“I Want to Live a Fantasy”: A Decade of Perfecting a Persona

As I walk into Keys Bar and Grille I am in awe over the tall, thin figure dressed in an all pink outfit covered with sequins and topped with a white faux fur shawl. As soon as I sit down I am greeted by this beautiful person, but in the most jeering manner. “You have as much makeup on as me,” Trixie Towers says as she sarcastically roasts me. This was one of many blunt comments Trixie made throughout the night.

After all, she is a queen and must act as such.

Trixie Towers isn’t a family name; rather, it is a name Anthony Dawkins adopted nearly a decade ago. The 27-year-old from Dunedin, Florida is your everyday middle-class worker — working both in real estate at Dina Marie Realty and as an esthetician at Miromar Lakes Spa and Fitness.

But there is more to Dawkins than a crisp collared shirt; there is blonde, voluminous hair, glitzy outfits, high heels and most importantly an exaggerated personality. For Dawkins, like most queens, he is not afraid to show it.

A look back almost 10 years ago and the thought of drag never crossed Dawkins mind. Social norms and growing up with conservative-minded parents, the thought of doing drag never interested Dawkins. However, a trusty ex-boyfriend and a young soul gave Dawkins the courage to try drag for the first time at the age of nineteen.

“My hometown [Dunedin] was having its first-ever pride festival and they wanted to do a teen night,” Dawkins explains as Rich Girl by Gwen Stefani blares in the background. “He [Dawkin’s ex-boyfriend] wanted to do a performance for all of his friends, but he didn’t want to be the only one, so I told him he needed to find one of your friends to do it. Come to find out, none of his friends wanted to do it so I went ahead and reluctantly said yes.”

One thing led to another and there was a natural progression for Anthony as he continued to turn this one-time experiment into a full-blown passion. With this performance came confidence and this is seen throughout Trixie when she performs.

She stomps through the crowd in her stiletto heels with zero hesitation as she yells out the next BINGO number. Tables of college students fill the bar stools while Trixie sexualizes everything that comes out of her mouth.

I quickly learned a Trixie Towers performance is not necessarily the best for conservative ears, but it is definitely entertaining to the students that surround the bar — including myself.

This confidence was something that immediately interested Towers and initially made her want to perfect her craft.

“After I got my makeup done and I was in my costume, I looked in the mirror and there’s that moment of like not recognizing yourself,” Dawkins explains. “That was the first time that has ever happened to me and I was like, “Oh wow, I’m actually kind of pretty.”

Once a confidence boaster, now a creative outlet, Towers has since been working on her persona for nearly a decade.

An FGCU alumnus graduating with a degree in Communication and a minor in Theatre, Dawkins is able to use what he has learned from both degrees during his performances. Using the communication and public relations skills from one and theatre talents from the other, Dawkins has become well-versed during his shows.

“Once you get out of college and out of the educational sphere, there’s not a lot of outlets to have and it’s very easy to get stuck in a rut,” Dawkins explains. “But doing drag is a way to disrupt the normal.”

A member of the Gay Straight Alliance at FGCU, Dawkins was even able to use drag as an outlet throughout all four years of college.

“I ended up becoming their community outreach officer,” Dawkins explains. “I was doing drag three times a month up until my senior year — so at least every other week I was doing it. Everything that the GSA did on campus, I would be their drag queen, I would be their host, I would perform for them on campus.”

Only being out of college for three years, Dawkins understands the financial and social pressures of a student.

However, Towers still manages to dress to perfection even on a budget because that’s what a veteran queen learns to do throughout the years.

With each drag outfit costing him roughly $200, Dawkins takes advantage of his years in costume construction in high school. Knowing the basics of making a costume has come in handy over the years as Dawkins explains, “It’s very expensive to look cheap. I’m not the kind of drag queen that’s going to throw on a cami from Walmart.”

Despite establishing a cult of college kids over the years, Trixie did have some initial kickback from family and long-term boyfriend as both were so used to seeing Dawkins as a male. With his mother working at an entertainment center where they host drag queen bowling weekly, the drag world has since become nothing new to his family or boyfriend.

“When we first started dating I would say the difference between Anthony and Trixie was obvious, it was a totally different character to me,” said Bailey Smith, Dawkins boyfriend. “But with time has come love and understanding and now I see it not as a separate person but as an extension of himself (persona).”

Even though there are over 20 drag queens in the southwest Florida community, Trixie Towers has become a household name within the group. With years of experience, a close friend and “sister” of Towers, Chloe Bone Cicconi, explains how she can always rely on Towers for an amazing performance.

“I’ve always loved watching Trixie,” Cicconi explains. “She has a stage presence of many entertainers can’t touch of grace and effortlessness. Myself, now as the Show Director at Cruisers in Cape Coral, I turn to her to book because I know I’ll always get the Trixie I’ve always loved to watch.”

As an outsider, one would see a bald, skinny male wearing crispy navy pants and a collared shirt. However, Anthony Dawkins is much more complex — he is a queen. A self-confident character who just wants to have fun and share his craft with the world.

Though the drag community has been more widely accepted, Dawkins still recognizes that his day-to-day profession can still limit him despite his openness about doing drag.

“I think nowadays it’s more widely accepted,” Dawkins explains. “People don’t want to berate me for dressing like a female; they want to take my picture and ask questions. But, as an esthetician, I must gauge my clients.”

“I sound really boring if I don’t say, “I sew my own costumes, I do drag, I do performances all the time,” Dawkins explains. “If I can sense they would be against it, I would say that I sit at home with my dog, go kayaking and that’s about it. I gauge them then it’s just open conversation.”

Most of us wish we could live a fantasy life and Anthony Dawkins does that at least twice a month. Exuding confidence and grace, Dawkins transforms into a blonde-haired bombshell with a personality that is contagious.