Drag Balls
When your community isn’t welcome in mainstream society, you either conform to the status quo or make your own space. Subculture is born from discrimination— it blooms into massive networks of support and acceptance in the shadows. Drag culture is no exception and has been deeply tied to the identity of queer individuals since its inception.
Many people’s first experience with drag, defined by Grinnell College as “the practices of one gender dressing in the clothes typically worn by the opposite gender and often adopting the conventional mannerisms of that gender,” is a relatively modern one. Madonna’s “Vogue” pushed the art of drag into mainstream culture, and more recently, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” marked the growing acceptance of drag in current society.
Despite this, the origins of drag stretch far further back. In many of Shakespeare’s plays and Italian operas, actors and characters would swap genders to fill more serious roles. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a more humorous brand of gender-swapping was born, and men often improvised as stock female characters for the entertainment of an audience.
In the late 1800s, members of the LGBTQ community began to organize drag balls in defiance of a law which banned people from wearing clothes of the opposite gender. These drag balls created a space for the LGBTQ community to feel free, especially for black and Latinx participants, though racism was still prevalent in integrated balls. Drag as we know it today was born out of these events.
As time went on, drag balls evolved from social events to competitions, and members of the community would participate in the fashion shows and performances that are common today. It’s easy to paint the picture of a totally accepting community, but competitions were typically decided by an all white panel of judges, creating little opportunity for POC queens. Crystal Labejia and her friend Lottie created the House of LaBejia as a space for black queens and are often credited with creating the first house in New York City.
Houses emerged as a second home and support system for drag queens who had been kicked out or shunned by their family members. They also served as training— house mothers, typically older, more experienced queens, would teach house members to perform and help them make costumes in preparation for upcoming competitions.
Until the 1980s, the focus of drag competitions fell primarily on their fashion, with queens walking the runway and lip synching to show off their handmade looks. Vogueing, a style of dance where performers imitate the poses of models, emerged in the drag scene; dance and music became an even more iconic part of drag culture.
The range of music utilized in drag is just as varied as the personalities of the queens performing, but there is a lot of focus on femininity and power. Queens perform to whatever is popular within the community at the time and often draw inspiration from powerful women in pop culture in their acts. Additionally, drag balls have provided a space for queens to create their own music, typically upbeat house beats overlaid with commentary typical of a competition.
Ball culture has expanded throughout the world through the influence of drag icons like RuPaul, but its popularity doesn’t make it any less of a safe space. The community still consists mainly of those society ignores and pushes out, and its original values of expression and community run deep.
The drag community was born of necessity and expression, and as acceptance and support for the LGBTQ community has grown, it has found its way out of the shadows and into mainstream culture. Total acceptance is still a long way away, but drag has made a massive impact in modern music and culture. It’s paved a path for queer artists to grow and express themselves without fear in a world that tries to suppress their voices.