AnAFAB queen,diva queen,hyper queen,[1] orbio queen, is adrag queen who is a woman, or a non-binary person who wasassigned female at birth. These performers are generally indistinguishable from the more common male or transgender female drag queens in artistic style and techniques.[2][3]
"AFAB" stands for "assigned female at birth". While this is somewhat controversial, other terms still used both by performers and in the media are also considered offensive. The term "faux queen" is rejected and considered outdated by many drag artists for implying that female drag queens are not as "real" as male drag queens,[4][5][6] and the term "female queen" is considered by many performers to betransphobic as they imply that atransgender woman who performs as a drag queen is not female.[7][6] Other descriptions include "biologically challenged" drag queen, "female female impersonator",[8] or "female impersonator impersonator."[9] In recent years "AFAB queen" has been adopted to be inclusive of any performer who is discriminated against based on their assigned sex at birth, including non-binary and trans male performers.[10] However, this term is disliked by some trans male performers who believe there should not be any term to distinguish between drag artists on the basis of their gender identity, and who find that being called an AFAB queen means they are mistakenly believed to be women.[11]
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Like all drag performers, female drag queens play with traditionalgender roles and gendernorms to educate and entertain. Female queens can appear alongsidedrag kings, transgender drag queens, or male drag queens atdrag shows and are interchangeable with other drag queens asemcees, performers, hostesses, andspokesmodels.[12]
For some it can be a way to redefinepostmodern feminism; female drag queen Ms. Lucia Love stated, "Drag queens would be nowhere without women."[13] For others it simply is about dressing up and having fun.[14]
InSan Francisco, the first ever "faux queen"pageant was produced as a benefit for the drag performer Diet Popstitute.[15] The first title-holder was Coca Dietetica, a.k.a. Laurie Bushman. The Klubstitute Kollective[16] was formed after Diet Popstitute's 1995 death to continue to raise funds and provide a space for the performers who, at the time, were not always welcome in typical drag venues. Pageant organizer Ruby Toosday had "friends who got fired (from drag clubs) for being women...it seemed like we had definitely hit a nerve.[8] Contestants were judged on drag, talent, and personality by a panel of judges[17] and the winner helped "femcee" the following year. The pageants were held from 1996 to 2005. The Faux Queen Pageant was resurrected in 2012 by former title holder Bea Dazzler, and will continue to be a yearly competition in San Francisco.
The dancer and performance artist Fauxnique (Monique Jenkinson) became the first female drag queen to win a majordrag pageant—competing against cisgender male ortrans female drag queens—when she was crowned MissTrannyshack 2003. FromBust Magazine: "'(drag) comes down to a sort of self-awareness, a self-consciousness about playing around with femininity,' says Fauxnique. She adds that while drag for her is primarily about performance, it's also a 'rejection of traditional oppressive forms of masculinity—and that's part of an affinity withgay men as well. I wouldn't say every faux queen is a feminist, but I would say that a part of them is in some way.'"[18]
In the 1970s and 1980s, German-born Brazilian female queenElke Maravilha became a popular TV personality after participating as a judge in theChacrinha andSilvio Santos talent shows. According to her, "many people think I am atransvestite. When they ask me this, I jokingly reply that I'm a man indeed. And of the mostgifted ones".[19]
The comedy filmsConnie and Carla[20] andVictor/Victoria both center on female drag queens, but the main characters of both films are women who are forced by circumstance to work as drag queens. They keep their gender a secret and impersonate men when off-stage, unlike their real-life counterparts.
The 2020 USreality TVvogue competitionLegendary was the first US reality television show to include women performing and competing as drag queens, including the all-female team representingHouse of Ninja.[21] The reality competitionDragula featured two performers who were assigned female at birth in their third season, but winnerLandon Cider (a cis woman) performs as adrag king and contestantHollow Eve (a non-binary person) identifies as a drag artist, not specifically a drag queen. Female drag queenSigourney Beaver competed in season 4, being one of the four finalists.[22] In 2021, thethird season ofRuPaul's Drag Race UK was the first season in the franchise to feature a queen who was both assigned female at birth and identified as female,Victoria Scone.
Singer-songwriter Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, known professionally asChappell Roan, performs with an aesthetic and makeup heavily influenced by drag queens, and has described her stage name as a drag persona.[23]
Drag queens who were assigned female at birth, regardless of gender identity are not always permitted or welcomed within drag spaces, which are typically owned and run by gay men.RuPaul, the producer and host of the reality TV competitionRuPaul's Drag Race, originally banned female artists from his shows, stating "Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it's not men doing it, because at its core it's a social statement and a big f-you to male-dominated culture. So for men to do it, it's really punk rock, because it's a real rejection of masculinity."[24] After significant backlash, RuPaul amended this response in 2019 to state "I've learnt to never say never."[25]
There are widely-held beliefs within the community that female and non-binary AFAB drag queens do not face the same challenges as cisgender male drag queens, and do not need to usepadding, makeup, ortucking to appear feminine. AFAB drag artists typically counter that they use the same makeup techniques to create exaggerated femininity, and many do use padding andcorsets to create an extreme body shape.[26][5] These queens on Instagram often mock this belief that they do not "transform" their bodies by sharing strikingly different images of themselves in and out of drag with the hashtag#wheresthetransformationsis, started by female queen Creme Fatale.[27]
The rejection of AFAB drag queens is often closely linked to other reports of discrimination and objectification that women, transgender men, and non-binary people assigned female at birth face withinLGBT spaces. These artists frequently reportgroping andharassment from cisgender gay men in gay bars and performance spaces, and report less pay and less tips from audiences.[28] Artists also have complained about drag terminology that they state is exclusionary or offensive; non-binary artist Hollow Eve sparked a significant debate in 2019 when an episode of Dragula aired where they spoke out against the term "fishy," used to mean a drag queen who looks like a woman and referring negatively to the smell of a vulva.[29]
The rising prominence of non-male drag queens and increased dialogue around inclusivity has resulted in many drag artists rejecting any distinction based on their gender and calling for drag competitions to remove all gender and assigned sex requirements for contestants.[30]
However, the first female Drag QueenVictoria Scone competed on RuPaul's Drag Race UK Season 3, and Canada's Drag Race vs The World, where she was a finalist. The second ever female Drag Queen to compete of a Drag Race franchise isClover Bish, who competed onDrag Race España and placed 5th overall, just falling short of the finale.The third female drag queen to compete isPandora Nox, who won the first season ofDrag Race Germany. She is the first cisgender woman to win any Drag Race franchise.
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