This Semesters Drag Show is going to be amazing not only is this going to be a fun event, its also going to raise money for two great causes and it is also an educational event. This is something you wont want to miss. we are very excited to have the panhellenic council backing us up this semester.It will be on campus -- at the U.C. (University Center) -- from 7:00pm until 9:00pm on Friday April 17th.
$2 donation will be taken at the door to enter
"You can always tell the straight people," says Koeller, "because they're the ones who come on time."That's the best quote of the whole piece. I mean, let's talk about the real tragedy here: the death of Universal Gay Standard Time. That is what I am upset about.
Let's talk about RuPaul :-). (Thanks to BigLugLand for this one, via Twitter.)
While my positive experience as a gay teenager is not a universal one, by any means, it's one that's becoming more and more common. In the 1970s, the average coming-out age was 21; in 2007, it was closer to 13. Gay teens are coming out earlier to increasingly accepting parents, and the cocoon-to-butterfly narrative that has shaped much of gay culture -- and drag in particular -- is no longer as universal. For many men of my generation, coming out registered on the personal trauma scale somewhere between our first pimple and the pain of our first breakup.
Which is somewhat at odds with the message of the drag queen. A drag queen is sassy, glittery and fabulous -- "a punk rock reaction to our masculine culture," as RuPaul told me, when I spoke to her over the phone. Drag is a way of taking what has often been held against gay men -- our effeminacy, our outspokenness, our passion for ABBA -- and celebrating it with style. Drag queens imitate women like Judy Garland, Dolly Parton and Cher because they overcame insult and hardship on their path to success, and because their narratives mirror the pain that many gay men suffer on their way out of the closet. These women didn't become drag icons because they had a mildly awkward sex talk with their parents.
According to Lady Bunny, the founder of New York's now-defunct Wigstock Festival, drag faded from pop culture at the end of the '90s because "people got used to the idea of the drag queen." Mainstream audiences -- and gay audiences -- simply stopped being shocked by the idea of a man dressed as a woman. "We've had an entire generation grow up seeing drag queens play basketball on daytime talk shows," she says, "and I don't think it's that freeing for gay people anymore."
It also raises a bigger question: Without the trauma of oppression, how will future generations of gay men define themselves? Through promiscuity? Party drugs? A flair for dinner parties? "With more and more teenagers coming out of the closet earlier, and parents being more supportive, the whole dynamic has changed," says Sean Mullens, the director of "Filthy Gorgeous: The Trannyshack Story." "The explosive party scene doesn't really have a place anymore."
I thought this was an excellent and well written piece on the state of gay culture, especially the role of drag queens within it. It's funny because, when I first started doing drag, I remember an older friend of mine saying, "I just don't like it, but I'm from an age where you shouldn't do anything so openly gay." And then, of couse, there's the endless stigma of men my age who won't sleep with a drag queen because now we're obsessed with straight men.
And so it goes, all this gender stuff.
Regardless, I went to a drag show (by myself) last night. After all these years, I posited drunkenly on Twitter, I will say this: a drag show still makes me smile.
So theorize it all you want, I still fucking love them.
Oh, and an interesting little bit praising drag queens when I did a google search, "researching the topic," for "drag and gay culture.
Drag queens everywhere, REJOICE! Stand a little taller in your pumps, high atop that plywood-covered pool table! As the delicious Varla Jean Merman is proud to announce today, "January is National Drag History Month!"
Yes, children... Finally, all of those pioneering trans-tastic visionaries who've fought to entertain, enlighten and educate us for decades are getting their due! Think of the societal and cultural strides made by queens at Stonewall, at pride marches and on stages around the world. And trust: Whenever there's a cause that affects the queer community, drag queens and kings have led the charge on our behalf!
| Gay music and video from NewNowNext.com |
Asexual
Someone who has no sexual attraction to any sex. There's a great blog blogrolled here called Asexual Explorations.
Bear
A bear is a stocky, mostly hairy, gay man. Think Al Borland (from Home Improvement) and you have the penultimate bear. There's a whole culture, which is sometimes tied in with leather culture, including magazines, porn labels, contests, "bear runs" (festivals/mini-prides), etc. etc. etc. I once thought I was a bear cub. The reason for the name? Some sort of theoretical similarity in body type -- fat but powerful, and hairy. Yup, that's about it. Oh, and the ideal is the stereotypical, blue-collar American boy. Always a lot of boots, and cowboy hats. A lot of "woof"ing happens at bear events, too, which doesn't make any sense to me because bears don't woof. There's lot of subdivisions too:
Bottom
Receiver in anal intercourse (primarily, though can be used in conjunction with other terms like "WS bottom" or "BDSM" bottom to demarcate the "receiver" or "passive" position). Like the term top, this is listed here because it is often used to elaborate on someone's gender expression in conjunction with other terms -- "femme bottom" or "butch bottom." The bottom is often viewed as the "gay" position, as "receiving" cannot be construed as something a "straight-identified" person would do.
Chicken
Opposite the vulture (or the pederast, or the chicken hawk), a young boy looking to be, looking like he could be, or being "snatched up" by an older gay man.
Drag
Two predominate uses: drag queen (male who dresses as a female) and drag king (female who dresses as a male). Overwhelmingly, the term "drag queen" and "drag king" are used for performance dress in the popular lexicon. A transvestite, then, is not a drag queen, while John Travolta in Hairspray would be considered a man in drag (though not, I might add, a drag queen). There is some that say this term is Shakespearean, others who say that it originates from the 1920s. The term comes from the abbreviation of the phrase "dressed as girl;" there is another phrase, drab from "dressed as boy," but "drab king" doesn't sound all that fun.
Dyke
Very obscure reference, like faggot, but all seem to agree that its a shortened version of bulldyke, which has had a variety of meanings throughout history. It, like the term "queer" is becoming increasing popular.
Ex-Gay/Yestergay
Someone who has gone through the process of "coming out of homosexuality" by various reparative therapies. Mostly debunked in mainstream psychology, though it has grown in terms of numbers and mainstream interest. Generally accepted as false and psychologically damaging. Several prominent political figures think it's nifty though. Just because you suppress something doesn't mean you aren't.
Ex-Ex-Gay
Someone who went through reparative therapy and then realized what a crock of shit it was and came back. There is an excellent blog that I hope will become reactive called Chronicles of an Ex-Ex-Gay. And he's really cute.
Fag Hag
Preferred term: fruit fly. A straight woman who prefers the company of gay men. There's a lot of jokes and psychology that can go into this one, but I'm not going to talk about it too much. The girls in the club are fabulous and keep their boys in line. Though, all too often, they get left when we have our tricks :-).
Fag Stag
A straight man who prefers the company of gay men. Yea, we can all make the jokes.
Faggot
Pejorative for a gay man. There seem to be a few possible sources:
Obscure history, but the first literary documentations go back to 1914.
Friend of Dorothy
Old-ish term that is "code" for gay. Dorothy, as in from the Wizard of Oz, was Judy Garland who was seen as a gay icon. Her death may have been one of the many sparks that began the Stonewall Rebellion. No, really. So, now, thanks to dear Judy, we are all friends of Dorothy.
Gay
Primarily, a male who has sex with other men who identifies with the "gay community." In recent years, it has become more salient to use this describe people who are identifiably gay, that is, they call themselves as such. The separation of terms of "gay as men who have sex with men" and "gay as people who are part of the gay community" is relatively recent and represents a move away from centralized gay community. Sometimes, though far less commonly, used as "gay woman." It is likely the term arises from the word "gay" meaning carefree, which became construed as "without moral constraints" which ultimately was sexualized.
Homophile
The original alternative to homosexual, coined by a German (those Germans and the sex thing!!!!) and chosen, originally, because the -phile ending gives preference of love over sex. A lot of original LGBT organizations referred to themselves as homophiliac throughout the 1950s and 1960s. If someone called you a homophile these days, you're likely to think that you're being called a fag. Wikipedia reports that this is being used by hate and anti-gay groups, these days, to linke homosexuality and pedophilia. Oh, you crazy anti-gay's.
Intersexed
Contemporary term for the medical condition known as hermaphroditism, used in modern rhetoric as an identity that some people take on to represent a new point on the gender/sexuality spectrum.
Lesbian
A woman who has sex with women -- but not necessarily exclusively. In my experience, this is used by women who identify as having a primary attraction to women, or who are in a current relationship with women. In that way, it describes behavior. It also attaches them to their female-centered relationship needs. Originates from the Greek island of Lesbos.
LGBT
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans. Sometimes modified to be GLBT, or LGBTQ (Q=queer or questioning), or LGBTS (S=straight), or LGBTQS, or LGBTTTQS (T=transgendered, transvestite, and transsexual), LGBTTs (Ts=two spirit), LGBTU (U=unsure), or LGBTQI (I=intersex)... then you could sometimes throw an "A" on there for "allies." For simplicity, this blog uses LGBT. Used to replace "gay community" starting in the 1990s because the latter term was not felt to be inclusive enough. Began as "lesbian and gay," then "LGB," became "LGBT," and is starting to become "LGBTQ" as the term "queer" is becoming more acceptable. Yea, I know, there's a lot, but there's two other fun ones as reported by Wikipedia (the source of all information in the known universe):
Queen
An effeminant gay man or a gay man who has a specialized quality (i.e., "rice queen" is a gay man who prefers Asians; "bean queen" is a gay man who prefers Hispanics; "piss queen" is a gay man who prefers WS). Also used in conjunction with "drag."
Queer
You're about to get a whole post on this one, so, just wait...
Same-Sex Loving
This is a relatively new term and one that caught me off guard when I first heard -- also interchangeable with "same-gender loving." I think it's a creation of the black community's unwillingness to accept the term gay which has racial and classist connotations. It's a new take on the idea.
Sapphist
Term originating from the Greek poet Sappho, who wrote beautiful love stories that were sexually explicit towards other women who stayed on her island of ... get this ... Lesbos. Term used to describe lesbians, though rarely. More commonly used as an adjective, "Sapphic."
Transgender
Someone who feels that they are a different gender than their sex represents.
Transsexual
Someone who undergoes the surgery to alter their sex to align with their proper gender.
Transvestite
A person who dresses in the alternate sex for the purpose of personal enjoyment or pleasure. Most of these are straight men -- the stereotypical "husband in the wife's panties" situation. This is not, necessarily, a drag queen.
Tribade
Old, old, old term used for lesbians from the term tribadism, which is the act of female-to-female intercourse where the two women would rub their vulvae together via a scissor position of the legs. I have never heard this used in a modern context.
Twink
Imagine my shock when I found this term actually comes from the junk food twinkie. This is probably the funniest and most enlightening Wikipedia entry I have ever read:
The term's namesake is the "golden-colored phallic-shaped snack cake" Hostess Twinkie, commonly regarded as the quintessential junk food: "little nutritional value, sweet to the taste and creme-filled."[10][11][12] The Twinkie was invented in 1930 and originally contained a banana cream filling, but this was replaced with a vanilla cream filling during a banana shortage caused by World War II.[13][14][12] By the 1950s, "Twinkies had become a school lunchbox staple".[12] The original flavor was re-introduced as an alternative flavor in 2007.[15] A twink is "memorable for his outer packaging", not his "inner depth".[11] The golden-color also referred to those who are tanned from too much time in the sun.[16] The junk food reference has a number of connotations, including a perceived lack of intelligence and being ideal only for a short term, but not having lasting qualities or being very healthy.[16] Most of these concerns no longer apply, as the definition of twink has broadened, and qualifiers (such as muscle or femme) narrow the meaning to a more specific type of twink.[16]
Although the term originated from the American snack food, both the cake and twink have found international use, with Hostess selling "more than half a billion Twinkies" yearly.[10][17][15]
If you ignore that they are talking about the Twinkie, and are talking about a Twink... you understand perfectly what they are talking about. LOL -- "banana cream filling." (also reports that it's a backronym meaning "teenage, white, into no kink.")
Uranian
A German term from the 19th century, originally used to describe the "third sex" of men who have a female psyche (and, thus, have sex with men). Later used to describe women who have sex with women. I have never heard this used in a modern context. HAHA, but I think it's funny that the term, broken down, means "relating to Uranus" (say it outloud).
Other cultural specific terms: poof (British), hijra (Arabic), two-spirit (American Indian). All of them mean gay. :-)
I think I'm mostly done with this. I got most of the big ones out of the way, and some of the little ones. If you need me to tell you what "bi-curious" means (and the crock of shit it may or may not be), well, then, you can always wiki it!
