Drag Kings are struggling to survive - there's one reason why

Metro

13 hours ago

When you think of drag, images of RuPaul's Drag Race likely come to mind: with shiny wigs, professionally slapped-on makeup, and ultra femme Queens strutting their stuff. But that is only just the tip of a much more disruptive and enticing underwater iceberg: the alternative Drag scene.
Drag Kings are at the forefront of London's buzzing comedy scene, and the capital is a hub for them in return. Yet it's unlikely a regular comedy-goer can name one.
Once you go to an alternative Drag show – of which there is just about one for every weekday in London, with 100s of Drag Kings and Things on the circuit – prepare to be captivated.
Eliza Nelson, a Drag performer and producer, is taking their show Cabbage the Clown to the Edinburgh Fringe this year for the first time, having performed first as a Drag King, then a Drag artist on London's vibrant scene for years.
Milo Highclub was Eliza's first Drag character, and embodied the arrogant cockiness of all her friends' ex-boyfriends.
'I think what's so amazing about Drag Kings is that you can satirise so much about toxic masculinity,' Eliza tells Metro.
'I grew up being very much androphobic, so Milo became such an excellent channel for all of these really nuanced and complicated feelings.'
Drag artist and actress Izzy Ward is taking Mr P From HR to the Fringe after a memorable single shift at Harrods. A 'nuts' man from HR gave them her induction, and it stuck.
'He was just like this very flamboyant gay man, and you could tell that this was his moment ,' Izzy says.
'This is his dream to do these inductions. At the same time all the stuff about Mohammed Al Fayed and the sexual abuse scandal was coming out.'
But there was no disclaimer from Mr P about what to do if something like this happens to you. It was ignored.
'I felt like it was a really good setting and character to explore complicity in sexual abuse culture,' she says.
As someone who also enjoys her Drag Queen persona Coco D'Hole, Izzy can speak as both a King and Queen.
'Recently, I've not wanted to do Coco, because I actually get a lot of really creepy men messaging me,' she says.
'As Mr P I feel powerful,' Izzy says. 'I feel like I am so respected in a room, like a pin could drop and you would hear it. But whenever I am Coco I do feel sexualised a lot, and like not taken seriously.
'But I mean, that is just like the experience of being a woman.'
On the flipside, successful Drag King and writer Daisy Doris May's most famed act, the hapless man-spreading geezer-wannabe Steve Porters – who is getting his own sitcom with Olivia Colman's production company – is an exploration of male vulnerability.
'What I find so incredible is there's often a political streak to Kinging without even trying too hard,' Daisy explains to Metro in a Kensington pub.
In a time when misogyny is at the forefront of public conversation with figures like Andrew Tate emerging, Daisy wonders how we talk about the M word without scaring men away.
Sympathetic Drag Kinging is an accessible language.
'Steve is a massive cuddler. He puts on a front, but he lives with his mum in Guildford. He isn't afraid of getting emosh,' she says.
'Steve says the wrong thing the whole time. Right here, he would be chatting you up,' Daisy laughs, adding: 'I don't believe that people should just be cancelled straight away for saying the wrong thing.
'I just think it's way more interesting in the grey area of creating a character that is flawed but has a heart of gold. He's trying his best.'
After lockdown, when Cabbage was born, Manchester-raised Eliza took their clown to London.
'The standard of Drag Kings available in London is amazing and mesmerising. I feel so lucky to be here and I would not be doing drag if I lived anywhere else,' they say.
Europe's biggest Drag King competition Man Up's home is London, attracting performers from all over the world. Certainly in Eliza's native Manchester, the scene is only just beginning to build momentum.
About time: mainstream Drag Kings can be traced back to the 17th century in Italy and France, and to Victorian England. But they somehow disappeared out of public consciousness in our modern day, while Drag Queens thrive.
That's why Eliza is taking Cabbage to the Edinburgh Fringe – despite the soaring costs involved. https://www.instagram.com/p/CegPADio7GY/?hl=en
'Last year, at the Edinburgh Fringe there were like 68 drag shows, and 10% of those had drag kings,' they say.
'So I have to go. I have to show alternative Drag at the fringe. Even though Cabbage isn't Drag King, I need to show them that there's other stuff going on.'
But there's a problem.
'The alternative Drag scene is dying,' says Eliza. 'We're having to cancel shows because it's just exhausting. There's no money there. It's so anxiety-inducing having to produce a show and not sell any tickets, and then you sell out the day of the show.'
It's not that Drag Kings aren't interesting or lack quality: their stories just aren't being platformed. Instead they are shining in the shadows of East London.
Daisy, Izzy and Eliza all agree the reason Drag Kings haven't boomed into the mainstream like Queens is down to one thing: misogny.
'We're living in a man's world, right? Even in drag, it's still a man's world,' says Daisy.
'Misogyny has leaked into everything we do,' Izzy agrees. 'Women are expected to be feminine, or they're not deemed to be women.
'So it seems to be okay when men dress as women, because I guess they're becoming the ultimate thing that men would desire from a woman.'
It seems the male gaze is a powerful commercial driver – even in artistic spaces in the LGBT+ world.
'I think the core of the issue is patriarchy and misogyny,' Eliza agrees, clarifying this issue is more about biological sex than it is gender.
'Drag seems the most liberal, the most left, open world ever. You can't imagine that there would be sexism in the drag industry, but it's like any other industry… Sexism is rife.'
Eliza has endured comments about their body, and questions about whether what they do is Drag – even though they have won multiple Drag competitions.
'Drag to me in a very broad definition, is just delivering a fantasy that is not you in any capacity,' Eliza says.
'I belong here, even though it's hard to feel that way when the world says you don't.'
Eliza was a huge Drag Race fan for years, until she began experiencing the disparity between Kings and Queens firsthand.
After winning a Drag competition Eliza got no work for months, while all the Queen competitors beneath her were booked up to their barnets.
'I found it a little bit shocking when I was first starting out, the different energy towards me and other performers,' Eliza says.
Then the blindfold came off on Drag Race for Eliza, when she realised how sexist some of the Queens' portrayals of female bodies were.
'I watched an episode of Drag Race where one of the Queens was wearing these gigantic, long tits and the whole joke of it was that they were running around with tits.
'I couldn't stop thinking about it for days, and it just sat with me, and it just rotted, and it just rotted.
'I was like, 'Why can I not stop thinking about this?' And I was like, 'Oh, it's because the butt of the joke is an assigned female at birth (AFAB) body.''
Many Drag Queens Eliza works with don't perpetuate sexist tropes. But so many that they love and respect also do, but without realising, thinking or caring.
While Drag Queens back in the day were trans women, on Drag Race at least, it's a cis man's club.
'This is an opportunity for men to promote and elevate a man's career, and then, you know, it's opened up over the years to include trans women,' Eliza says.
'When you really look at it: if you have a vagina, you can't go on that show,' Eliza says. 'With some exceptions… Some people have been let on, but it's so much harder to get on that show and to have access to the same opportunities and to make money within the Drag scene.'
It's also logistically difficult for Drag Kings to get on the show, because of how competitive it is.
'You have to have looks, you have to have wigs. You have to have all this stuff. You have to be rich,' Eliza says.
It's a cycle. As Drag Queens who are mostly white, cis men are the model that is set up by Drag Race, they are where the money is.
'People want to book drag like that because that's what they're seeing on TV,' Eliza says. https://www.instagram.com/p/DMxlQ_OKWBM/?img_index=1
While Drag Race champions them, Daisy doesn't think Queens are to blame.
'In my experience the Queens are supportive and want to see Kings flourish,' Daisy says, adding that a lack of representation can be down to venues booking predominantly Queens.
'It's down to everyone involved to say: 'No, let's actually put some drag things in there.''
Daisy and Eliza agree that Drag is all-encompassing: Drag artists are creatures, aliens, objects and can be anything they want. Not just cis-women dressing up as men and cis-men dressing up as women.
'I think it's not only important to watch it. I think it's important for us all to explore and question our own inner alter egos and kings and queens inside of us,' Daisy says.
While Daisy is cautious to give up the beautiful safe space of London's Drag underworld to the commercial landscape, Eliza is keen for a documentary exploring her community, to raise awareness of its colourful existence. More Trending
'It's amazing, it's beautiful, it's life changing,' says Eliza. 'I just wish that everyone had access to it. I find it devastating that so many people do not know that it's there, that it exists, that it can happen, that Drag is more .'
Daisy Doris May: Big Night Out is on throughout August at Assembly George Square Studios at 9.50pm. Tickets here.
Cabbage the Clown: Cinemadrome is on througout August at Underbelly, George Square – Buttercup at 9.45pm. Tickets here.
Mr P From HR is on from 18 to 23 August at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall, Theatre 2 at 10pm. Tickets here.
Got a story?
If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us [e-mail], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you.
MORE: 'I am orgasming on stage every night for this very good reason'
MORE: Why Tim Minchin walked away from talk shows and never looked back
MORE: 'I was in love with an incarcerated man – now he's my Edinburgh Fringe show'