The Trouble With Drag Queens

I’ve never been a fan of drag. It’s something you accept when you go to a gay nightspot but I’ve never been interested in it. Until recently, I was never sure exactly why but I think I’ve put my finger on some reasons.

I can’t always handle people who are always “on” and overwhelmingly in your face. It’s exhausting to an introvert like me. This is like the drag queen we saw at a show on Memorial Day weekend. She was the biggest person I’ve ever seen. She wasn’t fat but just had a huge build and extended that build with an exoskeleton of a massive wig and dress. This combined with the fact that I was right in front of the speaker and she was unbelievably loud made me leave the bar. Sometimes I don’t need to be psychotically overstimulated.

Drag queens are basically people who need a shit-ton of extra attention and I just may not be in the mood to give it to them that day. It’s one thing to give drag queens attention if you’re at a show because you’re on their turf and they’re performing.

But it’s another thing if some drag queen just walks into the bar making a massive spectacle of herself and looking around the room to see who’s looking at her. This behavior would annoy me if non-drag queens did it so why should I be any more receptive to that behavior if some guy who tucks in his penis does it? When I’m out for the evening, I just want a few drinks and some music and conversation, not to bask in your glow. I guess I’ve just seen enough drag (mostly unwillingly) that some loud, sassy woman in a wig does not impress me. I’ve seen it a staggering number of times. It’s not special.

Drag queens are just narcissists and I’m not going to feed into these people’s narcissism. When you walk into a bar in a beehive and sequins, you’re fishing for compliments and I’m not going to masturbate your ego. Again, if a man wearing men’s clothing walked into a bar and put on a big show and expected applause, you’d call him a douchebag so it’s the same for men in women’s clothes.

I’m not talking about transgendered people here because to my mind, they have gender identity issues that I don’t quite understand but do respect. Transgendered people also don’t walk into a room and draw attention to themselves. If a man goes through the process of becoming a woman, she won’t start wearing a campy ball gown and Tammy Faye makeup; she’ll just wear what women wear and go about her business like a normal person. So I’m fine with the T in GLBTBLTQwhatever.

I guess I just don’t care for people who walk into a room and suck all the air out of it, leaving just enough oxygen so we can all compliment them. Drag shows are fine because they’re performing but if you just show up in a dress, the fuck do you want from me, a shower of confetti? Some behavior is just fucking obnoxious, no matter how you’re dressed.