With the release of Troye Sivan’s new album, Something to Give Each Other, I did as any reasonable person does and I sat down to listen to all ten of the songs and watched the three official music videos currently released all in one sitting. My favorite was “One of Your Girls,” recently released October 12, 2023, because of its inability to leave my head and because it showcased Troye Sivan dressed as a woman giving Ross Lynch a lap dance.

Troye Sivan, Australian singer and actor, is known for exploring his LGBTQ+ identity in his music and videos dating back to 2013. In previous albums, like Blue Neighborhood, he explores the LGBTQ+ experience of forbidden queer love and acceptance of that identity. So, of course I sat in awe as I watched this music video encompass the the themes of femininity, masculinity, homophobia within queer relationships, and the acceptance of being unapologetically queer.

Femininity in “One of Your Girls”

The most obvious display of femininity is the main female character in “One of Your Girls” which happens to be Troye Sivan himself dressed in drag. When I first saw the music video, I gasped at the sight of Troye Sivan dressed in full drag singing the songs main chorus:

Give me a call if you ever get lonely/
I’ll be like one of your girls or your homies/
Say what you want, and I’ll keep it a secret/
You get the key to my heart, and I need it/
Give me a call if you ever get desperate/
I’ll be like one of your girls

 

Troye Sivan’s “One of Your Girls”

He is beautiful, wearing strategically placed makeup giving the illusion of a woman. His eyes are made to slant upwards, his eyebrows are drawn on thinner while also slanting upwards and contour is used to give Sivan’s face a sharper V-shaped jaw rather than his slightly square jaw. To further add to the feminine look, Sivan is shown in four outfits: a white dress, white gloves, green and white knee high stockings; an all-black dress with knee high strappy heels; black leotard with sheer black tights and heels; corset-like top showing his bra with blue jeans, white heels, and a wide waist belt. These outfits all accentuate the sex characteristics of a woman: breasts and hips. This female persona is also shown participating in other activities, mostly dancing, alongside other women, emphasizing Sivan’s embrasure of the feminine role.

This persona, of course, is relevant to the lyrics Troye Sivan sings when his feminine character first comes into frame. More specifically, “I’ll be like one of your girls” which helps explain Sivan’s decision to do drag. This lyric further ties into the internal homophobia within queer gay relationships, where men will deny homosexual identities despite participating in homosexual acts.

Is it Really Drag?

 

While reading through the comments of the music video on both YouTube and Reddit, as any reasonable person does, I encountered a few comments questioning whether Troye Sivan’s female character should be considered drag. This spiraled me into thinking about the criteria of drag. Does it just involve cross-dressing and makeup? Which of those two is most important? Where is the line drawn between drag and ordinary cross-dressing? How does this change when it is women dressing as men?

 

 

 

 

According to Nonbinary Wiki:

Drag queens are performance artists, typically cisgender men, who dress in women’s clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine gender roles with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity.

Crossdressing is the act of dressing as and performing a gender that is not your own, or that is different than your gender assigned at birth, without necessarily identifying as that gender.

It seems that the main difference between doing drag and cross dressing is the way in which you “perform gender” or “do gender.” Cross dressing is simply a performance of a gender different from your own while drag is an exaggerated performance of gender or an exaggeration of “doing gender.” It is also important to note that drag is typically done with a purpose to entertain while crossdressing is not.

Nonbinary Wiki also touches on the topic of women doing drag. They are typically deemed drag kings and similar to drag queens, they have an exaggerated performance of gender, only it is exaggerated masculinity rather than femininity.

Moving onto the question of which is more important (the makeup or the clothing), I think there is a balance of both. Most drag queens that come to mind have both the exaggerated makeup and the exaggerated “female body” or “female clothing.” I think, as long as there is exaggerated doing of gender with the intention of performing gender too, it is drag.

Mainstream media outlets don’t really debate whether or not Troye Sivan is considered to be in full drag or not. In People Magazine’s, “Troye Sivan Gets Into Drag for ‘One of Your Girls’ Video and Says Ross Lynch Was a ‘Perfect’ Costar (Exclusive),” Troye is even quoted: “‘I’ve never done drag before, [but I’ve] always wanted to, and it was a really beautiful, fun experience.'” Sivan himself acknowledges his actions as drag, and it seems to be an important part of the intention and meaning behind the lyrics.

So although it can be argued that Troye Sivan is not actually in drag because of his softer makeup in contrast to the usual drag makeup, it can be agreed on that Sivan is portraying a feminine character. In relation to the song, this feminine character is displaying what it is like to be “one of your girls” which is important for the overarching message of the video.

 

Masculinity in “One of Your Girls”

“One of Your Girls” opens with a shirtless Ross Lynch (click on the picture) displaying his abs and then moves on to show a couple other men, some shirtless and some not. Troye Sivan is even shown singing the lyrics of the song, but is given more screen time when singing in his feminine persona. The other men shown all possess different aspects of masculinity: fit body, facial hair, look strong, stern look, sharp jaw, etc. They are all what seems to be cisgender, straight men placed in the beginning of the music video to portray the men Troye is singing to throughout his music video.

When discussing his casting choice of Ross Lynch, Troye Sivan emphasizes that Ross Lynch was the “perfect” man because he is the ‘representative of the general population’s thirst.’ Looking further into why Ross Lynch is deemed as this representative, it can be inferred it has a lot to do with his masculinity. Lynch is the typical hot, masculine guy: visible abs, muscles, strong jaw line, short scruffy hair, strong hands, small waist, big shoulders, and the list goes on. In Ross’s case, there is no doubt about his masculinity despite his difference in appearance to the other men shown.

This portrayal of masculinity through different men is important because it shows the many ways masculinity in men is presented. Not all the men had facial hair, big shoulders, or sharp jaw lines, but they were still all masculine men. This further leads into the idea of the fluidity of masculinity (and femininity) and what features actually define the difference between masculinity and femininity.

 

I also just think Troye Sivan was hot in the music video.

Links to Sources:

Nonbinary Wiki: Crossdressing

Nonbinary Wiki: Drag

People. Troye Sivan Gets into Drag and Says Ross Lynch Was ‘Perfect’ Costar