Why do men dress up as women?

I don't know about that. I worked in a shoe store at Northern Lights in Columbus while i was looking for a "real job." As it turned out, i worked there for a couple of years. There was a drag queen who would come in looking for shoes--always hard for a man with large feet. I'd help him out, just as i would any other customer. The first three or four times he came in (it wasn't as though he came in often), when he had made his selection, and we had gone to the counter to check him out, i'd say: "Thank you, Sir, have a good evening." Ooo . . . he'd glare daggers at me. It seemed really important to him to be taken for a woman. After a while, he'd come to the door, see me, and then turn around and leave. I suspect that for some of them, it's really about being mistaken for a woman. Probably as with most human endeavor, there are many different subtleties of motivation.

Well but that's part of the drag queen culture too. "She," "girlfriend," etc.

I do think there's a distinction between drag queens and transgender.

Drag queens:

- May not always dress up as women. (RuPaul, my pregnancy-averse friend, the guy in pictures last page.)
- Have a cultural presence of some kind (do shows, go to shows, etc.)
- Adhere to the drag queen cultural norms (exaggerated femininity, large personality, humor, etc.)

Transgender:

- Feel that they ARE the other gender than the one they were born to.
- Dress as the other gender (let's say people who are born men but feel that they're women for simplicity) all of the time, unless they can't for some reason (like work).
- Would prefer to be perceived as a woman, all of the time
- Work at naturalistic mannerisms etc., until it's natural.


Note, there is some overlap. But they're distinct in many ways too.

Sure, i'd never conflate drag queens with transgender. But i suspect that some drag queens aren't running around dressed as women in the day time. He'd show up to buy shoes wearing a woman's business suit, not flashy nighttime garb. I think it was really important to him to be taken as a woman, not simply a drag queen. There were some other issues there, too. He was white, and apparenly affluent. He was coming to a shoe store in a poor, black neighborhood, to a shopping center nortoriously "poor black." I suspect he did not want to run into anyone who would recognize him--which is not necessarily how the queens JCBoy and Marciano know are behaving.

He sounds more transgender than drag queen to me then...?

Ya think? I don't claim to be sensitive to the subtleties here. Going to the Northern Lights shopping center, dressed as a white business woman strongly suggested to me that he didn't want to be recognized.

Set, I think soz made a really good point about the differences, i.e. the really big personality, being "on" vs. just wanting to dress in a way that feels comfortable to their personalities.

ok, I'm an introvert, even though I'm friendly, and can start a conversation with total strangers at the drop of a hat. The introvert part comes into play when having to be around Anyone, male/female/gay/straight that's over the top, always playing up the drama, always with the too quick quips and comebacks. It's the non-stop being On.

There have been other threads here about costumes and clowns, neither of which I enjoy. When it comes right down to it, what is the difference between this...



and this....?



or for that matter, between this....



and this....?



None of them are at all like these....

The only person I've known going through with a sex change or maybe just contemplating one was a fellow moving along through that sequence in my relatively small last town. At first I took him as (sorry), weird. But he didn't talk to us about that, he talked about art, and various efforts he was putting together, and we woke up. He was careful but he did show up and talk. I won't call him a friend, I don't know him that well, but I might say he is someone I love. I know, too late. I think he was/is brave.
I've been gone from there six years now, have no idea how he is.

I agree. The person in transition I just posted about was modifying, carefully.

Ya gotta love the job honey and I do, work about twenty hours a week and love what I do.

At Georgie's, as a woman



And a man

My personal guess is that it's part of a desire for theatrics and as a (perhaps unconscious) protest nose-thumbing to the rigid roles of macho-style of masculinity in various cultures.

Who ever heard of a Puerto Rican Drag Queen?

You're a handsome man and hot woman!

I recognize DJ in drag, second video, Thom's now infamous bartender.

Hi Danny, please fill me in here.

Are you saying you work as a DQ? If so, are you Fuentes or DJ, or someone else.

I've got some questions for you once I know all the players in this.

Danny’s stage name is Jaeda. He works at several clubs, he knows we’re not a fan of drag shows but we still will go on occasion. The second video is Alibi’s employee turnabout show, where the employees get dressed in drag to entertain the customers; DJ is one of the bartenders.

Looks like a tranny slut!

Oh piss off!

I’m not sure what it is and I’ve never understood why so many gay men love the drag shows but they do and Danny sure brings in the crowds when he performs.

Yeah, that's part of what I'm wondering.

It's not like drag queens want to be women (maybe an isolated case here or there)
They know that this is not what women look like, or would want to look like (if you're the type that wears the really exaggerated makeup/hair)

I'm curious from the performers point of view what seems to be the biggest draw to those who enjoy the shows.

The type of drag queen (am I insulting if I abbreviate that to DQ?) like your earlier post, the one outside, with the 2 guys in their undies, looking like Devine IS to me, as a woman, rather off putting. It's like he took all the feminine attributes of a woman, and turned each one into something grotesque. That is how I see a typical clown.....as something grotesque, but who is trying to disguise it under the excuse of humour.

Now, the 2nd group of photos, of Jaeda, I relate to more as the "pretty clown" picture I posted. Still an exaggeration of a woman, but is also showing their talents. The pretty clown was not menacing, but showing her skills as a gymnast/athelete/dancer maybe etc. Jaeda shows talent by her singing/dancing etc.

Last year, I had recorded a whole season of RuPauls Drag Race. I sat down and watched them all in one go. There was one DQ that none of the others liked it seemed, although she remained in the competition for quite some time.
The common complaint about her was that "she's just a pretty face" The thing was, she was one of the people who could actually pass as a woman if you were to see her in public.
I can understand in a way that is not what drag is about, but again, it seemed it was being viewed as a negative that she looked like a real woman.

Thoughts?

Like Jessica Wild?

I really Did like her on Rupaul.
Great sense of humour, didn't take herself too seriously...who could dressed up like a chicken in a skit?