1937 - The first Polish drag film, starring Eugeniusz BodoĮugeniusz Bodo wrote and directed the movie, Piętro wyżej, which became his best known film. New York followed with a ban of female impersonation in 1935.Ĭanada, on the other hand, had no strict rules but did follow advice from the British Board of Film Censors in the early years of film and television and in the 1920s, Ontario censorship board did object to content such as illicit sexual relationships, nudity, etc. Profanity, sexual relations outside marriage and any sexual act including suggestion of same sex relationships or romance, were ruled out and therefore impersonating gender opposite one's own was also outlawed. The Production Code outlined what was acceptable and unacceptable in film production. Hays, who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. The Pansy Craze ended with the repeal of prohibition but movies representing drag continued to be made - at least for a little while.Ī set of industry moral guidelines for censorship of content were applied in 1930 to most US films released by major studios, and rigidly enforced from 1934 until 1968 under the name of the Motion Picture Production Code also known as the Hays Code - after Will H. The Pansy Craze saw drag performers such as Ray Bourbon, Bruz Fletcher and and openly gay Gene Malin (stage name Jean Malin) become some of the biggest and brightest stars of the scene - some of which were cast in big Hollywood films. This carried into the early '30s, largely because of Prohibition as it provided a safe place for LGBTQ+ people to convene, making it the beginning of LGBTQ+ nightlife called the Pansy Craze. This was also a period when drag started to transition into an underground scene in every European capital, and several major US cities. As a result, drag became more closely associated with the LGBTQ+ community. The Roaring '20s, an era of flapper dancers, saw drag balls (competition-style performances that include lip syncing, dancing and modelling believed to have originated in New York with the infamous masquerade balls, held in Harlem in 1869) rise in popularity and with it more and more people started to came out. 1920s - The rise of ball culture spurs Pansy Craze (The Calgary Daily Herald online archive.)Ĭapitalizing on his notoriety of performing in drag, Eltinge followed with more movies such as The Widow's Might (1918) and Madame Behave (1925). Wix of Wickham, led to some of the first representations of cross-dressing on screen.Īn excerpt from a 1917 newspaper, The Calgary Daily Herald. Julian Eltinge's first musical comedy performance on Broadway's, Mr. Here are some of the crucial movies, events and personalities which have contributed to bringing the art of drag to the mainstream and what it is today. Whether it's an amplified version of yourself or something completely different, it's just a form of expression open to all genders, races and ages." TIMELINE Geoffrey Gough (Ivory Towers) agrees: "Drag is just an expression of one's selves. I feel like drag is essentially playing with gender or exploring ideas of gender but not limited to an impersonation." It's kind of like a galaxy as far as gender identity is concerned. "As part of LGBTQ+ community we know that man and woman and anywhere in between can look like all manner of things. "A lot of people assume that is female impersonation for drag queens and male impersonation for drag kings but I think that assumes a limited scope of what masculine or feminine or man and woman can look like," adds Murphy Longley (Quick Lewinsky). That's his costume to, kind of, tell the world who he is," says costume designer and CBC Queens cast member, Lucinda Miu. "What that means is that a businessman who goes to work and puts on a suit and his tie, that's his drag. As RuPaul Andre Charles famously stated in his Drag Race show: We're all born naked, and the rest is drag. And according to a 2008 book Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison, the first recorded instance of the term in connection with drag culture was in 1870.Īs explained on the website National Center of Transgender Equality, drag has since evolved as a gender-bending art form in which artists and entertainers, regardless of gender, dress up and apply makeup in highly stylized ways in order to exaggerate a specific, often different than their own, gender identity.įor many, drag is a self-expression as well as a celebration or exploration of gender. The term drag is believed to have originated in British theatre slang to describe men wearing women's clothes in the 19th century - dresses that would trail / drag on the floor. (The cast of Queens, from left to right: Lucinda Miu, Quick Lewinsky, Allysin Chaynes and Ivory Towers.) Etymology of drag
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