Oh, Kade
OUT
I get the print version of OUT magazine, because I like supporting LGBTQ publications (there are so few, nowadays!) but I always preview the issue online, and given that IMPOTUS is fucking up the USPS I don't even know when I will get my next issue, or if I will even get it. So I was reading OUT online and I ran into this fantastic article, which talks about Kade Gottlieb and Gigi Gorgeous.
Gigi, is of course fantastically beautiful, but I was more interested in Kade, whom I've seen doing makeup on the likes of Willem and some other drag queens. He was on Welcome to My Face, the online makeup series by James St.James, too. He's an awesome makeup artist. He also likes do do high femme drag. He's also a trans man.
You just know that this kind of premise would make more than one cis, masc4masc, white gay man's head explode. It would also make any Trumpanzee's world collapse, but that's just an added bonus. So let's see: it's a man doing drag. Simple, right? That would be like 98% of the drag performers we know of. Most of us know of or are acquainted with a Drag performer or ten, so a Drag performer doing stunning high femme drag is not a surprise (Farrah Moan, anyone?). The thing is that when it comes to a trans man doing high femme some heads will turn and some eyebrows will go up. But why? It's only Drag.
What people does not seem to get over is the fact that gender and sexual orientation are not the same. That Drag performance is that, a performance, and it skews notions of gender and sexuality at the same time. Not all drag performers are cisgender gay men. Not all trans men present only as masculine. As Gottlieb points out:
This is something I know well. My own relationship to gender was initially playful. But the year before I started transitioning, I leaned the hardest into masculine presentation than I ever had. And yet, that felt more like a performance— more like drag—than the shoddily applied makeup and secondhand dresses I wore out to raves.
Rumor has it online that Kade is going to be in RuPaul's Drag Race. If that's the case, things are going to get interesting. Not that it would be absolutely groundbreaking. RPDR has had Trans performers before (Monica Beverly Hillz, Peppermint and Gia Gunn come to mind) and a cisgender woman won La Más Draga in Mexico and a Drag King won Dragula, the Boulet Brothers' contest. But you never know...
We all have to get over the fact that the binary is a social construct and that it does not define us. We need to get over the fact that all Drag must be performed by cis gay men. We need to get over that need to define what is masculine and what is not masculine or who qualifies as a 'man'. There is a gender identity continuum that we should be much more aware of if we want to understand our LGBTQ peers. Not that it's any of our business how they present themselves or identify themselves in the gender spectrum, but it's always helpful if we want to use the correct pronouns and not be a dick.
So I'm going to get off my little soapbox now and will let you enjoy Gottlieb when he did James St.Jame's makeup last year (James is a TRIP). But the next time someone is arguing what Drag is or is not, or who can or cannot do Drag, make sure you let them know that Drag above all, is a performance. A performance that says 'fuck you' to gender. And that gender is in a continuum.
XOXO
P.S. I'm kind of loving that OUT magazine is bringing these topics to the forefront and I'm liking even more that the cover stars are actual LGBTQ people and not just models or movie stars. You should subscribe, if you have not yet done it. It's worth it.
Kade is very talented. As you said, it’s performance, it’s art and the body is the canvas. As for those that don’t like it, don’t look.
ReplyDeleteAs for the gender continuum, the possibilities are endless. I’m a guy who likes dick and asa. And frankly what I do is between me and my partner, and has no bearing on someone else’s life. Get over it.
XOXO 👨❤️💋👨
I think exactly the same.
DeleteIt's just art. People just attach so much baggage to others it's ridic.
XOXO
Stay on that soapbox, honey. You good at this. Love this post. My thought - and I do have one... singular. It's all ART. Drag is art. Our lives? If we live them fulfilled and as we see ourselves, our true selves? That's ART. And that takes commitment and bigger balls than any fucked-up, stuck-up CIS male I have ever met. Thanks for sharing this. You keep expanding my world in the most delightful way.
ReplyDeleteLOL
DeleteOh, as if I needed encouragement.
Yes, it's just art. And as artists people need to express themselves as who they are. It seems simple, but you know everybody's gonna have an opinion.
XOXO
I like the person who doesn't fit society's neat little box they wanna put him in.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that just the best?
DeleteWhen somebody just does not conform, no matter how much they push them to do it?
I find it refreshing.
XOXo
Such talent!
ReplyDeleteI thought so too!
DeleteIt's performance art, simply put: the concept, the execution, the references.
XOXO
Great post! You did your soapbox proud!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha
Delete*takes a bow*
XOXO
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ReplyDeleteYou nailed with gender and sexual orientation. Even the gays don't get it. I have long enjoyed Gottlieb. Gigi not so much. I just can't with Gigi. My mind is racing here. But yes, many seem, including drag queens when it comes to a trans doing drag, a problem. But why? it's still drag. The only one I know who doesn't get any backlash is Juno Birch. Trans on Drag Race would be intresting, and god knows RuPaul has to get with the times. I can't believe she has yet had a drag king on yet or at least a drag king version. The other issues I get with my gay friends who don't do drag is the camp. It stared with Charlie Hides. I have heard from many the they don't like over the top drag and out of box...like Yvie, Sharon, Max , Raja, Vivacious and Tempest. And many I know can't stand the UK and the Canadian version and won't watch. I find that sad. I think the regular version of drag race is partly to blame, since it seem to promote, most of the time, the cookie cutter, polished , fishy queens. Most gay boys only love that style of drag now. And the general public only see Ru and pretty things. Open your minds queers. I think the Uk and Canada versions are far more a true represent of the real drag world. Campy and out of the box is far more popular at shows then the picture perfect queens, unless they are mutli talented. When I did drag, my favorite days I liked, like Detox said, were the beginning days of drag, when you first started doing it, yes not polished, but people would love it anyhow. Now it seems to be all about the best make up, the high end fashion and having a fish look more. It's why during the pandemic, I have been having fun with Pam Demic. Reminds me of my early days. Queens need to embrace all forms of drag . I hadn't head Gottlieb might be on drag race, but lord knows it needs a shake up. Juno would certainly shake things up and Michelle would hate that. But if Juno leaves her trade mark behind all the bitches might want to stand back. She very seldom does other versions of drag but when she does.....OH HENNNY..........
ReplyDeleteI feel you with Gigi. Stunningly beautiful, though.
DeleteAnd I think the Drag Race brand will need to expand, eventually. There should not be a mold for drag. Fishy, expensively clothed queens are not the end all of Drag. It's the crafty queens, the weir queens, the artsy queens the ones that will inherit the throne.
The UK and Canada versions of Drag Race are opening eyes. American queens are used to the pageant model (which I love) and think anything else is just not good enough (Katia criticized Yvie for not being 'polished' enough after winning the crown).
People loved the artistry, the raw talent of the Wednesday night queens doing drag in a tiny stage in a tiny gay bar. That needs to be appreciated again.
I love it when you let the children HAVE IT!
XOXO
I"ll be honest, I don't understand the exoticness.
ReplyDeleteSame. It's really not THAT exotic.
DeleteIt's just a great makeup artist doing drag.
Very simple, right?
XOXO