Everything is Drag...

So last night (Friday, April 9th) Rainbow Alliance for HOPE held their 10th annual Drag Show here at UW Oshkosh. This event is one of my favorite events to attend during what is now called Rainbow Week (it used to be called BGLAD week). 

Every year, HOPE brings in a professional company for a night of fun. This year, however, (as well as last year) they are introducing local talent. At this year's performance, they had two UW Oshkosh students, one, Duane, a graduate student, and the other, our class' very own Garret!


Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of these two performing, because I took video. But I will post some random pictures of the professional company. 

Seeing this drag show reminded me of Judith Butler when she says, "drag constitutes the mundane way in which genders are appropriated, theatricalized, worn, and done" (Imitation and Gender Insubordination). (Side note: While I love reading Butler, I do not recommend her to most people...she's tough to get through!)


But one of the things that Butler is saying in her essay is that everyone does drag every day of their life. When you wake up in the morning (whether or not you are feeling like P-Diddy...hehe), and you put on your clothes, those clothes are all drag. 


We can even look to the famous RuPaul in saying, "we all came into this world naked, the rest of it is all drag".

The atmosphere of the drag show was absolutely unbelievable. The underground was packed! It was so difficult for people to get anywhere, even the performers who braved going out into the audience. All-in-all, it was an amazing night, and I would recommend, if you have the chance, to go and see your first professional Drag show! It will change the way you think about the world...especially because some of the performers...you wouldn't be able to tell if you didn't know...