Wednesday, September 9, 2009

What A Drag...


OK, for the uninitiated, these are drag queens- that is to say, men (usually gay) who are dressing up as women, primarily for comedic effect. "Drag" can often be used to describe any form of costuming. For example, in the gay community, you might speak of "leather drag," "cowboy drag," or "police drag" to describe the deliberate donning of the appropriate attire (i.e., if you were going to a country western bar, you might choose to wear cowboy drag, namely boots, hat, belt buckle, shirt). The primary concept is to be something you are not - a woman, a cowboy, a police officer.

More often than not, the guys who get into various forms of drag don't take themselves very seriously. After all, the very concept of gay drag is to have a good laugh, indulge a bit of fantasy, and let off some steam.

I started to mull over this post after driving by some biker folks in town. You know who I'm talking about, right? Otherwise average, middle class Americans, living out their mundane lives, who like to go riding on motorcycles and feel that Harley clothing is essential to complete the fantasy.

In most cases, these guys (and their women) are accountants, lawyers, and other professionals completely removed from membership in the Hell's Angels. However, unlike most gay drag, it seems to me that these guys take themselves a bit more seriously.

I don't mean that they believe they are actually bikers. They are, however, playing out some kind of macho fantasy (both the men and the women). What is lacking compared to gay drag is the irony. Well, the irony is there (big time), but not in the deliberate way that it is in gay drag.

In fact, drag seems to be present in many aspects of our lives. Take, for example, sports drag. I mean, of course, the weekend warriors who participate in a sport as a hobby, but insist on spending hundreds of dollars on the costume for said sport.

My particular favorite is bicyclists. Biking is a big sport up here in the Upper Peninsula. There are those folks though who want to be seen as serious cyclists and so they dress like these guys.


Now I'm sure that these folks compete in races and all, yet they are so hard core in their outlook and take themselves very, very seriously.

Not all sports allow for the opportunity of costuming. Many team sports require a uniform that is set by a league. I can't imagine a local softball teams trying to dress their players like professional baseball teams in the manner that these guys are trying to look like Lance Armstrong.

None of this, however, was necessarily post-worthy until I read something by Tobias Haller at his blog In A Godward Direction. I recommend you click over for the full read. He briefly discusses the use of clothing and attire (call it Western Christian drag) in the work of the missionaries to the South Seas, Africa, etc. Tobias's post and the guy I saw riding his motorcycle in town (cigar clenched in his teeth with his woman "riding bitch") really got my brain working.

There's this younger guy I know up here. He makes a big deal on Facebook highlighting his activities in order to show how bohemian he is. He's had status updates about drinking absinthe. He quotes Baudelaire and Borges. I sense a kind of desperation in his postings. This too seems to be a form of drag behavior.

Another cyber friend had some comments up the other day about one of her students - an otherwise sweet looking young woman with a nose ring - a big, through-the-middle-of-her-nose ring that this professor found rather distracting during her lecture.

How many different ways do we don drag in our lives, that is to say play roles rather than actually live them out in genuine fashion? I'm reminded of a 1950's self-help movie to be shown to high school students. In order to improve his social life, he is told to pick out one of the popular boys and model himself after him - wear what he is wearing, act the way he acts. Never mind about discovering one's individual self - play the role and find happiness.

We live in an exceedingly materialistic culture. What do your clothes, your home, your belongings say about you? What roles are you trying to project and why? How much of what you do is to present an image? Who are you performing to? This is a phenomena that is dependent on disposable income (or credit). I can't imagine a woman struggling to feed her children in a far off third world country worrying much about image.

I am not passing judgment on us - I have often made purchases, chosen books, dressed in order to present my own kind of bohemian image to the world. It is very easy to get lost in it all and lose sight of who we are underneath all the drag. Rather I simply want to remind us all to strive for self-awareness and to keep a firm grasp on the irony and humor present in the lives we piece together to show the world.

Finally, this is my brother, Leighton. On Labor Day he ran his first half marathon. You will note his rather mundane attire...not a bit of drag there at all.

Lately he has been running more and more. I'm not certain what all his motivations are, but he is reaping the benefits of his dedication. One thing strikes me though, and that is that he is being genuine about it. He's not trying to be a "runner." His pride in himself and what he's accomplished and the joy it clearly brings him are to be envied.

I can't think of a better example for the point I'm trying to make.

Peace.

4 comments:

Gramps Shell said...

... and I also appreciate when Leighton (L8N) reports on what artists, albums, music he listened to while running his ... ah ... run!

lindy said...

Right on, Larry. I see it even in people's personality. I know one woman whom I think of as having a closet full of different personalities. You are always hoping she's wearing a nice one when you meet.

RENZ said...

Well, part of my point is that even the deliberate decision not to stike a pose is a pose. It's like those fancy hair do's at the Academy Awards that you know they spent a fortune on to look like they just rolled out of bed. Or the way young folk dress with their pants hanging off their ass AS IF to show how little they care about looking neat and put together, yet they are as put together as preppies were in the 80's.

L8N said...

Wow. Little did I know as I started reading this post that I would actually be featured in the end of it. :) I have to admit, though, that even that mundane attire had one intentional "pose" attached to it. The 2009 Shamrock Shuffle shirt was deliberately chosen because I was one of the 13,000 who actually ran the race out of the 30,000 who signed up. The rest were scared away by the weather. Do a Flickr search for "2009 shamrock shuffle chicago" to see how bad it was. Thanks for the blog shout-out, Lar. :)