The San Francisco Drag King Contest is an annual contest for
drag king
Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculine drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, stand-up comedy and singing, eit ...
s held in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and founded by performer and producer, Fudgie Frottage. It is the biggest drag king contest in the world,
and the longest running drag king competition in the U.S. The related
International Drag King Community Extravaganza (IDKE) is the largest drag king performance event in the world but not a contest.
[ The 26th Annual San Francisco Drag King Contest will be held Sunday, August 21st, 2022.
Contestants are judged on talent, creativity, studliness, sex appeal, originality, humor, make-up/facial hair, and fashion by celebrity judges.][ The contestants main requirement is that they come from the Bay Area, otherwise the organizer notes "we have gay women who identify as dykes or ]lesbian
A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...
s, we have transgender men, we have straight or bisexual women."[ In addition to various awards (Best lip-synching, Best costuming, etc.) a sole king and a group are named as the night's winners.][
The audience tends to be in the ]gender-bender
A gender bender is a person who dresses up and acts like the opposite sex. Bending expected gender roles may also be called a genderfuck.
Gender bending may be political, stemming from the early identity politics movements of the 1960s and 19 ...
spirit with many of the mostly lesbian audience also cross-dressed in male attire with fake facial hair.
Background and history
Drag kings
Drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress in masculinity, masculine Drag (clothing), drag and personify male gender stereotypes as part of an individual or group routine. A typical drag show may incorporate dancing, acting, sta ...
are mostly female performance artist
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
s who dress in masculine
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
drag and personify male gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
stereotypes as part of their routine.lip-synching
Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...
to pre-recorded tracks.macho
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
male characters,Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
, and Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy McGraw (born May 1, 1967) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He has released 16 studio albums (11 for Curb Records, four for Big Machine Records and one for Arista Nashville). 10 of those album ...
.Elvis Herselvis
Elvis Herselvis is the stage name of the American actor and singer Leigh Crow, whose rise to international exposure was performing as a female Elvis Presley impersonator. Crow still performs as Elvis Herselvis on occasion as well as sings, acts an ...
and Justin Bond
Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Described as "the best cabaret artist of heir!-- MOS:GENDERID --> generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they first achieved prominence under the pseudon ...
, Stafford was declared the winner.[
The following summer in 1995, as a part of a weekly alternative club called Klubstitute in the San Francisco's Mission district, the Mr. Klubstitute pageant took place.][ It included emcee ]Elvis Herselvis
Elvis Herselvis is the stage name of the American actor and singer Leigh Crow, whose rise to international exposure was performing as a female Elvis Presley impersonator. Crow still performs as Elvis Herselvis on occasion as well as sings, acts an ...
and the eight contestants were judges on fashion, talent, and question-and-answer.[ ]Jane Wiedlin
Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The The Go-Go's, Go-Go's. She has also had a successful ...
and Gina Schock
Regina Ann Schock (born August 31, 1957) is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the rock band The Go-Go's.
Schock was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in October 2021 as a member of The Go-Go's.
Career
Schock' ...
of The Go-Go's
The Go-Go's are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belind ...
, the late Arturo Galster Justin Vivian Bond
Justin Vivian Bond (born May 9, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Described as "the best cabaret artist of heir!-- MOS:GENDERID --> generation" and a "tornado of art and activism", they first achieved prominence under the pseudon ...
John Cameron Mitchell
John Cameron Mitchell (born April 21, 1963) is a two-time Tony Award winning American actor, playwright, screenwriter, singer, songwriter, producer and director. He is best known as the writer, director and star of the 2001 film '' Hedwig and th ...
have appeared at S.F Drag King Contest
Over the first twelve years the performances evolved from more spontaneous performances being rehearsed months in advanced and big production numbers.[
In 2006 then supervisor ]Tom Ammiano
Tom Ammiano (born December 15, 1941) is an American politician and LGBT rights activist from San Francisco, California. Ammiano, a member of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, served as a member of the California State Assembly from 2008 to ...
and the S.F.Board of Supervisors presented a proclamation honoring the event.[
In ''Female Masculinity'' Judith Halberstam notes that in the 1990s most major U.S. cities have some drag king acts as part of its queer club subculture.
There was no contest in 2020. In 2021 the contest was held virtually and the winner was Meatflap.
]
Winners
There was no winner in 2020. Winners are announced for individual kings, and starting in 2005 for troupes as well:
* 1994 - BJ[
* 1995 and 1996 - no contests held][
* 1997 - Cooper Lee Bombardier][
* 1998 - Arty Fishal][
* 2000 - Electro aka “The Pop n’ Lock King”][
* 2001 - Howie Weenis][
* 2002 - Rusty Hips][
* 2003 - Max Voltage][
* 2004 - Transformers][
* 2005 - Jay Walker, The Momma's Boys (group)][
* 2006 - Buck Naked, Slickk Bois (group)][
* 2007 - Pete Sake, The Pacmen (group)][
* 2008 - Papa Don Preach,][ Fella-Fem (group title)
* 2009 - Delicio del Toro,
* 2010 - Hamm Graham & the Wham Bamm Thank You Ma'ams]
See also
* Diane Torr
Diane Marian Torr (10 November 1948 – 31 May 2017) was an artist, writer and educator, particularly known as a male impersonator and for her drag king, "Man for a Day" and gender-as-performance workshops. For the last years of her life, Torr l ...
References
External links
S.F. Drag King Contest (official site)
* https://dragkinghistory.com/
{{Drag performance
1994 establishments in California
Annual events in California
Drag events
LGBT culture in San Francisco
Transgender in the United States