Faux Queen

Cross-dressing
History of cross-dressing In wartime History of drag Rebecca Riots Casa Susanna Pantomime dame Principal boy Travesti
Key elements Passing Transvestism
Modern drag culture Ball culture Drag king Drag pageantry Drag queen Faux queen
Sexual aspects Autoandrophilia Autogynephilia Feminization Petticoating Transvestic fetishism
Sexual attraction to cross-dressers Andromimetophilia Gynemimetophilia
Other aspects Albanian sworn virgins Bacha bazi Bacha posh Crossplay En femme
Passing as male Breast binding Female urination device Packing
Passing as female Breast forms Cleavage enhancement Hip and buttock padding Tucking Gaff
Organizations Tri-Ess ABGLT
Books My Husband Betty She's Not The Man I Married The Boy in the Dress

A female queen, AFAB queen, faux queen, bio queen, diva queen, or hyper queen is a drag queen who identifies as a cisgender woman, a transgender (FTM) man, or as a nonbinary person who was assigned female at birth. These performers are generally indistinguishable from the more common cisgender male or transgender (MTF) drag queens in artistic style and techniques, but face discrimination within the drag community.

While all these terms are used both by performers and in the media, many are considered offensive. The term "faux queen" is often rejected for implying that these performers are "less than" cisgender male drag queens, and the terms "bio queen" and "female queen" are considered by many performers to be transphobic as they imply that a transgender (MTF) woman who performs as a drag queen is not a woman. Other descriptions include "biologically challenged" drag queen, "female female impersonator", or "female impersonator impersonator." All of these terms are generally considered acceptable only when used by the performer themselves, and many drag queens reject all terms that define them by their sex.

Concept

Like all drag queens and drag kings, female queens play with traditional gender roles and gender norms to educate and entertain. AFAB queens can appear alongside drag kings at drag shows and are interchangeable with other drag queens as emcees, performers, hostesses, and spokesmodels.

For some it can be a way to redefine postmodern feminism; AFAB queen Ms. Lucia Love stated, "Drag queens would be nowhere without women." For others it simply is about dressing up and having fun.

In San Francisco, the first ever "Faux Queen" pageant was produced as a benefit by Diet Popstitute and the first title holder was Coca Dietetica aka Laurie Bushman. The Klubstitute Kollective was formed after Diet Popstitute's death to continue to raise funds and provide a space for the performers who, at the time, weren't always welcome in regular drag venues. Pageant organizer Ruby Toosday had "friends who got fired (from drag clubs) for being women...it seemed like we had definitely hit a nerve. Contestants were judged on drag, talent, and personality by an all-star panel of judges and the winner helped "femcee" the following year. The pageants were held from 1996 to 2005. The Faux Queen Pageant was resurrected in 2012 by former title holder Bea Dazzler, and will continue to be a yearly competition in San Francisco.

Fauxnique (dancer & performance artist Monique Jenkinson) became the first cisgender female queen to win a major drag pageant—competing against male or MTF drag queens—when she was crowned Miss Trannyshack 2003. From Bust Magazine: "'(drag) comes down to a sort of self-awareness, a self-consciousness about playing around with femininity,' says Fauxnique. She adds that while drag for her is primarily about performance, it's also a 'rejection of traditional oppressive forms of masculinity—and that's part of an affinity with gay men as well. I wouldn't say every faux queen is a feminist, but I would say that a part of them is in some way.'"

In the 1970s and 1980s, Russian-born Brazilian cisgender female queen Elke Maravilha became a popular TV personality after participating as a judge in Chacrinha and Silvio Santos talent shows. According to her, "many people think I am a transvestite. When they ask me this, I jokingly reply that I'm a man indeed. And of the most gifted ones".

The comedy films Connie and Carla and Victor Victoria both center on cisgender female queens, but the main characters of both films are women who are forced by circumstance to work as drag queens. They keep their gender a secret and impersonate men when off-stage, quite unlike their real-life counterparts.

The 2020 reality TV dance competition Legendary was the first US reality television show to include cisgender women performing and competing as drag queens, including the all-female team representing House of Ninja. The reality competition Dragula featured two AFAB performers in their third season, but winner Landon Cider performs as a drag king and contestant Hollow Eve identifies as a "non-binary drag socialist" or drag artist, not specifically a drag queen.

Discrimination

AFAB queens often face widespread discrimination within drag spaces, which are typically dominated by cisgender gay men. RuPaul Charles, the producer and host of the reality TV competition RuPaul's Drag Race, has banned female artists from his shows, stating "Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not men doing it, because at its core it’s a social statement and a big f-you to male-dominated culture. So for men to do it, it’s really punk rock, because it’s a real rejection of masculinity." After significant backlash, RuPaul amended this response in 2019 to state “I’ve learnt to never say never.”

There are widely-held beliefs within the community that female queens do not face the same challenges as cisgender male drag queens, and do not need to use padding, makeup, or tucking to create the illusion of femininity. AFAB artists typically counter that they use the same makeup techniques to create exaggerated femininity, and many do use padding and corsets to create an extreme body shape. Female queens on Instagram often mock this belief that they do not "transform" their bodies by sharing strikingly different images of themselves in and out of drag with the hashtag #wheresthetransformationsis, started by AFAB queen Creme Fatale.

This discrimination is often closely linked to the discrimination and objectification that women, transgender men, and nonbinary people assigned female at birth face within LGBT spaces. AFAB queens frequently report groping and harassment from cisgender gay men in gay bars and performance spaces, and report less pay and less tips from audiences. Drag terminology can also be exclusionary or objectifying; AFAB artist Hollow Eve sparked a significant debate in 2019 when an episode of Dragula aired where they spoke out against the term "fishy," used to mean a drag queen who looks like a cisgender woman and referring negatively to the smell of a vulva.

The rising prominence of AFAB queens and increased dialogue around inclusivity has resulted in many drag queens rejecting any distinction based on their gender and calling for drag competitions to remove all gender and biological sex requirements for contestants.

Gallery

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  Holy McGrail is a faux queen and nightlife socialite in San Francisco. Making her debut in 2005, Holy is known for her outrageous self made wigs, signature makeup and drag performances.

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  San Francisco AFAB Queens From Left: Kegal Kater, L'Ron Hubby, Trixxie Carr, Fauxnique, Hoku Mama Swamp, Holy McGrail at the Trannyshack Kiss Off Party August 23, 2008.

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  Russian-born AFAB queen Elke Maravilha became a famous TV personality in Brazil in the 1970s.

See also

• Gender bender
• Genderqueer
• Homeovestism
• Queer
• Trannyshack
• "Werking Mom"

References

This article "Faux Queen" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Faux Queen. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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