to a Pew Research Center survey in 2013. Despite this, some discrimination still persist and LGBT people have limited LGBT-specific rights, leading some activists to characterize LGBT culture in the Philippines as "tolerated, but not accepted." Homosexuals in the Philippines are known as "bakla", though there are other terms to describe them. According to the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey, 11 percent of sexually active Filipinos between the ages of 15 and 24 have had sex with someone of the same sex. According to Filipino poet and critic Lilia Quindoza Santiago, Filipino culture may have a more flexible concept of gender. Kasarian is defined in less binary terms than the English word; kasarian means "kind, species, or genus".

Fruit, fruity, and fruitcake, as well as its many variations, are slang or even sexual slang terms which have various origins. These terms have often been used derogatorily to refer to LGBT people. Usually used as pejoratives, the terms have also been re-appropriated as insider terms of endearment within LGBT communities. Many modern pop culture references within the gay nightlife like "Fruit Machine" and "Fruit Packers" have been appropriated for reclaiming usage, similar to queer.

LGBT linguistics is the study of language as used by members of LGBTQ communities. Related or synonymous terms include lavender linguistics, advanced by William Leap in the 1990s, which "encompass[es] a wide range of everyday language practices" in LGBT communities, and queer linguistics, which refers to the linguistic analysis concerning the effect of heteronormativity on expressing sexual identity through language. The former term derives from the longtime association of the color lavender with LGBT communities. "Language", in this context, may refer to any aspect of spoken or written linguistic practices, including speech patterns and pronunciation, use of certain vocabulary, and, in a few cases, an elaborate alternative lexicon such as Polari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bakla</span> Filipino word for effeminate individuals assigned male at birth

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In Thailand, one can find several different gender roles, identities and diverse visual markers of masculinity and femininity. Beyond the traditional male and female roles, there are categories for individuals who are gender non-conforming, whether in looks or behavior. These are generally regarded as sub-types of each sex, rather than a distinct gender identity, and correlate strongly with homosexuality. Demand and support for positive self-identity is growing in Thailand.

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References

  1. 1 2 Stryker, Susan (2017). Transgender History (2nd ed.). Berkeley: Seal Press. pp. 58–62. ISBN   978-1580056892.
  2. The Rice Queen Diaries, author Daniel Gawthrop (2005, Arsenal Pulp Press) — ISBN   9781551521893
  3. Ayres T (1999). China doll - the experience of being a gay Chinese Australian. Journal of Homosexuality, 36(3-4): 87-97
  4. Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video Glen M. Mimura, pg 141, U of Minnesota Press, 2009; ISBN   978-0-8166-4831-3, 9780816648313.
  5. 1 2 Ptown: Art, Sex, and Money on the Outer Cape Peter Manso, pg 55; Simon and Schuster, 2003, ISBN   978-0-7432-4311-7, ISBN   978-0-7432-4311-7.
  6. Lambda online "rules of attraction" Archived March 9, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  7. 1 2 Misadventures in Boyland Archived October 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  8. Fantabulosa: A Dictionary of Polari and Gay Slang by Paul Baker
  9. 1 2 Dictionary of Sexual Terms
  10. 1 2 Dictionary of Slang & Euphemism (Spears 1987)
  11. "Size Queen". Archived from the original on 2014-04-12.
  12. The Castro: San Francisco neighborhoods PBS documentary.
  13. 1 2 Isherwood, Charles (September 14, 2004). "Upfront Political Artist Taps Inner Show Queen". The New York Times . Retrieved September 26, 2018.
  14. Clum, John M. (1999). "Something for the Boys: Musical Theater and Gay Culture". Modern Drama. 43 (4). Archived from the original on 2006-11-11.
  15. Girodias, Maurice, The Olympia Reader, New York: Grove Press, 1965, excerpt from The Young and The Evil, Ford and Tyler p.208.
  16. "Kinks Song List". Archived from the original on 2013-12-07.
  17. "Queen Biography for 1970". Archived from the original on 2011-07-23.