I grew up as an outcast but I found solace in drag

Like a lot of Down Under darlings, drag is important to me. I didn’t choose the life of glitz, glamour and grit – it chose me. It was a divine calling to a community and art form where I could be myself and be celebrated for all that makes me different.

I grew up as an outcast, a weirdo, someone who didn’t gel with what society was telling me to be or do. I danced to a different drum that beat from the depths of my soul: a calling for camp, colour and creation. I was infatuated with the art of transformation; I yearned for a taste of escapism from the bland world around me.

“I grew up as an outcast, a weirdo, someone who didn’t gel with what society was telling me to be or do.”Credit: Samuel Graves

I know I’m adding fluff to a place in time when I didn’t want to be myself. But it’s true. I didn’t like who I was, and I didn’t like that others could see there was something different about me. But romanticising life and giving memories a makeover is what us drag artists do. We embellish and bedazzle; we add a bit of sparkle, a bit of fabulousness, as we bend the perception of reality. We take our drab and daggy day-walker selves and evolve them into rare and beautiful creatures that light up rooms like disco balls hovering above a dance floor.

I didn’t like standing out for something that I couldn’t control, but I love using the art of drag to demand onlookers’ attention on my own terms. I can be the puppeteer of my own perception, empowered by a simple eyelash flutter. I don’t do drag; I am drag.

Drag is a heightened version of oneself. It’s life on acid. It’s a way to become strong, powerful and proud. But don’t be mistaken by the robust veneer: drag has a shadowed past. Peek behind the curtain and you will see a treacherous journey of torment, where queens have had to stand tall as matriarchs for the queer community. We are at the forefront, fighting for our peers and pushing for progress despite societal pressures that attempt to banish us back to the underground like we’re terrifying trolls.

Drag can be a selfish art form: a way to feed the ego, hog the spotlight and suck all the oxygen from the room.

ART SIMONE

It’s these struggles that have built the foundations of our tenacity and triumph. It takes balls to do drag and, as such, I always recommend everyone tries it, should the opportunity arise.

Drag can be a selfish art form: a way to feed the ego, hog the spotlight and suck all the oxygen from the room. But it also has the power to uplift those who feel small. It’s an instant route of escapism for viewers who can be transported from their everyday lives to a world of love, acceptance and complete self-expression. Drag is motivation to live the purest version of yourself, inspiration to stand tall and proud among your peers.

But just as queens can be a beacon of inspiration, they need their audience to survive. It’s a mutual relationship that feeds each party in a perpetual cycle of praise. Drag queens need our crowd just as much as the punters pine for their princesses.

Drag has evolved over the years. Queens were once like vampires, sequestered to the darkness, never touched by the sun. You’d often find us confined to nightclubs: tall figures floating above the crowd like mystical giants, pushing through a pulsing pool of people. Other times we’d be under a spotlight, singing in a sticky dive bar or standing on a theatre stage. Access to this art form was very limited. It was a niche community that rarely offered outsiders a glimpse into the glitz and glamour.

Fast-forward and drag has exploded into the zeitgeist of the mainstream: it is everywhere, and it is for everyone. From margins to mainstream, we no longer fear standing out in the sun. We’re in movies and television campaigns, we’re commercial tycoons, pop stars and household names. We have been serving since the dawn of time; now, the world finally has an appetite, and they are Eating. It. Up.

Through facing adversity, we’ve equipped ourselves with a handbag full of tools and talents that help us live life authentically. This is why we are the perfect people to inspire others to be themselves. You see, the skills we have aren’t limited to lashes and lipstick. We can help anyone live a life as fantastical as a drag queen’s. Style, confidence, business, make-up: we can do it all. Why do you think our wigs are so big? They’re full of secrets.

Edited extract from Drag Queens Down Under (Affirm Press) by Art Simone, out now.

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