february 20. 2004 - j u s t o u t 35
CULTURE
eatinffout
▼.............
Female masculinity
Portland’s first drag king troupe
nudges you a little closer to your edge
by
eatingout
CO
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5
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z
J odi D arby
ear with me, friends, for
a little trip through gen
der academia.
In her Kxik Female
Masculinity, Judith Halherstam
clarifies that masculinity is not
always equivalent to maleness;
it is more precisely a set of spe
cific behaviors and attitudes
that are available to all who
would access them. Masculini
ty, then, being in essence
gender-free, takes many forms
apart from maleness.
In other words, you don’t
have to he male to exhibit
masculinity. But maleness
carries a specific social
demand for its emphatic
Tommy Torpedo (right) woos the women as part of DK PD X. See the drag troupe during the TechnoDyke.com
expression. These internal
birthday bash Feb. 22 at Holocene.
ized demands become a kind
of gender performance where the majority of
had ever seen, and it involved a priest and an
performers. The last show Jan. 25 packed in a
people hope to fall into one category or
altar hoy. It was really political and really, really
sell-out crowd as DK PDX did a sendup of
another. This kind of gender performance is
hot at the same time.” Cotterill was on stage
movie icons like Top Gun, The Graduate and
not perceived as performance per se by the
within a month.
W ayne’s World.
actor or the spectator because the perform
“Drag has the ability to deconstruct binary
ance is an internalized and largely un
; nee in Portland, Cotterill “started talking
gender. I’ve seen a lot that reinforces that," says
conscious one.
| to everybtxly I could to feel out whether or
Gitterill. “It gets people talking, thinking
OK so far? Let’s continue.
aKiut gender and their own perceptions of it
' not people seemed interested,” she remem
In cases where gendered signs are conscious
and reactions to it. It directly affects the players
bers. “There was an overwhelming interest, so I
ly acted out— in some ways hyperacted— and
worked to make it happen.” One of the first
and the audience."
presented as performance, we arrive at what
and most ambitious connections Cotterill
T he idea is simple— what Cotterill calls
social anthropologist Lauren Wells-Hasten calls
the “Le Tigre factor,” after the feminist punk
made was with Soox, a Boston transplant with
“gender theatricality.”
a knack for the stage.
group that conveys serious social and politi
Or what some queers call drag.
cal messages through dance music. Entertain
Soox’s “first brush with the idea of drag”
Drag is by its nature gender-disruptive and
the crowd: Make them dance, make them
was in her North Carolina middle school. “For
laugh, make them hot, hut most of all make
has always been an intrinsically “queer” form of
the talent show, my group wanted to be Duran
expression. Historically, the keys to Drag City
them think. “We want people to walk away
Duran. We wanted to dress like them and per
from our show and feel uncomfortable, to
have always been kept in the hands of men,
form. The school wouldn’t let us and told us
which explains why drag queens like RuPaul
question their own ideas about gender. We
we had to he a female band. We ended up
Charles have become part of mainstream
especially want people to push us in dif
ferent directions, too.”
society and drag queen bars have
As a troupe, DK PDX is incredibly
increasingly become the domain of
straight, suburban hachelorette parties.
diverse. The intersection between perform
ance and trans visibility is huge for some
Where drag queens have found a
members of the troupe, which is a major
certain level of acceptance in both
step toward community building.
popular media and academia, drag
”
“W e’re all queer,” Cotterill explains.
kings are still a relatively unknown
“Some of us are trans-identified; some
community.
—All Cotterill aka Tommy Torpedo
want to transition, hut most don’t. Some
In recent years, organized drag king
do king and queen drag. Me, I like being
troupes have emerged in large cities:
a dyke and being a fag. I like playing around
doing a Bangles song, but we did it dressed as
Club Casanova in New York, the Royal
with both.”
Renegades in Philadelphia and the Chicago
Duran Duran.”
Audience outreach is of utmost importance
Later Soox, aka Ace, began to perform dur
Kings are among the better known. In years
to DK PDX right now. Others priorities include
ing Amateur Night at Jacque’s, a Boston queer
past, Portland saw drag king revues down
film
and video projects and more performing
bar.
“I
do
different
types
of
performances,
dif
town at Embers Avenue; now, inspired hy the
nationwide. “We want...people [to] know how
ferent characters,” explains Soox. “Sometimes
political nature o f smashing gender, the sexi
approachable we are,” says Cotterill. “We want
I’m a gentleman; sometimes I do the redneck
ness of performing and the excitem ent of
people to contact us and for them to know that
with the mullet thing. Either way, it’s com
charting new territories, we can say hello to
we’re not a clique.”
pletely over-the-top masculinity. It’s mocking
DK PDX.
Stxix adds, “For me personally, this is what I
traditional ideas of gender stereotypes, the
Founder Ali Cotterill, aka Tommy Torpedo,
do when I’m alone and in my room, and now I
same way drag queens do.”
might he considered Portland’s King of Kings.
can share it with people.” JH
As for their inspirations, Kith Gitterill and
From a young age, she played with gender.
S x ix give credit to classic nationally known
“When I was 5 and 6 , 1 ltxiked like a hoy," she
Watch DK PDX enact readings from the new
drag kings Mo B. Dick and Dred, the writings of
says. “When I got a little older, I still looked
anthology Up All Night: Adventures in Lesbian
stone hutch Leslie Feinstem and gender outlaw
like a hoy, hut I also wanted to perform. I want
Sex during the TechnoDyke.com fourth birthday
Kate Bomstein, and the drag activism of Diane
ed to he a child star. The problem is you can’t
bash— a Studio 54 tribute party— 7 p m. Feb. 22 at
Torr, originator of the Man for a Day workshops.
he a movie star in this society if you’re 13, and
Floloccne, 1001 S.E. Morrison St. C o w is $5 at
The
women
set
out
recniiting
and
pre
you kx»k like a hoy!” she laughs.
the door, $3 uith '70s gear. Jom the DK PDX fan
miered last May during Skervy, the erstwhile
It was five years ago at Oherlin College in
list at groups.yahoo.com/group/portlamldragkmgs.
queer dance night at Cobalt Lounge. After
Ohio that Cotterill discovered drag. She was
Skervy ended, they began performing at the •
19 and went to a performance of drag king Pat
JODI D arby is a Portland tenter, graphic designer
eastsidc club Holocene in earnest and feel they
Riarch, who was opening for queer slam poet
and radio producer.
have finally come together as a solid group of
Alix Olson. “It was the first drag performance I
444
'
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