With Lady Drag women are taking the concept of drag and appropriating it to reclaim their femininity

Drag is typically associated with members of the opposite sex dressing and performing as the gender which they are not: men dressing and performing as women, and women dressing as men. However, ‘Lady Drag’ allows women to dress as hyper-feminine women, or extreme versions of females which might otherwise be frowned upon by society. They see it as liberating, allowing them to be as feminine or as sexually overt as they choose without society’s harsh judgement.

“We get to where whatever we want and I’m not going to get cat-called and called a slut for my cleavage being in your face,” says one practitioner of lady drag.

“Historically, drag has been men dressing up as women or women dressing up as men,” says Fauxnique, a Lady Drag performer. “But as we’re embracing subversions of gender, we have to expand the notion of what drag is.”

“Our drag is women dressing as exaggerated forms of women,” Leen Hoe, a member of The Fistettes, explains.

“We love to come out with our femininity and kind of not give a fuck about it,” says another member of The Fistettes.

“Not being harassed is such a plus.”

The video then reveals the statistic that 84% of women have been cat-called by the time they are seventeen, which is an alarming statistic.

Check out the video below to see the practitioners of lady drag in action, as well as find out what lady drag does for its performers.

Regardless of whether femininity is being performed by men or women in drag or lady drag, the performance of femininity can be seen as an empowering act which allows practitioners to project what they want to the world.

Check out our Dublin drag mothers transforming men into drag queens here.