The History Of Dragkinging

Harlem in the Jazz Age was made distinctive by the sound of swinging music and by the non-normative figures who brought that music to life. Gladys Bentley, a male impersonator known for her exuberant style and stage presence, exemplifies an instance of male impersonating, before dragkinging became a phenomenon in drag culture. This research paper also seeks to describe similarities and differences between understandings of drag kings in the contemporary moments and understanding male impersonators in the context of the 1920s. Male impersonation and dragkinging both involve a critique of normative gender roles and sexuality, however, the historical purpose of male impersonation often included passing while the more recent dragkinging involves

This gay scene indicates that the gay culture or the “gay world”, as George Chauncey calls it, actually flourished and produced a innumerous list of queer figures, including Gladys Bentley, Ma Rainey, and Stormé DeLarverie (3). Putting these two texts in conversations with other scholars, such as Jack Halberstam, Judith Butler, and Leila J. Rupp, illuminates how gender performance influences/influenced male impersonation in the Jazz Age and drag kinging in a more contemporary

While male impersonating seeks to achieve a somewhat realistic portray of maleness as a gender, dragkinging is often more concerned with subverting such binary understandings of gender and sexuality (Rupp 278). Mannerisms, overt sexuality, and dress are often exaggerated, though usually not to the same degree of most drag queens. Performing in male drag allows for the king to transgress the limiting boundaries of both gender and sexual identities, allowing for drag to work as a deconstructive tool (Rupp 278). Rupp further goes on to argue that drag kings, particularly transgender drag kings, also raise important questions about what is “real” in the realm of performance