Wicks performs with a group of other Kent State drag kings. In their act, the group usually parodies a boy band by wearing jeans, buttoned up shirts, ties and backwards baseball caps. Wicks helps choreograph the routine, allowing solo showcases for each performer and synchronized movements during the chorus.

Angela holds a photo taken while she was performing in drag.

During his solo dance, Wicks’ drag character, A.J., works hard to represent himself as a male performer. Usher’s song, “Yeah,” vibrates across the room. A.J. has adopted Usher’s looks and dance moves for the routine. The choreography is complete with half-dressed women dancing in the background.

“You just have to portray yourself when you’re onstage as how a male would act while performing. How they’re going to talk. How they’re going to move their body,” she says. “You don’t want to use too much hip movement because that’s how a female would dance. When you see a drag queen out there, they’re doing a lot of things with their hips. When you’re out there and you’re a guy, you’re going to want to use dance moves that a guy would use.”

Angela said she separates the clothing in her closet, the men's clothing on one side and the women's clothing on the other.

Women have dressed as men throughout history for many reasons, says Lori McGee, a modern and classical language professor who also teaches Introduction to Gay and Lesbian Studies at Kent State Stark.

“Historically, women chose to dress like men to get social benefits only available to men such as voting, working, owning property and freedom to travel,” she says.

McGee says cross-dressing dates back to female Egyptian royalty impersonating male pharaohs. It was also a common practice for women to dress as men during the Hundred Years War of the Middle Ages. Women dressed as male pirates also sailed the seas as captains of their own ships, and some women would dress as male soldiers to join the military.

Now, women have many of the same freedoms as men, so the reasons women cross dress are different.

“In today’s society, it’s an identity issue,” she says. “Some women do it to get attention that we’re so locked into our gender roles. Women wear men’s clothes because women’s clothes don’t ‘fit’ them.”

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