CD v. Drag Queen

[jenny_cheerleader]

Whats the difference between a Crossdresser and a Drag Queen?

[celeste26]

The CD is anyone who dresses in the clothing of the opposite sex. A drag queen is one who primarily does it for the provocative nature and entertainment value. Drag queens aren't all gay but usually they are. Female impersonators are a variety of Drag queen although they usually inhabit formal entertainment settings while the generic drag queens may not.

Which doesn't mean that any of the above wont cross boundries and have a different look. Drag though is ostentatious (over the top, obvious and "out there" and frequently in your face) most of us here choose not to be that way. Which doesn't mean that the drag queens couldn't, definitions are so poor in these realms anyway.

[jenny_cheerleader]

thanks

[LindaLeeColby]

Hi

You'll have to understand a couple of things first before the definitions make any sense. The term Drag (Dressed As a Girl) goes back to the late 1800's when only men played female roles on stage. On sexuality, or in the early studies and specifically on cross dressing, a German psychologist coined the term Transvestite in the 1900's (from Latin trans- across, over and vestere to dress or to wear) as a description of men who wore women's clothing.

The term Queen was actually slang (derogatory) for a male homosexual that dressed female. All of these terms were used prior to most concepts of a third sex or transsexual (The word transsexual was first used by Dr Harry Benjamin to describe a particular type of cross dresser who wanted to live life in an "opposite gender role" in the early 1950's).

In most modern usages a Drag Queen is a male performing female (as in female impersonator). If you introduce "sexual orientation" into this mix then you can consider that both fall to either ends of a sexual spectrum, in roughly the same but opposite proportions, whereby most cross dressers (80% vs 20%) are heterosexual while drag queens (80% vs 20%) are homosexual.

As always the terms never fully cover a true spectrum of life styles, definitions or reasons.

Hope that helps...

Hugs
Linda Lee

[Julie York]

You can see a Drag Queen from further away.


(Not as daft as it sounds.)

[MonaSmith]

I think that Drag tends to be a theatrical parody of femininity and 'ordinary' crossdressing is usually trying to achieve convincing femininity. Obviously the definitions are pretty blurred, as they always are with these things, but in general that seems to be how it works to me.

Mona xx.

Oh and the thead is CD v. Drag Queen, I think that the CD would win as drag queens tend to have much higher heels and therefore be much easier to topple!!! Lol.

[Maude]

Whats the difference between a Crossdresser and a Drag Queen?

Drag Queens mock women.
Crossdresser emulate women !

maude

[Ava Mouse]

I agree with Maude! Travesty for entertainment value.

It's difficult for me to say that drag queens dress like women, because women don't dress like drag queens...

Crossdressers dress like real women, and wish to appear and be treated like real women...

I personally reject the style of drag queens... It hurts the public's perception of us in some ways... But, it can also help by pushing the envelope of acceptance... It's an 'art' that I don't understand or appreciate, but I accept/tolerate them as part of the spectrum...

I have a lot of respect for GG's, so I don't like anything that mocks them.

[Jen_TGCD]

It's difficult for me to say that drag queens dress like women, because women don't dress like drag queens...

:rolleyes: Ava... have you been to Miami Beach... or Los Angeles... or anywhere in Texas lately???

Definitely NOT TRUE ! ! ! :D

[Ava Mouse]

Really!? I guess Dolly Parton would qualify... But no... Seattle is VERY drab...


:rolleyes: Ava... have you been to Miami Beach... or Los Angeles... or anywhere in Texas lately???

Definately NOT TRUE ! ! ! :D

[windycissy]

I personally reject the style of drag queens...I have a lot of respect for GG's, so I don't like anything that mocks them.

I'm with Ava on this one. True, there are GG's who look like drag queens, but that's not a look I aspire to. My goal when I am out and about as Windy Cissy is to blend into the background...I even wear my wig in a pony tail and wear fake women's glasses to make myself look inconspicuous. And I just revel when I'm taken for the woman I appear to be. Windy