While we were discussing doing gender, it reminded me of the hyper-feminine performance of gender known as drag. Although drag originates from ballroom culture, it has become wildly popularized through the emergence of RuPaul’s Drag Race where drag queens compete in several different challenges over the course of many episodes to determine the Next Drag Superstar.

Premiering in 2009, this show offered queer visibility when it was very very scarce. Not only did contestants share their art with the world, but they also shared their experiences growing up queer. In Season 1, Ongina opened up that she had been diagnosed with HIV, which was very brave because the subject was taboo at the time. By sharing her experience, Ongina opened the floor for dialogue about the devastating effects HIV has had on the gay community, spreading awareness about the disease. 

Since drag is often a extreme performance of gender, the topic of gender often comes up doing the “werkroom” segments as the queens are nervous getting ready for the challenges and the “untucked” segments while the queens are unwinding after they get critiqued by the judges. One important distinction that is usually drawn is that there is a difference between doing drag and being a woman. As West and Zimmerman would say, men doing drag could be considered doing the gender of a woman, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean they are women.

However, there are  some people who do drag that ARE women. For example, during season 2, there was a contestant named Sonique who ended up coming out as transgender at the reunion show that gathers the queens after the season airs. In a very emotional moment, she revealed that after the show wrapped she realized that doing drag made her feel like the person she always felt she was on the inside. She said that the show pushed her to seek out a doctor, who ended up putting her on testosterone blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Sonique’s declaration makes me believe that performing gender can be a way of discovering gender. People born male in society have been conditioned to present as male, but they might not realize they identify as a woman until they start doing the gender of a woman.

Another contestant who helps explain this idea further is Monica Beverly Hillz. During season 5, the judges noticed that Monica was extremely reserved. While getting critiqued on the main stage in episode 2, Monica burst out in tears. She said she felt as though pretending she was a drag queen was just unfair to herself. She was more than just a drag queen, she was a woman. Even though doing drag was a performance of her gender, she did not feel like a woman while doing it. Instead, she felt as if she was a man acting like a woman. This discrepancy is super interesting to me because it suggests that doing the gender you identify with does not necessarily give you gender euphoria because the context of your perceived gender matters as well. There are ways a man can do the gender of woman, and there are ways a woman can do the gender of woman, and these different ways of doing gender are crucial to consider when evaluating if someone’s behavior is truly masculine or feminine.

Even though Sonique and Monica Beverly Hillz came out on the show, it was some time before we actually began to see trans contestants appear on drag race. In season 9, the trans drag queen Peppermint reported having to stop taking her hormone blockers in order to go ontothe show because the producers did not want her appearing too feminine and taking focus away from her drag. Unfortunately, RuPaul (the main host) had some problematic views on allowing trans contestants to compete. In an interview, RuPaul declared “You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing”. This statement touches on the idea of passing, which is a person’s ability to avoid being detected as transgender. Essentially, RuPaul believed that if a contestant passes as a woman, then it gives them an unfair advantage in the competition, seeing as they are no longer performing the gender of a woman as man, and instead performing the gender of a woman as a woman. Although unjust, this prejudice sheds light onto the perception of doing gender on a societal level. No one is intrigued by someone doing the gender of the gender they’ve been assigned because it is expected, which I believe causes people to rarely notice people doing their assigned birth gender but always notice when there’s a mismatch between assigned gender and done gender.

Eventually, trans contestants did begin to appear on drag race. After competing on season 6, contestant Gia Gunn transitioned, and returned to All Stars 4 (a separate series hosted by RuPaul with queens that have previous competed) in 2018. In 2022, when Kerri Colby and Kornbread Jete competed on Season 14, they became the first trans women to appear on the main series of drag race. Their inclusion on the main series, inspired a famously controversial tweet from Gia Gunn: 

Although it is true that Gia Gunn was the first contestant to enter the werkroom after transitioning to a woman (as dictated by society), contestants like Sonique, Monica Beverly Hillz, Peppermint, and many others who later transitioned were all still trans people when they appeared on drag race (they just had not received gender affirming care yet). What Gia was really saying with this tweet was that she was the first contestant passing as a woman while competing, and that she opened the doors for Kerri Colby and Kornbread Jete to compete on the main series. Despite being controversial, Gia touches on a key aspect of doing gender: she’s happy to see people doing gender the same way she does gender. Even though there were trans people on the show beforehand, they were not doing gender in the same way as her, and now there are trans women demonstrating how to do drag while also passing.

Even while incorporating this passing definition, Gia’s statement is still incorrect. During Season 13 the year before, contestant Gottmik (known Kade Gottlieb as Gottmik out of drag revealed that she is a trans man. Gottmik chose to transition because he felt uncomfortable with his gender being a girl, but still enjoyed doing the gender of a girl in drag, so he chose to become a drag artist. Gottmik proves even further that doing gender is separate from one’s gender identity, and leads me to believe there are two types of gender performance: doing gender and being gender.

In The U.K. series of drag race, Victoria Scone shattered even more gender expectations for the show by being the first cis woman to compete. Out of drag, Victoria presents as a masc lesbian, but in drag she presents very femme. By doing drag, Victoria explores doing femme woman gender while still being masc woman gender in her day to day life. Victoria’s experience adds insight into the different levels of expression of the same societal gender. There are masculine and feminine sides to both manliness and womanliness, and both are valid expressions of the gender.

In summary, the contrast between the hyper-expression of the female gender on drag race and the gender presentation of the contestants highlights the differences between doing gender and being gender. By sharing their experiences, contestants create a more inclusive atmosphere for people to express themselves and be who they want to be regardless of the societal expectations for their gender. Once the dialogue is opened, people are more free to do gender they are less likely to explore, and it may even lead to them discovering part of themselves.

A meme created as season 14 aired, depicting Kerri Colby as the trans grim reaper, seeing as sharing her experience inspired many of her fellow castmates to also come out as trans.