Drag queen

Drag queens are performers - usually gay men, sometimes transgendered women - who dress in "drag," clothing associated with the female gender, usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. Drag queens often do drag to perform, singing or lip-syncing and dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, cabarets, discotheques, and other celebrations and venues.

Genres

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• High camp drag queens employ a drag aesthetic based on clown-like values like exaggeration, satire, dirty jokes, "putting on airs," and so forth. Divine and Jolene Sugarbaker are examples of camp queens.
• Some drag queens exaggerate in the dimension of elegance and fashion, employing jewelry and beautiful gowns. The Lady Chablis, who can be seen in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is an example of this type of performer. Another example is drag pageant title holder Christine Mancini. Many such drag queens impersonate specific actresses and other pop divas, such as Cher, Madonna, Céline Dion, and others.
• Some drag queens either do not perform or perform only rarely. Their forte is participating in pageants, hence the term pageant queen. Pageant queens gear their act toward winning titles and prizes in various contests and pageantry systems. Some of these have grand prizes that rival those of pageants such as Miss America.
• Bio-queens are non-transgendered women who perform the exaggerated feminine personae of drag queens (or else impersonate a male drag queen). Many bio-queens look to drag queens as role models. Bio-Queens should be distinguished from fag hags. Biological females who take on the exaggerated personae of drag queens are also commonly known as "faux queens".