, a drag performer with a doctorate in musicology focused on drag history, traces its debut back to 1860s Victorian England, when Ernest Boulton of the duo Boulton and Park described his cross-dressing act as “drag”—the first known use of the term.it was inspired by the petticoats the men wore that would drag on the floor as they performed.
As popular theater evolved to vaudeville style in the 1880s, those portrayals shifted to emulating glamorous white women with thin waists and elegant makeup—perhaps best represented byBut even as female impersonation was all the rage in popular culture, a subculture of drag balls was emerging in the U.S.—and that’s partially due to the first self-described “queen of drag.”Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.