Non-binary drag and drag of all kinds
Anaconda LaSabrosa is a drag artist who does genderfuck performances.
Drag queens, drag kings, it's fun, but isn't it a little too binary for this universe where the genre has been twisted, exploded, torn apart? Well, precisely, the non-binary drags come to reverse our conceptions of this art sometimes mainstream, sometimes marginal.
With RuPaul's Drag Race and its fifteen spin-offsand adaptations around the world, we can say that the general public has become seriously familiar with the world of drag queens in the last decade, even if recent news shows that this is not the case for everyone. . So it's time to make room for other drag styles.
First, it's important to make one thing clear: the gender of the artist does not indicate the gender of the character portrayed. Yes, the classic portrait is a man in the skin of a woman. But the art of drag is precisely about playing with gender stereotypes and going beyond them. A woman can therefore perfectly be a drag queen, just as a non-binary person can choose to embody a gendered character.
Some definitions to get us on the same page
Drag queen: a female character traditionally played by a man, but who can also be played by a woman or a non-binary person.
Drag king: a male character traditionally played by a female, but can also be played by a male or non-binary person.
This is also the case of Kelly Holzmuller, a gender-fluid person who has been transformed into a very masculine Will Charmer for five years now. On the contrary, Anaconda LaSabrosa identifies as non-binary both in her daily life and in her character, whose performances are genderfuck.
The what?
“Genderfuck is just not being male or female, but being both. It’s like a state of mind!” explains Anaconda LaSabrosa, who can be seen during the Coven evenings at the Diving Bell, on Saint-Laurent. His performances are rather raw and avant-garde, very different from what you might see at Cabaret Mado. “Often, it will have a very political message: queer people have their place and we must give them.”
Genderfuck: a character whose presentation holds both feminine and masculine, for example by wearing a beard and a dress. The term can also refer to a gender expression or identity without being associated with drag.
View this post on Instagram
An example? Tired of heteronormativity in sexuality education classes, they decided to do a satirical number to show how to be a bottomand do her cleaning routine. “For me, it was important to create something like this, because it's informative, but it's also very comedic. You don't see that everywhere!”
If you've never heard of genderfuck, it's because it's still a fairly marginal type of performance. In Montreal, in addition to Anaconda LaSabrosa, we have Heaven Genderfuck, La Freak du show and the burlesque artist Rosie Bourgeoisie, but these people have to organize their own parties to deliver performances that we are not about to see. in TV competitions.
Exploring your gender identity
“It is certain that drag can encourage a certain reflection on your gender identity, claims Anaconda LaSabrosa. When you go from someone masculine to someone feminine, for example, you see things differently, at least momentarily.”
This is precisely what Kelly Holzmuller experienced when she gave birth to Will Charmer. Kelly was experiencing a lot of gender dysphoria, which caused such great psychological distress that he stopped walking for a few months, starting in the fall of 2016.
At the beginning of 2017, they had a breast reduction which helped them enormously. Then, in September of the same year, Will Charmer was born. This is what made Kelly realize that he wanted to live his daily life as a non-binary person while having a character that allowed him to exploit his masculine identity. “I'm not closing the door on transitioning one day in my life, but for now, Will is enough for me.”
View this post on Instagram
< h3 id="h-remove-labels">Remove labels
If Kelly ends up defining himself as a trans man one day, he has no intention of calling Will Charmer a bio king. While respecting the choice of people who decide to call themselves so, they believe it is an unnecessary label in the world of drag, where the aim is to break down the barriers between the genres. His lover, Alice Wildflower, presents herself as a drag queen rather than a bio queen.
What is a bio king and a bio queen? ?
Bio queen: A woman, usually cisgender, who takes on a female persona. Also sometimes referred to as AFAB queen, faux queen, or hyper queen.
Bio king: A male, usually cisgender, who takes on a male persona. We also sometimes speak of false king or hyper king.
“Too many categories, it ends up putting too many labels on something that doesn't want to have them,” also believes Anaconda LaSabrosa. Drag is made to democratize gender expressions, but categorizing them too much ends up destroying the idea of the gender spectrum, according to some artists.
If one is not not always agree on the different categories of drag, everyone agrees on one thing: by its history, this form of art is necessarily political, even when it is entertainment. “It's still a way of showing that I exist and that I have the right to assert myself as I am,” says the person behind Will Charmer.
Other definitions that might be useful to you
Drag queer: a non-binary character, whose femininity or masculinity is not exaggerated.
Drag thing: substantially similar to genderfuck, this style of drag has the particularity that it can exceed the genre with the incarnation of clowns, creatures, animals or even objects.
