Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret

\ Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret\ \ \ \ By Leila J. Rupp Verta Taylor\ \ \ University of Chicago Press\ \ \ \ Copyright © 2003\ \ University of Chicago\ All right reserved.\ \ ISBN: 0-226-73158-8\ \ \ \ \ \ Chapter One\ \ \ Being a Drag Queen\ First things first: not all men who dress as women are drag queens. The\ day after we first went to a regular Monday afternoon drag queen meeting,\ we went to observe a planning session at the pool of the place where Margo\ was house-sitting. David (Margo), Sushi, and Roger (Inga) began to make\ distinctions among different kinds of men who dress in women's clothing,\ but they said nothing about straight cross-dressers who do it for the\ erotic (heterosexual) thrill. When we talked to R.V., he identified\ cross-dressers or transvestites as straight and drag queens as gay. So the\ first distinction is on the basis of sexual identity.\ Then there are categories based on physical transformations of different\ degrees. Titty queens get breasts through either hormones or implants but\ keep their penises. Sushi describes them as "in-betweens." Transsexuals\ have sex-reassignment surgery. In contrast to these, drag queens keep\ their male bodies (although as we have already seen some facial\ transformation is acceptable). David tells of first reading about\ Christine Jorgensen's famous transformation from a man to a woman.David\ was at the time a young gay teenager in New York, and it scared him. "I\ did not want to be a woman, and here it is in the paper that this may be\ what I have to do." It scared a lot of gay men, he says. "Is this what\ you're supposed to want? And I knew I didn't want this. I mean, I would\ like to have the mink coat, but I don't want to be a woman." Kylie says he\ wouldn't mind having tits just for the show, "Like if I could take a pill\ to have them ... and then take another pill to make them go away. I\ would do that.... They would be good for the show." In one show Sushi\ asks the audience whether she should get tits. "You think I should get\ some big bazoongas, you know, like a size D? I'd have to sleep with them.\ These I can take off, as you've already noticed." R.V. says he likes his\ tits being machine washable.\ So drag queens are gay men who dress as but don't want to be women or have\ women's bodies. The girls will occasionally announce in the show that\ "drag queen" means "dressed roughly as girls." Within the category of gay\ men who dress in women's clothing but keep all of their male bodies, there\ are further distinctions based on performance style. Female impersonators\ keep the illusion of being women. Kevin Truehart, who performed at 801 for\ a time as Lady Victoria or Lady V, identifies as a female impersonator,\ not a drag queen. He hates the term "drag" because "over the years, it's\ been made out to be something very trashy and tacky." His take echoes the\ distinction between "stage impersonators" and "street impersonators," the\ latter, like Sushi in his days on the streets in Los Angeles, young men\ who sell themselves on the streets and live a marginal life. Lady V does\ celebrity impersonation: Barbra Streisand, Lucille Ball, Cher, and Liza\ Minnelli. "I started with Lady Victoria first and she spawned them all."\ If he did Lady Victoria full-time, he says, then he would be a drag queen.\ But there's no uniform understanding of such a distinction. A gay male\ dancer at one of the local clubs describes female impersonation as "just a\ job. It's getting up and singing Cher songs dressed up as Cher." Adding\ creativity to motivation to explain the difference, he says, "A drag queen\ is somebody who goes out, puts an outfit together, puts a routine together\ by themselves, their act, their dance and all that stuff, picks a song\ that they're gonna do it to, and comes out and does it. Not as Cher. Not\ as somebody." On the other end of the spectrum-if there even is one-from\ Lady V is Scabby, who mostly doesn't try to look like a woman at all. Lady\ V describes Scabola as a cross between a drag queen and a club kid, others\ describe her drag as "camp." Although the 801 Girls have different styles,\ they all identify as drag queens. "Did I tell you that I'm a drag queen?"\ Sushi asks the audience. "I'm a drag queen. I'm not a female impersonator;\ I know that I don't have a pussy yet. Yet. I don't have a pussy yet."\ Onstage another night Sushi explains, "A drag queen is somebody who knows\ he has a dick and two balls."\ Being a drag queen requires having a drag name. When Sushi announced at a\ Monday meeting that he was going to put us in drag, they told us a trick\ for coming up with a drag name: take the name of your first pet for your\ given name and the name of the street where you lived, or, if that doesn't\ sound right, your mother's maiden name, for your family name. Voila, Leila\ became "Jinxie Dogwood" and Verta, "Blackie (transformed in the course of\ the evening to 'Blackee') Warner." None of the girls use names made up in\ this way, although John "Ma" Evans concocted his first, "Joletta\ Bridgeway," which he still uses occasionally, with this method. The name\ "Ma," we should say, is not his drag name; local author June Keith reports\ that as the middle child in a family of eleven, he baby-sat so often, his\ younger siblings started calling him "Ma." When Ma first came to the 801,\ he used "Arlene Goldblatz," then he became "Majongg" or "MaJon." Margo,\ originally "Margot," "just happened," says David. He dropped the "t"\ because he realized that everyone would mispronounce it. Sushi was once\ "Soy Sauce" and obviously plays on her Japanese heritage. Kevin couldn't\ think of a name, but a friend came up with "Kylie Jean Lucille" and he\ liked it. Gugi, too, got his name from a friend. He entered Miss\ Firecracker, the amateur drag queen contest in Key West on the Fourth of\ July, and his manager at the bar suggested "Gugi Gomez," a character\ played by Rita Moreno:\ I'm like, "'Gugi Gomez!' That doesn't roll\ off the tongue!" And he goes, "No, you\ have to see this movie, The Ritz. It's with\ Rita Moreno; she's launching to sing in a\ gay men's bathhouse. And so people think,\ the guys here think she's a drag queen." ...\ And he goes, "OK, why don't you rent\ the movie, and if you don't like it, I'll pick\ out another one for you." So I saw the\ movie. She had this little number she did,\ "I Had a Dream" [he sings it]. Only in a\ thick Spanish accent.... And then she's\ walking down the hallway-that's where I\ got the idea that this was going to be my\ name-this gay guy goes up to her and\ says, "You did a fabulous performance."\ She goes, "Thank you, thank you." "You\ look so real for a drag queen." She looked\ at him [now Gugi takes on an exaggerated\ Spanish accent], "I'm not a drag queen! Do\ you think I don't know what you boys do\ in that back room, hee-hee-hee-hoo-hoo-hoo,\ boys." After that, I said, "That's my\ name. That's it."\ The first time Dean did drag in Key West, someone asked what her name was,\ and she came up with "Milla," thinking "measly muscles," because he didn't\ have any. Roger would never use "Inga" in Sweden, but it works here since\ she's billed as the "Swedish Bombshell." R.V. started as "Vivian Redbush,"\ became "Vivian Redbush Beaumont," then "V.R. Beaumont." One night a\ drunken friend called him "R.V. Bushmont," and the R.V. stuck, although\ the Bushmont didn't. When Matthew entered his first lip-synch contest,\ after being inspired by Priscilla, he chose the name "Enema Squirts." They\ refused to announce it, so he had to come up with something different at\ the spur of the moment. Obviously he tries hard to be repulsive and\ in-your-face. He had cut his head shaving and felt the scab, and he had to\ go to the bathroom because he was nervous and all done up in his leather\ corset, so "Scabola Feces" he became.\ To a different extent for the different girls, the use of drag names\ symbolizes the creation of a separate personality. "Sushi is different\ than Gary," says Sushi. In fact, Gary says, Greg (his former partner of\ seven years) and Sushi did not get along. Even David, who became a drag\ queen late in life, describes David as "an entirely different person" from\ Margo, although "now they are coming together more and more." He says he's\ a Gemini so there are two sides, but he's always been shy and introverted.\ "Since doing the drag, a lot of Margo has taken over.... I am far more\ verbal and outgoing as David than I ever was before." Timothy, too, is shy\ and describes himself as introverted. "I can't even go order a slice of\ pizza." Given his stage presence, we thought he would talk our ears off\ when we interviewed him, but then we realized that that was R.V. and this\ was Timothy. "That's a whole different person up there. Different\ personality," he says. A local gay man who is friends with R.V. says, "If\ I see Tim out somewhere, I'll say, 'Hi, Tim.' To me it's almost two people\ even though I know they're the same person; it's two different\ personalities, two different personas." When a professional photographer\ shot all the girls and hung the photos in the bar, Tim complimented her by\ saying she had caught him as both R.V. and himself.\ Roger also takes on a different style. "As Inga I can do things I could\ never do as Roger, I would never do." In an interview Roger tells the\ reporter that his friends don't much like Inga, who is aggressive. He\ thinks Inga might be therapeutic, allowing him to express a darker side of\ his own personality. Kevin says, "Kylie is me," but admits that "Kylie is\ more expressive ... when I'm dressed as Kylie, I know that I can get\ away with so much more. Doesn't mean that I want to do it all the time."\ In another context he tells us, "No one calls me Kevin anymore; sometimes\ I worry that Kevin is gone." Desiray, Gugi's drag daughter who joined the\ show after Gugi and Inga left, describes being able to "go out there and\ do anything because it's a totally different person. Joel can't do it, but\ Desiray can." Dean describes keeping Dean and Milla separate because he\ understood that not being able to live apart from your image-he mentions\ Boy George here-leads to drugs and breakdown. "That's why there's Dean and\ Milla. For a while there wasn't." Milla "became a therapist" for him and a\ "healer." But at another time, Dean complains about being tired of the\ monster he had created, meaning the celebrity of Milla.\ Gugi at first says that there isn't a difference, that "it's what's in me.\ It's all those years of being in myself. The pain and everything else. The\ fear of not being in control of my love or not feeling-it's coming out.\ That's, Gugi is what is on the inside of Rov." Later he adds, "But now, I\ can't separate Gugi and Rov." But he seems to contradict that: "Actually,\ sometimes Gugi overwhelms Rov." Then he seems to notice this: "But in\ turn, how can I, because it's me." In fact, Gugi seems to act in ways that\ Rov never would: she's aggressive and sexual, while Rov is shy and sweet.\ Lady V describes having to work at keeping his identity. "One thing I like\ about Matthew," he says, "is he doesn't lose his identity with Scabby.\ When he takes it off, he becomes Matthew. But when he gets dressed, he\ becomes Scabby.... I mean, I've had to really work hard at separating."\ But now, he says, "it's just putting on a uniform."\ The notions of both separation and fluidity are expressed in the language\ the drag queens use in talking to and about one another. The way they use\ names and pronouns follows no clear pattern. Or rather, they almost always\ use their drag names, with certain exceptions. Sushi says he barely even\ knows their real names, and when we gave them the book prospectus to read\ at a drag queen meeting, Roger commented how odd it was to see a list of\ boys' names. Matthew's parents don't know he is a drag queen-they think\ he's a bartender-and one day his mother called the bar and asked for\ Matthew and someone said, "No Matthew works here."\ Sushi is "Sushi" to almost everyone except her former partner, and Kevin\ (Kylie), her best friend, and in turn Sushi is the only one who ever calls\ Kylie "Kevin." Sushi says she doesn't know when Kylie calls her Sushi and\ when Gary. Kylie says, "I consciously have to remember to call her Gary."\ Nevertheless, when they moved in together, their answering machine message\ instructed callers to push one number for Sushi or Gary and another for\ Kylie or Kevin. Gugi always wants to be called Gugi, while Roger dislikes\ being called Inga unless he is in drag. David says that as many people\ call him David as Margo, and he doesn't care. "If I ever retire from drag\ and people continue to call me Margo, it's quite all right with me!" So\ there are different preferences among them. But unlike transgender\ activists, who like to be addressed in the gender of presentation, the\ drag queens slip easily and unnoticed out of their usual use of the female\ gender. For example, when we asked Sushi about how he got Kylie to come to\ Key West, he said: "I begged her and begged her, come on down. He was\ tired, I could tell he was tired of his life there." Talking about the use\ of drag versus real names, Sushi says, "I call him Milla; I don't call her\ Dean." Kevin says he has to remember to call "her" Gary and then adds, "A\ lot of people don't even know his name is Gary." At a drag queen meeting,\ when they talk about Musty Chiffon, a visiting drag queen, Matthew says,\ "I mean, just get to know him, because he really is sweet. She's not\ interfering with what we're doing at all." R.V. drives his mother nuts\ because she never knows when he says his "girlfriend" whether he's talking\ about a real girl or a guy. Verta asks Dean if he minds when she refers to\ them as "guys," and he says no, but Sushi says, "You should say 'girls,'"\ but then admits, "Well, sometimes I say 'guys' to girls."\ Others outside the drag queen circle have the same trouble with pronouns.\ One of our focus group members, who had first met Sushi in her capacity as\ seamstress, said of their first meeting, "As far as I was concerned, she\ was just another gay man. He was just another gay man. She, he." A young\ straight woman said of Desiray, "She is so pretty; I'm jealous of him."\ What it means to be a drag queen is different for the various girls,\ although it is possible to see some basic categories. For some, being a\ drag queen has to do with being in some sense transgendered. Jim Gilleran,\ the bar owner, gets at this when he says, "This is their identity, and you\ find yourself going 'she' even when the person's out of drag-like Sushi is\ a good example." Roger describes Sushi as looking "like a thin Japanese\ girl." Even Kylie, who first met Gary as a boy, commented in surprise once\ on a newspaper photo of Sushi, "She looks like a man!" A young lesbian\ couple who attended one of the shows describes Sushi as an "exception" to\ their notion that the drag queens are basically men, one saying, "His body\ just plays the part.... I mean I heard without the makeup on the\ streets, you would think that was just a woman without makeup"; and the\ other saying, "He's got a good face." A straight woman in her forties\ thinks that for Sushi, being a drag queen is "almost a role thing.\ \ Continues...\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Excerpted from Drag Queens at the 801 Cabaret\ by Leila J. Rupp Verta Taylor\ Copyright © 2003 by University of Chicago.\ Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.\ \

List of IllustrationsPrefaceCast of Characters1 Introduction: "What Makes a Man a Man?"Section I: "I'm Beautiful, Dammit!"2 Getting Dressed3 Becoming Drag Queens4 Being a Drag QueenSection II: "Take Me or Leave Me"5 The Conch Republic6 On the Street7 A Plate of Food and a Drag Show8 "The Hero Would Be You"Section III: "Life Is a Cabaret"9 "She Works Hard for the Money"10 Performing ProtestSection IV: "We Are Family"11 "Crazy World"12 The 801 FamilySection V: "Free Your Mind"13 In a Long Tradition14 "We're Not Just Lip-Synching Up Here, We're Changing Lives"15 A Night at the 80116 Theoretical Conclusions: Thinking about Drag as Social ProtestAppendix: MethodsNotesBibliographyIndex