Crossdressing and Drag: The Difference

[Alicia Harris]

Is there one? Drag, obviously, involves performance on stage in a traditional sense, but cross-dressing too is acting, or is for me anyway. We are acting as a member of the opposite sex, and our audience is anyone we happen to meet. Some drag queens dress in outrageous outfits, others have a more 'normal' sense of style. Which is just the same for us. One key difference is that an audience knows right from the beginning that a drag queen is actually male (or that a drag king is actually female), whereas for those of us lucky enough to 'pass', they still don't know by the time they've passed you. A question that should be decided is whether most drag performers do so to fulfill their natural leanings, or whether they do it only for the sake of the performance. Theatre is, of course, the golden excuse for many of us, but few of us have risen to the status of Lily Savage, or even Dame Edna Everage.

[Alisa]

DRAG - DRessed as A Girl and DRAB DRessed as A Boy is pretty straight (giggle - pardon the pun) forward. When you are talking about entertainers DRAG Queens and Female Impersonators are very different. A drag queen acts with exaggerated femininity often exaggerating certain characteristics such as make-up and eyelashes for comic, dramatic or satirical effect. Drag Queens are not necessarily trying to pass as women. Female Impersonators on the other hand, even entertainers, are trying to pass as women and unlike Drag Queens go out of their way to avoid exaggeration, etc.

[Noeleena]

Hi,

I have been to a drag show some years ago , and yes the men in this case a few were dressed well over the top and pure acting , I did speak to one I met there at the venu , and was told a few things , and I was taken aback on what he had to say , there was a lot of back biting and putting others down and a lot of one upmanship going on , so I was surprised, any way ,

So for the cross dressers, from what I see is yes acting is involved for many and to dress in a way so they are not known or hiding if you like , I will say many are very convincing and do and can dress very well , coming back from Austraila some two and 4 years ago we were at a Ball manly for dressers and a few trans people I think there were 3 of us females one other I had met 7 years ago and 3 female to male some lesbian and a few men about 120 people and two did dress in drag and sang the other was and is a week end coming up on the 21 st of this month = May and I have been to two of those ,

So I have a good idear of whats going on and have met many dress,ers and trans people , a few I have had long talks to and with .

When I showed my female friends the photos I took they were very surprised and thought they were women and then I told them in this case all were men so that was an eye opener for them ,

I have said many times they can dress quite lovely and do very well in impersonating women or acting that part ,

...noeleena...

[DonnaT]

You can't put drag queens DQs in one box for all, nor can you put CDs in one box for all.

I know a person in California that, as a CD also got into performing drag. She'll go out and a bout like many other CDs, and some nights will perform as a DQ. Recently, she's decided she wants to transition. So she's gone from a CD to TS, and still performs drag.

Many DQs are gay men, but some are straight, and married. Are the straight married DQs CDs, or are they doing what they can to earn a buck?

If a CD does drag on stage, or to earn a buck, then they are also a DQ. Just because a CD may look like a DQ, that doesn't make them a DQ.

Nope, you can't put everyone in a box.

[Anita]

I signed up for drag shows as a way to ‘come out’ to people, so I performed with drag queens in the first months that I was going out in the world. I always wanted to know more about the motivation behind their need to perform as women.

Nothing I’ve ever read about gay men and drag ever struck me as authentic. I wanted to hear from the performers themselves. In all that time, I didn’t hear anything from them! I performed with a drag queen for eight years, and we had a good rapport. We never got into ‘reasons why,’ though.

I always made sure that I was identified as a “T-girl,” in the promo material.
There were several other trans women who did that particular show, and there was one who transitioned during the time I was performing. The majority of the cast were gay males who saw themselves as men, though.

I know that for me, presenting a female image gave me more emotional range to work with. I could express things that just weren’t available for a straight male. I could see that gay men seemed to be using their female acts to do the same thing. Sure, some of them did the exaggerated cartoon version of a woman, just like the stereotypes. More of them did a credible version of women, though.

After all, as a heterosexual men, I’m attracted to women. So when I present as a woman, I do my best to act out all the positive things I like about the women I know. Other straight men appreciate my ‘act’ for that reason—I know that a majority of straight men are going to like the same qualities
that I do.

Gay men also act out wonderful presentations of women. As a straight male, I can appreciate that. I still wonder what the gay men in the audience are getting out of that same act. Something, for sure, because drag shows are popular.

[Alisa]

Hi Anita,
Can't really say I have the kind of experience that you have but I have quite a few gay and lesbian friends and acquaintances. Can't say the same for those with bisexual tendencies. Anyway my observation is that differences are more about general tendency toward top or bottom/dom or sub. Giggle... I think my theory explains your observed variations among entertainers but not sure this is the right forum to discuss in detail..

Hugs,

Alisa

[Anthony Simon]

Gay men also act out wonderful presentations of women. As a straight male, I can appreciate that. I still wonder what the gay men in the audience are getting out of that same act. Something, for sure, because drag shows are popular.

Some of it is likely similar to what CDs get from looking at videos/pictures of CDs - a sublimated version of an experience one would like for oneself. Like "Could I emulate a woman? Wow, these people are good". I mean if women have some man in them and vice versa, crossdressing is bound to have an appeal just generically.

I am aware of conflicts I have about being a man who essentially has a woman inside. It does not fit with the internalised view of who I should be. I construe what goes on with gay men who do/watch drag as coming from a parallel kind of place. On the one hand they're offering themselves to men as men - and, on the other, they've got this woman inside who needs to be expressed. They get around this (often) by saying drag is just an stage act, but....

[Anne Bonny]

2C worth...Drag Queens are performers and typically they are way way over the top, loud and gaudy with make up out of a comic book with shades of red, glitter on their eyes loud and large sweeping flamboyant movements to give an overly effeminate show to underscore the entire performance. They may just do it as a job and do not dress that way when they are off at all, but as was said above they are a diverse population so some may be gay and some may be trans, some gender fluid or transgender which is a huge umbrella. And not all performers are over the top some do very good presentations of famous stars.

Cross dressers are also a diverse group sexuality and gender wise but usually they feel feminine and dress well some do indeed dress over the top, or dress like any mainstream woman and they tend to dress because this is part of who they are as a total person.

[Sarah Ann]

Oh shoot. that's simple. Crossdressing is a remarkably pleasurable practice which many of us here delight in. Drag is the force resultant from impact pressure, skin friction, viscosity, vorticity, and shock waves. I certainly hope this clears things up.

[Anne Bonny]

We know what crossdressing is...Drag is done on a straight track with lots and lots of horsepower and they need a chute to stop!

[Marissa Mae]

Yes, drag is a performance. It's a very different thing from CDing, which is the whole range of things that are *not* performance.

Certainly a CDer may dress up, go out, and parade herself in front of spouse, kids, friends, whoever will radiate acceptance. An extrovert CDer may create a sensation on the street, but at some point I'd say that does shade over into drag.

As a retired singer/performer I'm very aware of the performance aspect of things: the startling change that happens when you move to the other side of the footlights, go into high gear, and turn yourself into a performer. And the equally startling change that happens when you stop breathing fire, come down from that high (it can take an hour, or hours), and want to be just yourself.

Being "just yourself," out of the limelight—the whole range of private life—is, I would suggest, the range of CDing. Interestingly, though I'm a former performer, I've never tried drag, and have no desire to perform as my womanself. I shun performance, am happy as a woman (not gender reassigned) in private life. It means that in public I have to wear unisex clothes made for women (no drab for me). It's enough for me to know I'm a woman in private.

Love, Marissa Mae

[Eileen (SO)]

The need for my husband to dress female is to express the female within. Predominately male, his 'she' wants to be presumed as female, not as a man dressed as one.

Whatever their motive, drag performers are assumed as males and therefore does not provide the emotional satisfaction that CDing does. A performer has different needs of course, my opinion is based on the views of just one and a few of her friends.

Eileen