Amino-Acid - King of Vitality: Drag King exploration

Yesterday I tried my first drag king experience.

I wanted to try drag for a while and my beach bitch character is a bit drag queen. Being inspired by friends and collegues around me I was curious to try King. So after readying queer essays and papers for university, I decided that my homework (to reacord a queer-self-portrait video) would be me doing king and going for a walk outside.

I watched some youtube videos on how to to drag king make-up and imporovised with the make-up I had available at home. I was surprised how good the make-up worked although it was my first time trying drag.

Amino Acid - King of Vitality

I borrowed a jeans jacket of my partner and wore the baggiest jeans I have. Headphones and when the moment to go out arrived I got really nervous and anxious.

I was afraid of the reactions, I was afraid of violence!

I was aware that people will still frame me as a woman, I was aware that eventhough I would embody stereotypical menly behaviour, people wont accept nor respect me.

First I did not encounter anyone on the streets. Then I passed some busy persons that did not even look at me. Later people starred at me.

Then I passed a group of young women, in their 20s; as soon as I passed they laught and said: "What is this!?" I also encountered a collegue that (pretended?) not to recognise me. The only positive reaction was a girl of colour (in the aerea I live in unfortunately cultural and ethnic diversity is not very common) smiling at me very warmly.

Other kids and teens passed me and there was either no or negative comments.

Two young men passed by. One did noot see me, the other starred and when they passed me he started to complain about "how disgusting people nowadays are".

As a female identifying and labeled person, I usually dress (and rarely) wear feminin make-up. I am constantly aware of the male gaze and potential risky situations.

Now the experience of dressing and having make-up like a man (I did not even behave much like one as I was alone and too afraid to get assaulted) made me feel even more vulnerable and definately raised my awareness for marginalised groups and safety issues in an apparently safe city like Vienna!

I was left with more questions than answers: Is this already drag king? When does it become so? How safe is this city/aerea? What do people think? How do they label me? Is my fear reasonless? How can I challenge society whilst staying safe? How can I connect marginalised groups? How can education in schools help respectful and non violent societies? How can I contribute?