Drag Brunch: The Do’s and Dont’s of Queer Social Bonding
Brunch has become an integral component of social meals dating back to America since the 1930s. A combination of breakfast and lunch items served from 11 a.m. to roughly 3 p.m. has become a social context that many women and queer folks seek out on sundays. While brunch is a popular and capitalized meal, it holds a different type of social power for women and queer folks. An easy-going meal becomes a way to facilitate bonding, culture, and understanding as a community. Brunch facilitates social interactions and bonding through eating and creates a context revolving around friends, love, and lightness. The popularity of brunches quickly migrated to the queer scene and became a gate way for drag performers to enter a new work dynamic. However, Drag Brunch creates a new type of social dynamic that creates a social dilemma in queer dominated spaces.
In the mid 1900s, drag began to gain traction in the queer community as a form of protection for transgender folks and resistance for queer people. During this time period there were many laws and regulations put in place to hinder sexual and gender expression that deviated from the norm, i.e. heteronormativity. By dressing up in drag (either feminine or masculine) trans and queer folks were able to navigate and interact with society and their partners under a lens of assumed heterosexuality. This allowed many queer and trans folk to circumvent the laws that forbade members of the same-sex getting married, but there were still laws that criminalized wearing clothing articles associated with the opposite sex.
Originally the concept of drag was the exaggeration of women used for comedic purposes. Drag was simply straight men impersonating women or the exacerbated idea of a woman. It was soon picked up by the queer community as a form of protection and resistance to instituitionalized discrimination that queer and trans people were facing for simply disrupting the heterosexual norm. Many people were concerned with same-sex attraction since it deviates from the norms and contexts that were/have been put in place for years; queer and trans people were feared, ridiculed, and attacked for simply being them and were used in the media, politics, and socially to spark change because queer and trans folk were seen as weird and unusual.
During this time period these individuals were unable to express themselves freely in the context they lived in. This led to drag becoming a way for these marginalized people to come together as a community and create their own familial bonds. Soon drag was indoctrinated into queer spaces through bars and clubs that catered to queer and trans people. By 1950, drag queens began performing in queer spaces and as the need for queer spaces increased so did the artform of drag.
While drag became increasingly popular among queer and trans folk the rest of the world still had yet to experience drag and drag queens to the fullest extent. Many drag performers infiltrated mainstream media, but rarely ever came out as “Drag Queens and Kings,” but instead used their performance art to catapult themselves in a space that was barricaded off from LGBTQ+ individuals: the heterosexual world.
Before the popularization of drag performances, drag queens had a negative association to it. Those seen as “cross-dressing” were treated as sexually deviant and were ostracized from their communities, and families. It was dangerous to “cross-dress” let alone be visibly recognizable as a drag queen, this lead to secrecy and hidden spaces where those deemed as deviant could be safe. The main reason drag queens are able to exist in the mainstream so openly is because of the community's power and resistance to societal norms. Instead of assimilating themselves to the current standard of what it means to be a man, woman, and the idea of performance they created a set of new norms for what it means to be themselves.
It wasn’t until the late 90s and early 2000s that the idea of drag entered into mainstream media and society. Due in part to RuPaul and his show RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality tv competition, brought drag performances to the TV screens of millions of people within and outside of the United States. In the modern day, drag and drag queens have transitioned from underground gay bars and clubs to being able to perform in the limelight whether it be in the daytime, at a bar, or on reality television.
Instead of being confined to just the club scene, drag performers are able to perform during the daytime through drag brunches. A typical drag brunch consists of performances by drag queens and drag kings who are performing for a daytime audience with common brunch items and alcoholic drinks. Drag brunches bridge the gap between underground queer culture (i.e. drag queens and the drag scene) and connects it with mainstream culture through drag queen performances and usually bottomless mimosas.
These brunches create an entirely new context that creates spaces for drag queen performers, queer individuals, and straight women all during the confines of a sunday meal. This on its own can be categorized as conduct breaching, the idea of breaking unwritten social rules that govern us, since the artform of drag challenges the societal understanding of gender expression and the type of gender expression that is appropriate. By performing at brunches, specifically sunday brunches, many drag queens are challenging the unwritten rules of gender and sexual expression in broad daylight. This creates a type of cultural shock for those who are unused to the contexts set within the queer community through drag performances.
In the original drag and ball scene the context behind performing was vastly different than what is seen today. Many drag queens, primarily black and brown, flocked to the queer ball scenes that was the lifeline of queer night life as a means of survival before it was mainstream. Being a Drag Queen or King meant more than simply performing cute numbers for their friends and family. It was a way for them to express their true selves to the world, their world, without experiencing backlash from those who disapproved. It was a way for them to create social bonds when they were ostracized from their families and communities for not syncing up with the “In-Group.”
Drag performances mean something entirely different to a queer audience as well. It isn’t just simply entertainment, it was an excuse to uplift themselves, their chosen family, and exist in a space without fear. Going to a bar to watch a drag show means being in a space where the typically social norms for same-sex intimacy were forgotten and in place new norms catering to LGBTQ+ individuals were constructed.
Now as a part of mainstream media the culture of drag shows has adapted to make space for both queer and straight people as a new entertainment experience. Drag Brunch is a new phenomenon that queer and straight people alike are becoming more engaged with. The visibility of drag queens is due in part to Rupaul’s Drag Race and its increasingly mainstream popularity. That popularity has translated to drag brunches which first started off only in LGBTQ bars, and is now being picked up by non-queer resturants and bars. The rise in drag brunch creates a new pathway for drag performers in straight spaces, but also creates a new set of social experiences and expectations on its own.
Initially, the social scene of drag shows took place in queer centered spaces. This meant that it was safe to assume that anyone within these spaces, were queer or trans themselves. As a result, these spaces were filled with romantic, social, political implications that these marginalized groups only felt safe participating in with other queer and trans individuals. These spaces became the beginnings of social and political movements that challenged the status quo. Instead of discouraging diversity in sexuality and gender expression, they used these spaces and drag performances to encourage each other.
The typical social norms of what to do during a drag performance can be understood as:
Tip the Drag Queen
Don’t initiate physical contact with the performer
Don’t Boo!
Don’t forget to clap!
Be mindful of the performance space
Never ever try to upstage the drag performer
Don’t heckle!
These social norms are followed consciously and subconsciously at every drag show performance. It's customary to tip the performer, especially if you want to catch their attention, however its acknowledged that tipping can result in the performer including you into their performance. The next social norm is based upon consent, never touch a drag queen/king without their permission and this goes deeper into the community of always asking for consent within these spaces. The most interesting social norm around drag shows is that the audience never boo’s the performance regardless of their skill level or performance.
In the drag and ball community it's very common for performers to throw shade, or insults, at each other. However, once the lights go on and the show has started there’s nothing but encouragement from the crowd; since the whole point of these events is to come together as a community, everyone in the crowd seems to know to either clap or stay quiet during a show. The rest of the social norms that occur in this context all deal with encouragement, respect, visibility, and support for both the audience and the performers.
During my three month stay in Washington, D.C. I was able to experience an abundance of drag brunches and got to observe the social norms of drag combined with the social norms of sunday brunch. It was interesting to see how the traditional social rules of drag shows meshed with broad daylight. The first rule of always tip the queen was heavily in place as many of the customers were throwing hundreds of dollar bills at the performers regardless of how well they were doing. The interesting thing though, is that those who tipped the most tended to be white women who were a part of bachelorette parties. They also tended to be the ones who ignored consent and would get very handsy with the performers or try to upstage them. It was very noticable when the audience was filled with queer individuals or straight ones, because many of the social norms were ignored and you could see the uncomfortability from other patrons and the performers. This poses a dilemma, because as drag becomes more popular more of the social rules that were put in place to further the community are being ignored to benefit certain individuals.
Drag is becoming a social dilemma as it infiltrates traditionally straight spaces such as daytime restaurants and bars. Due to the popularity of brunch, many straight women are now attending drag brunches, and using these spaces for bachelorette parties or as fun trendy events to go too. The addition of straight women during drag brunches changes the context of the entire culture of drag shows. These social norms that are in place during drag performances become tailored specifically for this new daytime activity, since its no longer just for a queer audience. Typically during a drag brunch performance the same social norms are applied, but due to new mainstream attention these rules are commonly ignored by the new influx of audience members.
The main point of drag shows is to give queer and trans individuals the chance to freely express themselves and their art without fear and judgment, and its an unsaid rule to never steal the spotlight from the performers or distract other audience members from the performance. With the influx of “out-group members” the culture behind drag shows have shifted from a form of protection and resistance and have been commandeered into a space for straight women to feel comfortable in a fun environment without the gaze of straight men. This causes a social dilemma that contradicts the interests of the queer community to cater more towards straight women that aren’t apart of the community. People outside of this community have been accepted in these spaces, but when they go against the context everyone is quick to remind them of the social rules of drag.
Drag brunch is a double-edged sword for the queer community. While it does benefit the community as a whole to have drag queens and drag shows so visible in mainstream consumption it does pose many problems for the spaces this community dominates. As new audience members become desensitized and interested in drag they begin to humanize queer people and deconstruct their concept of what it means to be queer. However, at the same time queer people are slowly but surely losing their queer-centered spaces as straight men and women look towards drag queens as a form of entertainment instead of liberation through entertainment. This poses the problem of how the needs of the community are being ignored to cater towards a newer, yet smaller audience.
References
Hernandez, J. (2019, June 23). Drag Brunch Is the Most Important Meal of the Week. Retrieved from https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/drag-brunch-history
Rhodes, J. (2011, May 06). The Birth of Brunch: Where Did This Meal Come From Anyway? Retrieved from https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-birth-of-brunch-where-did-this-meal-come-from-anyway-164187758/