Dressing Up for a Living; How Art of Drag is Thriving Online
By Caleb Mutua
A few minutes after 9 a.m., BeBe Zahara Benet posted a video of her spinning in a colorful African maxi dress on Instagram. She whirled round fast, then in slow-motion, making the gathers on her costume swirl her curvy body concurrently with her long springy braids.
“True queens radiate elegant sex appeal, completely covered in clothing,” Debby Randolph, one of BeBe’s over 90,000 Instagram followers commented on the post.
A few hours later, over 10,000 people around the world had viewed the one-minute clip. BeBe posted the viral video on Sunday while performing at the RuPaul’s DragCon NYC at the Javits Center in Manhattan. Happening for the first time in the Big Apple, the organizers’ said the gig sold out, attracting 35,000 drag fans and performers, the LGBTQ community and social media and fashion personalities.
When BeBe isn’t performing, she goes by her actual name: Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa. Kudi is a man. Born in 1981 in Cameroon, West Africa, Kudi moved to Paris, France, then to Minneapolis to pursue his modeling career before he emerged as the first drag performer to win Hollywood reality-TV phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race in the first seasons.
“When I started performing, there wasn’t Facebook and Social Media was not huge as it is now,” said Kudi shortly after participating in a panel discussion at the conference. “Prior to the online platform, I had to make sure I go around and have conversations and go to schools and make appearances. But now with online presence, I try to put out videos and different posts every day. I try to inspire.”
Kudi isn’t the only performer who loves to post online photos of him dressed up in women’s costumes with wigs, glittery eyeshadows and contrasting lipstick as an artistic way of displaying his creativity and personality.
Traditionally considered a gay subculture that flourished in underground nightlife in Manhattan, the drag art has recently found itself back in the mainstream pop culture, thanks to the performers’ ability to connect with their fans online.
Linda Simpson, a self-proclaimed high-end New York City drag queen and blogger has been presenting historic photographs of New York City’s drag scene from the late 1980s to mid 1990s on her blog, The Drag Explosion.
“When I was coming up, there was a big interest in drag in the 1990s, but it was looked upon as a trend,” said Simpson. “After the media lost interest, drag really got pushed on the side again and now I find it very empowering that drag queens can create their own media with websites and blogs, Instagram etcetera, so in many ways, drag is much more powerful now.”
Richard Renaldi, a portrait photographer and author, has documented New York’s LGBT clubs and drag scene since early 1990 and drag queens are his favorite subjects.
“Drags have character, personality, they know their angles and they come with their hair and makeup already done,” said Renaldi. “I always know it’s going to be a great session no matter what because drag queens have different reasons for being in drag but they come from a really beautiful and honest place because they want to get it on film.”
The show business is today awash with music videos, TV series dramas and movies that include drag themes. Drag icon RuPaul Charles has so far won two consecutive Emmy Award for outstanding reality program host of his reality competition series, RuPaul’s Drag Race, that is watched in over 100 countries.
With the majority of artists borrowing a lot from drag aesthetics, Kudi now wants people to identify him not as a drag queen, but an ordinary singer and performer.
“I feel like when you call us drag queens, it stereotypes us,” said Kudi. “It puts us as labels and I feel like we are performers. I feel like I am just an entertainer. It does not matter what form I take to perform and entertain. I think I deserve being called a performer because you don’t call Tyra Perry a drag queen. You don’t call Will Smith a drag queen and all the other mainstream artists who use the aesthetic of drag to entertain.”
