Drag (clothing)

The slang term "drag" refers to the wearing of clothing of the opposite sex, and may be used as a noun as in the expression in drag, or as an adjective as in drag show.

The use of "drag" in this sense appeared in print as early as 1870 but its origin is uncertain. One suggested etymological root is 19th-century theatre slang, from the sensation of long skirts trailing on the floor.

A folk etymology posits "drag" as an acronym for "dressed as [a] girl".

There is a long history of drag in the performing arts, spanning a wide range of cultural as well as artistic traditions.

Drag in the theatre arts manifests two kinds of phenomenon. One is cross-dressing in the performance, which is part of the social history of theatre. The other is cross-dressing within the theatrical fiction (i.e. the character is a cross-dresser), which is part of literary history.

Drag is often played for comic effect. Examples include the female characters (at times caricatures) played by male members of Monty Python, and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot. In other cases the comedy may be primarily in the material being performed, and not necessarily in the fact that the women characters are portrayed by men, such as in many Kids in the Hall sketches.

Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, was keen on amateur theatricals from Charterhouse public school where, among other roles, he played female operatic roles. In the army he made a speciality of female roles and would often make his own dresses. His stage speciality was what he called his skirt dance.

Cross-dressing elements of performance traditions are widespread cultural phenomena. In England, actors in Shakespearean plays, and all Elizabethan theatre, were all male; female parts were played by young men in drag. Shakespeare used the conventions to enrich the gender confusions of As You Like It, and Ben Jonson manipulated the same conventions in Epicœne, or The Silent Woman, (1609). The plot device of the film Shakespeare in Love (1998) turns upon this Elizabethan convention. During the reign of Charles II the rules were relaxed to allow women to play female roles on the London stage, reflecting the French fashion, and the convention of men routinely playing female roles consequently disappeared. However, in current-day British pantomime, the Pantomime dame is a traditional role played by a man in drag, while the Principal boy, such as Prince Charming or Dick Whittington, is played by a girl.

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