Drag kings, women that dress as men for performances, are struggling to carve a place for themselves even within the sexual minority community. Men who perform as women are welcomed entertainment, but women in drag are still rare, even in an open group like PRIDE! Kent.

Yvonne Riggie, graduate architecture and business major, and Angela's girlfriend for two years, helps her bind her breasts with two ace bandages.

But drag goes beyond fashion statements: It confronts gender identity issues. It forces people to see beauty objectively, freeing viewers of the constraint of the male and female identities, PRIDE! Kent's former president Angela Wicks says.

“It makes you see the person as a whole,” the senior political science major says. “You see beauty on a larger scale—not just on a male or female basis. It’s the same in drag or out of drag–they want you to see them as a beautiful person either way.

“Gender is how you feel inside whereas sex is biological,” she says. “When you’re a drag king you’re obviously biologically feminine. When you’re in that role, you want to represent yourself as someone who is male so you have the attitude of a male and the dress of a male.”

Wicks struggles to find venues that will allow drag kings to perform. She says the only Akron/Kent-area night club that has welcomed drag king shows is the Interbelt. Even then, drag kings perform there only during shows associated with PRIDE! Kent.

Angela puts on a baseball cap to completer her look as a boy.

Wicks says she hopes the drag king performances at PRIDE! Kent fundraisers will raise interest within the sexual minority community.

“I think as we do more shows at the Interbelt and more of our members get interested in doing amateur drag, it will help start a drag king community,” she says. “There’s been a positive response. People go who have never seen a drag show, and they’re interested. Most of them think it’s entertaining.”

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