Drag kings, explained by drag kings
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2022
- Mo B. Dick, Maxxx Pleasure, Sigi Moonlight, Johnny Gentleman, and King Molasses explain the evolution of drag.
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Drag kings have historically gotten a lot less attention than drag queens, but that’s starting to change. We interviewed five drag kings about their relationships to drag, how the artform has transformed, and what they love about it.
In the words of King Molasses, drag is full of “that swag you get in the shower that nobody sees.” Drag king performances are all about playing with masculine identities: politicizing them, satirizing them, and having fun with them. And these performers have been around for centuries.
In China, documentation of “male impersonators” dates back to the Tang Dynasty, from 618 to 907 AD. In the mid-to-late 1800s, drag king pioneers like Annie Hindle, Vesta Tilley, and Ella Wesner began performing. And in the early 1900s, Go-won-go Mohawk was likely the first indigenous male impersonator.
By the early 1900s, black performers like Gladys Bentley and Stormé DeLarverie were becoming drag pioneers. And by the 1990s, there was a big, thriving drag king scene in cities like New York City, San Francisco, and London - all over the world.
Today, drag kings are pushing for space in a cis male-dominated field. And it’s working.
Resources:
Instagram links for all the featured kings:
King Molasses, DC: / kingmolasses
Mo B. Dick, LA: / mrmobdick
Johnny Sin Gentleman, LA: / johnnythegentla
Maxxx Pleasure, NYC: / mr.mpleasure
Sigi Moonlight, London: sigimoonlig...
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Please dont do these videos again. Look at the likes and compare it
I thought this was about cars
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
We need a drag kings show just like we have now a drag Queens show.
There’s one group that does it monthly in Santa Fe, NM. It’s so much fun!
We didn’t need a drag queens show, and definitely don’t need a drag kings show
@@willm678 who hurt you?
@@willm678You’re not included in the “We”. Shoo.
@@feltfrog Oh, ya got me! You said “shoo” look how tough and unbothered you are!
"we're kind of counterculture within a counterculture within a counterculture.
Like how punk is that?"
I love that so much!!!
you mean: how little important is that? And it is not really culture, is it?
@@priestmike cope and seethe you child
cringe3000
Its not punk at all, but these guys sure are punks!
Quote of the Day: “Our patriarchal society doesn’t really take kindly to the idea that masculinity and manhood is something that anyone can put on.”
Because you can’t, it’s a label given to people of a shared lived experience it’ll always be seen as Illegitimate
@@JKRowl god being the coincidence of the universe that is.
@@sammytimgaming2947 yup cause there are 100,000 billion galaxies so to think some man in the sky chose Earthlings is PREPOSTEROUS
@@GrigRP Why do you care. Why do I care?
We are bored and have nothing better to do. So let's have an argument right?
Glad that hit for you haha ❤
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Drag Kings exist since Drag Queens exist, but it’s something I’ve never considered. Interesting video!
Fr
@@rlm2933 like making fun of people that aren't doing anything to hurt you?
@@rlm2933 Yep. And your type has become dangerously common recently.
I hope that you that the help that you need.
@@rlm2933 I think your confusing drag for trans.
@@rlm2933 stop the stigma and you are homophobic
As someone who wants to be a drag king, it’s amazing to learn about it and see other people doing it and thriving, and the way everyone in this video describes it has just cemented that this is something that feels authentic and right for me :,) thank you for sharing
"That every time I hit the stage that there's somebody in the crowd hopefully that when they see me, they see themselves."
My heart. That line hits so hard.
Yeah such a ridiculous sentence
Same! I absolutely adore drag kings and queens! And that feeling of being seen is what drag gives me!
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5 )
@@eshow07 God isn't real, bro. Your Bible is irrelevant here.
@@elleeeish407You don't have to believe in Gravity either but if you jump off a building you're gonna fall
I'm actually starting my Drg King Journey here in Las Vegas, NV. I really needed to see this. It's honestly so friggin' lonely whenever I wanna find community that will understand. I don't even want to do it as a job yet, I just want support. This saved my whole out look. Truly motivational. Thank you!
I hope you find a community. It’s a hard thing for so many of us to find these days, no matter what our interests. Best of luck on your journey! 🩷
wishing the best for you 💓
Right there with you, but I live in the south. 😢
There needs to be a Drag race show for Drag Kings!
Next episode of Drag Race France will feature drag kings !!!
YASSSSSS
AGREEEEEEEEEE
I went to a drag race once but they never raced, they just danced and walked silly. Strange
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
thank yall so much for talking about the non-western history of drag. it's so good to see people who realize that not all people in this country only identify with western/european culture & history.
‘Inspired by American rock stars’ - shows photos almost exclusively of British singers lol
Nasty
Oooops. 💩 happens. 😂😂😂😂😂
LOL omg wait... 😅
Came here to see if any other music enthusiasts noticed
Poor attention to detail… smh
Ah... anyone can put on masculinity.
I like it.
I was a soldier and a street cop. I'm capable of great violence. But that's not who I am. It's a performance I put on for my job.
At home, with my wife, my grandkids, my neighbors, I'm a very gentle and patient person.
I went back to school for a nursing degree. It's also a performance, but one that felt more comfortable.
I feel sorry for men who can't drop the act. Cannot allow themselves to be vulnerable.
@UCS1VFxauEAxAejKT_gBjbXA now hold on, he didn't say none about pride. Give sum cred where it's due, man's is making a very solid point. And soldiers and Cop don't have to stay soldiers and cops forever, that is for certain a personal choice
Thank you for your werk. 💅🏾
i'm happy for you mate. that sounds like you've really learned something valuable
THIS. People perceive vulnerability with being weak or fragile. When in reality I've personally come to learn that people who are vulnerable the most tend to be the strongest ones emotionally and socially.
Keep up the good work, man
So men shouldn't act like men in general? And who said we all act 'manly' to put up an act? That's just who we are, the same way a woman acts feminine.
Drag Queens are widely known and discussed but rarely about Drag Kings. Hence, this is an interesting topic.
A drag king won a season of Dragula. I'd watch a Drag King competition show, honestly. And a hyper queen competition show. All the shows. Let's go!
What's hyper queen
@@yojiviriak675 a hyper queen is a trans or bio woman dressing up like a drag queen. Not a king
I would too
I would totally watch a drag king show!! drag queens are getting mainstream but a drag king show is NEEDED so that they can get some attention!!!
He’s really cool
I love the description by King Molasses of a large hat being "very present." Glad y'all are very present.
Counterculture within a a counterculture within a counterculture. I like the sound of that.
Just imagine how oppressed they must be.. god they're so cool. 💧💧🥵
Yes Kiiing!
knowing the history behind stuff like this makes it more respectable
Its way past time we had AFAB performers on drag race, like every new season should have at least one new AFAB star.
This is phenomenal, finally a video about kings, I’ve been doing drag since 2020. I go by Dack Janiels, in the Sydney drag scene and I’ve loved every minute of it.
Hey! I'm a drag king also! Great to meet another king here!
That’s such a genius name
@@eshow07 cope
@@Maber610 nope
A whole lotta love for my black drag kings! We always slay!❤
Thank you for including me in this video!! I yelled "YES KINNNGG" so many times while watching this haha
Love the guyliner and the goatee ❤️❤️❤️
@@creeperlamoureux thank you!
❤❤❤❤❤
Thanks for chatting with us 👑
You were awesome 👏🏽
I absolutely loved this! It makes me so happy to see people unabashedly expressing themselves, without a care in the world as to what anyone thinks! I myself am intersex. I was born with Klinefelter Syndrome & I identify as transfeminine nonbinary. My happiness absolutely SKYROCKETED when i finally stopped caring what people think! 😁
I remember seeing a special about drag kings on MTV way back in the late 90s/2000s
No you don’t.
The black guy is really fun and good looking. I hope we get to see more of these performances.
1:42 "I draw a lot of inspiration from American rock stars..." then Vox proceeds to show 3 of 4 British rock stars (Jagger twice). The one American (Hendrix) made his name in the UK.
LET THIS BE THE ERA OF DRAG ROYALTYYYYY. Drag Kings and Queens assembleeeeee
@@davisdelp8131 what are you so afraid of?
@@davisdelp8131 It's okay, you'll get these things in due time 🥰
@@userblame632 feminism gone wrong. What's next? Kids loving adults? This world is upside down...It never ended well like this...in nature, there are 2 genders. Period. (Facts don't care about your feelings)
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
@@eshow07 you shouldn't be using any technology on the Sabbath.
I just did my first Drag King performance as Max Vibes a week ago. It was one of, if not THE best experience of my life. It was amazingly creatively fulfilling and I cant wait to do it again!
thanks for talking about us :)
Since I studied Black folks in vaudeville and burlesque I knew about the history of drag kings. I hope these new kings get the recognition they deserve.
It's nice to see drag kings getting attention alongside the drag queens.
@@GrigRP yeah we see too many right wing politicians and priests in the media
I SOOO happy to see this! I'm a Drag King inspired by Glady Bentley and Storme Delarverie. Creating my persona "Qing Blaze" has helped me name myself and has opened a new outlet for me to explore myself and my art.
Thank you so much for including an Indigenous king. We rarely get any mention and I learned something new today 🧡
Loved the time I spent as a drag king. Short but really fun!!!
I’m 65 years old and love RuPaul’s Drag Race. One of the contestants mentioned Drag Kings and I didn’t know what that meant. It’s awesome! You GO!
I NEED MORE DRAG KING VISIBILITY!! A drag king race show?? Or any show yess please
I too am a bot that needs more degeneracy.
Why is in the US everything about race? /s
@@Luxx0711 It's in reference to the television show, "RuPaul's Drag Race". The name of that one is a pun on drag racing, as in race cars.
@@Luxx0711 Because literally everything about the us has a race element for example the settlement was a race thing whites vs natives, slavery was a race thing, moving west was a race thing, the Chinese building the railroads was a race thing etc
I'm looking to get into drag as a king and honestly, I'm ending up in a CZcams rabbithole
I was asking my boyfriend but friend at the time a bunch of questions from a website once when we got bored and one of the question was "have you ever considered drag?" And they said never, not once. Honestly I'm not gonna like I was surprised and restated the question because of the amount of times I've considered drag
I'm so glad we're talking about drag kings, they're so important and so lovely. I love drag kings so much. I wish that they were propped up like drag queens are in our pop culture.
I agree. They need to be front and center and deserve true representation. Why can't a drag king read a good book to children? Drag kings are courageously living their truth.
“A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 22:5)
@@mxmissy I'm not telling anyone anything
@@eshow07 then what was the point in posting a religious verse?
@@mxmissy the Bible is the word of God
Yessssss!!! Drag kings deserve more attention 💖
@@davisdelp8131 CHAD reply. Nice
Alot of negative Opinions. Live and let live
So let the negative opinions live
@@UriPhoneCracker yall can't be this dense, bro. I'm sorry, but if your "opinion" is that these people don't deserve decency for being who they are, than it sounds like you need to reevaluate your understanding of "live and let live" especially of you actully heard the batching craziness these opinions consist of.
@unstoppablephilosophy how does this have anything to do with right wing??
Yes, I would love love love to see a Drag King race reality competition on tv!
I am a drag king inside I can’t wait to embrace it one day
Absolutely love this. I have casually wondered about this- and so great to see this thrive. Would love for it to be recognized by the mainstream ❤️
If you've never been to a drag king show, look up some local to you! They're so much fun.
Omg, I've been rewatching RuPaul's drag race episodes for the last few day and I started thinking why isn't there anything like that for drag kings, so I just googled the term I was, omg wow, this is so cool, RuPaul needs to do a show for drag kings. I literally just found out that this is really a thing, this is great, as a traditional older women who's kids are grown to me this is awesome.
So are we gonna get a king version of drag race?
What amazing content. Congrats!
So many different VOICES in here.
Never heard of it, but all for it! Let's see what them dudes can do lol!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I love this. I don't know how to explain it. It feels like embracing every part of oneself.
I accidentally read the title as "Drug Kings explained by Drug Kings"
lol
I love how they all have such different personas
This was so informative and enlightening, really well done Vox 👑
WHOA, these names out of the gate are just incredible!!!!
Loved all the various type of drag shows, cabaret and burlesque in NYC. Our patriarchal society doesn't support or make space for drag kings or f to m transition (or any transition...bigots are bigots across the board), especially because the patriarchy does not want more men, more competition, and what they view as a threat to their masculinity. They seem to be more "ok" with having more women; to exploit, objectify, possess, fetishize and violate, as in their minds it gives them another subgroup of the population to lord over.
Dang, it's these moments I wish I lived in US, cuz it's a crime in my country to be that gorgeous 🔥🔥🔥
I absolutely adore this! They are unabashedly themselves and its such a sight to behold! People like this have always been such a source of inspiration for me 💜
Excellent segment!
This is very exciting and I can't wait to see this progress to higher levels ❤ !!!!!
I love this so much!!
This is my first exposure to drag kings and I’m absolutely in love! I love their personalities and I’m absolutely blown away with their art. It’s a bit sad that I did not know of drag kings but I’ll be sure to look and support as many as i can 🥰
Love these kings, they seem very cool and nice and look fantastic
Hey King Molasses, greetings from Nigeria ❤️🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬
i got to dress up as a drag king one time when i was younger and it was one of the most fun nights~
This is awesome!
i identify as a woman but id love to do drag king....
anyone can be a drag performer! you're born naked and the rest is drag!
Great topic. Love it!
We need more drag Kings!! More recognition!!!
This is so awesome to learn😊 🙏🏾
I didn't know drag kings was a thing, and shame on me. Let's make them main stream!
I would love to give this a shot, it looks fun :) just don’t know how to get into it
I never knew drag kings were a thing, I love it.
They should be part on Drag Race it’s called Drag Race for a reason.
This made me so happy.
It’s funny how threatened men are by women dressing as men and parodying them. Just look at the comments. It’s so uncomfortable for these dudes to see their masculinity as nothing but a costume that anyone can put on.
And watch them try to pretend that noooo they’re totally not scared or uncomfortable! It’s just not naturaaalll! It’s weeiiirrrddd! It’s perveeerseee! Why? Why do you feel that? Every single person who respond negatively to this is just outing themself as insecure. It’s going to be hilarious to watch you flounder 😂
I AM LIVING FOR THIS!
Hey this is pretty cool! Not interested in watching drag performances myself, but there's a pleasing balance to knowing that drag kings exist too
How did nobody mention Annie Lennox
Was Annie drag or androgynous?
Thanks for the knowledge, I am going to look for these shows that you talked about, and look for more drag king content!
:DD
While I knew drag kings were a thing I've never seen or heard from any so this was great
i really hope one day I can fully flesh out a persona and perform. at least once in this lifetime.💕😭
Why does Vox keep showing as having a live feed?
I’ve always though that my drag persona was a queen, but, king is calling me so badly. Here borns Cornelio del Carmen😌
Don't tell Republicans about Drag Kings.
It's Moe! I heard him on the Not Past It podcast!
wow this was so cool to watch! although also infuriating how misogyny and capitalism strike yet again. Makes me want to boycot drag queen stuff until there is a more equal representstion! I love what Molasses says at the end, being triple counter culture!
Good for them but i doubt the audience for Drag kings and Drag race would overlap.
This is awesome
Fantastic video Congrats Vox
Ummm, my own very first thoughts...WhyTF haven't I even heard of Drag Kings?!! It's one of those things that hides in plain sight to the mind. Once it occured to me, I HAD to know in what styles and ways it is expressed. Fascinating stuff ;D
I'd say I'm relatively entrenched in the LGBT community, but I've never heard of a drag king before.. I've wondered why I'd never seen one before, guess I just wasn't looking in the right places
Drag kings and drag queens have nothing to do with our community.
Finally Drag Kings!!!
I'm so happy misogyny was brought up and drag kings not getting enough attention!!!
Thank you for this video (I am a baby drag king !!)
There are not enough people out here respecting drag kings, and it's shameful. Life is drag, baby.
glad I wached this. It is cool to know things about people from those people rather than make rediculous guesssess and asumptions
Beautifully said ❤❤❤❤❤
Love it
i wanna be a drag king !!!
More drag kings please....!
Es la primera vez que me entero de la existencia de los Drag Kings y siento una luz de esperanza para mi!
Life changing stuff