Thursday, January 31, 2013

Bottom Power!

Got a text from one of my bffs this morning:


He was of course referencing the new Willam, Detox, and Vicky Vox music video Boy is a Bottom:

 

For those of you who do not know, a bottom is a man who is... well on the bottom during sexual intercourse with another man. 


I had only learned within the last year that you can tell which gay men are bottoms and which men are tops (at least for the most part). Yes it is another form of stereotyping in a sense, but this is also how gay men pick their mates. Bottoms will be attracted to tops and vice-versa. 

Usually, a gay man who is a bottom is more feminine and perhaps more flamboyant and the fishier drag queens would be perceived as bottoms as well. But again it is a stereotype. 

Now a Power Bottom (as my friend in the text called me, take it as you will) is a man who may be a bottom, but still is in control during sex. 

Whether you are a top, a bottom, or a fierce power bottom, you betta WERKKKK!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

SHARON NEEDLES


Today, this picture popped up on my news feed from the Spin Night Club Chicagos facebook page. I was incredibly excited to see this because.... I LOVE SHARON NEEDLES!!!
In case you do not know, Sharon Needles won RuPauls Drag Race Season 4.  I think she is the most incredible Drag Queen I have ever seen. She is beautiful, funny, creative, and overall spooky as hell! I love the fact that she took what she was truly interested in (spiders, Halloween, horror movies, etc.) and used it to become one of the fiercest drag queens alive.

I too have always been a big fan of horror movies and Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. I love anything spooky and weird!

Not only do I love Sharon Needles as a character, but as an overall performer. She has great stage presence and knows how to make people laugh. Even though she may not be much of a dancer (see RuPauls Drag Race Season Four) and even admitted it herself, she knows what her strengths are and how to put them to use.

I am going to end with my favorite Sharon Needles quotes:

“When in doubt, freak them out!”


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Night in Dragtopia

It's almost time. At approximately 7:12 PM I put my laptop down and stand up from my seat that my body has been relaxing in for the past few hours. I look in the mirror and smile. Its almost time for drinking, dancing, good company, and most importantly it is time to watch fabulous gay men empower their inner goddess by prancing around in big wigs, six-inch heels, painted faces and glamorous clothing.Yes, tonight is Spin Night Club’s Dollhouse Drag Show!

I shower, get dressed in something cute and fun...but of course I have to make sure I do not upstage the drag queens. Ha. That was a joke. Though I still take the extra fifteen minutes to apply my usual going-out face—shimmery eye-shadow, black liquid eyeliner, and dark red lipstick. A miniscule attempt compared to the “ladies” who will be performing on stage. Their faces are like clean canvases in which they create a beautiful work of art upon, while my cat-eye look took years of practice and still never turns out the way I want it to.  

At 9:00 PM I walk out of the train stop and onto Belmont. It is dark but the streets are lit by the bars, the Starbucks, and the sex-shops. People are walking at a fairly fast pace to their destination and I am finally at mine. The building is made of brick and is about five stories high. There is a big yellow and black sign with the letters SPIN on it and all along the wall there are framed posters of upcoming events. I walk inside and the doorman greets me with a smile. He lets me in without having to show my ID because I am a familiar face.
“There she is! Jesus what took you so long?!” The one female bartender, Amanda shouts at me. I am usually at Spin an hour earlier. I tell her to calm down in a joking way and mention the better late than never saying.
“Hey bitch!” says Drew AKA Diamond Dior. He is a beginning part time drag queen and the reason I have become a regular on Dollhouse Drag night.

Spin is still pretty empty around 9:30. It mostly consists of other regulars and bar employees. The bar is wooden and shaped like a large rounded triangle. It’s a dark room lit by hanging red lights and eight television screens playing the same music videos on each such as “Love on Top” by Beyonce and “Blow Me One Last Kiss” by Pink as well as a large, silver disco ball hanging in the center of the room. More posters are hung up of attractive bartenders wearing nothing but tighty-whiteys. One who is in the back room bartending and wearing the same clothing (or lack thereof) as he is in the photo. I am informed he is straight, surprisingly, but also that he is a bit of an ass hole, so why bother? I clearly don’t go to gay bars to pick up men anyway, though my mother insists that I should spend more of my time where I have that option. I have however gotten hit on by straight men at gay bars, but they tend to be extremely creepy.
Now at 10 PM as more people are coming in, Drew insists we go to the back room to grab the table we always sit in to watch the drag show. Even though the show doesn’t start till midnight, Ms. Dior is very protective of his table and will go all diva on someone’s ass if anyone tries to take it. Although I feel it’s a little silly and over dramatic, I admire his spunk and stubbornness.

Finally its midnight. The tables are full, the music stops and a voice is heard over the speakers “Ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for the cheese-cake queen, former RuPauls Drag Race contest, your host for the evening, Miss Dida Ritz!” Everyone claps and cheers and yell out “CHEESE-CAKE!” as if chanting the name of a sports team.

Dida Ritz comes out and performs her dance and lip sync to a fast paced song while people are handing her dollar bills. She then says hello to everyone, cracking jokes, asking how we are doing. She is dressed in a tight black and white dress and her hair is straight and blond. She looks stunning.
As the night goes on she introduces the other three drag queens: Debbie Fox, Gia Gunn and Saya Naomi Diaz Deleon Visage. They each perform three songs, never wearing the same outfit or hair twice. They are working the stage unbelievably in six-inch sparkling, spiked, and leather heels. They are incredibly graceful and rhythmic. I am envious of them, but Drew tells me I cannot be a drag queen because I am already a real woman. I sigh.

Halfway through the show, Debbie Fox takes over hosting. She asks for volunteers to participate in the lip syncing contest. I always raise my hand and I always get picked because as she says, they need someone on stage who is actually a biological female. Debbie asks me and the other three contestants some questions.
“What’s your name sweetheart?”
“Claudia” I reply
“Claudia, are you straight or gay?”
“Straight.”
“Hmmm....and how’s that going for you?”
“Um pretty good.”
“Uh huh. And are you single or taken?”
I pause for a second and gulp “Single...”
“Yeah I see thats going real well for you. But thats okay, you were just born that way.” The audience laughs at the burn I have just received. 

I then wait and listen for the DJ to choose a song which he supposedly does at random. I smile as I hear several female voices yelling “GIRLS!” It is Beyonce’s “Run The World (Girls)”.

 I had seen this video several times and learned most of the dance to it (it’s kind of a hobby of mine to memorize dances). I channel Sasha Fierce and start bouncing my shoulders up and down while whipping my hair from side to side. The crowd goes wild. Its a complete shock to them that this white, straight fruit fly knows a Beyonce dance, but they eat it up. People even start handing me one dollar bills as if I am one of the drag queens performing their number. I feel on top of the world. Is it wrong for me to wish to be a drag queen when I am already a real woman? 
It seems Debbie Fox would think so. She talks to the crowd “Guys, those dollars are meant for the drag queens!” There is humor in her voice, but I am still worried of what she must think. Then after the other contestants finish its time for the audience to decide who is the winner. One by one we step forward and allow the crowd to choose by showing their level of applause. The first two contestants before me get a good amount of claps, but when I step forward, the room almost shakes. People are clapping, cheering and whistling as loud as they possibly can. It takes a while for Debbie to calm them down. The next contestant, a 22 year old gay man who initially did  not want to participate in the contest steps forward. He too has a loud roar of applause. Ms. Fox tells the first two contestants to sit down and announces that we have to lipsync for our lives. 

The song “Love Shack” by the B-52s starts playing and he and I try our best to out-diva each other. He tries to dance infront of me, but I make it WERK!
When we finish, the audience decides again. I receive the most cheers and therefore am the winner of Spins lip sync contest. I am ecstatic, but of course Debbie Fox has something to say.
“Okay, its great that you won, really it is. But for a gay bar this is sad!” She and a couple other drag queens proceed to tell me I did a great job, but that the guy I competed against is cuter because he has a penis. I shrug it off and accept my ten dollar bar tab. I cant stop smiling because I am extremely proud of myself.
The rest of the night consists of more drag performances, more drinking and joke making and more singing along to the latest pop singles. The foggy dimly lit room is only brighter once the show has ended and although no one encourages anyone else to leave, the employees start cleaning up and closing the bar and the drag queens go backstage to wash their faces and relieve their feet of their heels.
Exhausted, I say farewell to my fabulous, colorful friends I have made. It’s these types of nights that make the stress of life go away. Nothing else matters when I am at Spin Night Club and it’s not the actual club, but the people there and the performances that make it count.


Oh and here is a picture of Raven touching my boob (with The Princess!). 

~Claudia~

Monday, January 21, 2013

Drag: A Brief History Lesson

Drag Queen: a man who dresses up like a woman and acts like a woman for comic and/or theatrical entertainment. They wear layers of makeup, large wigs, six-inch heels, and over-the-top clothing. You will often see them lip syncing to a song sung by a female artist while they dance around, usually provocatively or humorously depending on the song, on stage.
Drag first started in the world of theater. In England during the early 1600s, all actors in Shakespearean plays and in Elizabethan theatre were men, therefore any female role was portrayed by a man. During rehearsals and performances the note Dr.A.G. (dressed as girl) was written on the scripts to inform the actor if he would be playing a woman. William Shakespeare would also write plays where the character had to dress up like the opposite sex. For example The Twelfth Night is about a woman named Viola who dresses up as a man to help a sea captain who has rescued her.

Drag is an art form, a job, but also a culture and I would say is even a subculture of gay culture. There is an entire drag vocabulary which is also used in the gay male community. Here are a few examples:

 fishy (adj.): to look like a woman, not like a man dressed like a woman.

    kai kai (n.): the circumstance in which two men dressed in drag engage in sexual activity

    throwing shade (v.): the art of insulting

        tuck (v.): to affix one's male genitalia in a way that it is not visible so that one resembles a woman (n.): the product of a man affixing his genitalia (typically with duct tape and multiple pairs of pantyhose) so that it is not visible



These phrases are often heard on the drag reality show RuPauls Drag Race (see gifs above). RuPaul is one of the most famous drag queens of our time. Not only is she a drag queen, but an actor, model, singer and author. She started as a struggling musician and filmmaker in the 1980’s in Atlanta Georgia and now hosts reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race where drag queens compete to be the number one queen. This has made the drag lifestyle not only more exposed to the public, but shown how acceptable of a lifestyle it is. One thing that makes RuPaul unique from other drag queens is that she accepts the use of both pronouns “he” and “she”:  
"You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathy Lee; I don't care! Just as long as you call me."


RuPaul is the most innovative Drag Queen and is never afraid to stand up to people who bring the lifestyle and culture down:
What other people think of me is not my business. What I do is what I do. How people see me doesn't change what I decide to do. I don't choose projects so people don't see me as one thing or another. I choose projects that excite me. I think the problem is that people refuse to understand what drag is outside of their own belief system.



Werkkkkk!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Don't Be a Drag, Just be a Queen!

I have seen the fiercest women in the world. The ones who are loud and proud. Who have the utmost confidence. Who can dance around in six-inch heels and never fall. Whose main goal in life is to bring a smile to the faces of others. Who technically aren’t even women. They are artists, performers, and inspirers. They are strong and they never take shit from anyone. They are drag queens.
You might ask how exactly a drag queen can inspire a straight girl. But I believe that a drag queen is the kind of woman I aspire to be. No, I don’t desire to wear tall wigs, sparkly clothing and layers of dramatic makeup (though it is fun to dress up occasionally). I want to have the confidence and charisma drag queens posses. Yes, they are men in dresses and other tight clothing, but they are much more than that. They struggle on a daily basis with having to constantly explain to ignorant people their lifestyle. There have been horror stories of these men being mistreated because they do drag. And yet they continue to push through because they are doing what they love and they feel is right for them.
So even though I am just your typical fruit-fly  (A woman who mostly hangs out with gay men) I have always felt like gay men were the only people I have ever truly fit in with. They are kind, open-minded, and always expressive and I always feel welcomed when I am in their presence. 


Since I attend drag shows almost every Thursday night, I have many stories to tell and experiences to share. Hope you enjoy!

~Claudia~