Drag king

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, several drag kings became British music hall stars. British pantomime has preserved the tradition of women performing in male roles. Starting in the mid-1990s, drag kings began to gain some of the fame and attention that drag queens have known.

History and terminology

While the term drag king was first cited in print in 1972, there is a longer history of female performers dressing in male attire. In China, the practice of "female men [characters]" (kunsheng; see also sheng roles), in which women portrayed men in stage performances, was first documented during the middle Tang dynasty (617–908 CE). This continued through to the early Qing dynasty, when the Qianlong Emperor banned actresses from performing in 1722. It was revived in the late 19th and 20th centuries as the ban on actresses was loosened.

In theatre and opera, there was a tradition of breeches roles and en travesti. In France and Italy in the 17th century, women would play male roles in a form of theater called commedia dell'arte. Actress and playwright Susanna Centlivre appeared in breeches roles around 1700. The first popular male impersonator in U.S. theatre was Annie Hindle, who started performing in New York in 1867. In 1886, she married her dresser, Annie Ryan.

British music hall performer Vesta Tilley, who cites American male impersonator Ella Wesner as an inspiration, was active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a male impersonator. Tilley gave her last performance in 1920, and retired until her death in 1952. Other male impersonators on the British stage were Ella Shields and Hetty King. Vaudeville entertainer Florence Hines was popular for her act in the 1890s. Blues singer Gladys Bentley performed in male attire in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco from the 1920s through 1940s. In the early 1900s, Gowongo Mohawk was "likely the first Indigenous male impersonator". Stormé DeLarverie performed in male drag as the master of ceremonies, and sole female performer, of the drag troupe the Jewel Box Revue in the 1950s and 1960s. She is featured in the documentary Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box. While the Stonewall riots of June 1969 were a series of spontaneous uprisings by many people, DeLarverie—who was the first to fight back against the police brutality—is believed to have provided the spark that ignited the riot. Elsie Saldana, otherwise known as El Daña, started performing in 1965, and as of 2025 was still performing, earning her the Guinness World Record for Oldest Drag King.

Drag king culture in Australia flourished in lesbian bars from the 1990s and 2000s, but began to fade in the 2010s. In the UK, Drag Couple Adam All and Apple Derrieres set up Drag King Cabaret night "BOiBOX" in 2013 in Soho's Candy Bar, a queer women's venue that closed in 2014. They were worried about finding enough performers to make their talent night work "[b]ecause there were barely any stages for us to perform [on], very few drag kings were actively pursuing gigs". BOIBOX inspired a new wave of budding kings and celebrated ten years in 2023 with a show at The Phoenix Arts Club in London's Westend, with a surprise appearance from Landon Cider.

The term drag king is sometimes used in a broader sense, to include female-bodied people who dress in traditionally masculine clothing for other reasons. This usage includes women temporarily attempting to pass as men, and women who wish to present themselves in a masculine gender role without identifying as a man. Diane Torr began leading Drag King Workshops in 1989 that offer women a lesson in passing as men. Torr was featured in the 2002 film on drag kings Venus Boyz.

Drag kings have historically been more marginalized by pop culture than drag queens, who began playing a larger role in mainstream pop culture from the late 20th century onwards. Drag kings have also historically been marginalized in academic LGBTQ studies. Since the 2010s, drag kings have started to play a slightly more visible role in the LGBTQ community. Sleek Magazine described this renaissance of drag king culture in a 2019 article titled "What's behind the drag king revolution?"

The British drag king collective "Pecs", a troupe made up entirely of women and non-binary people, was founded in 2013 and went on to perform at Soho Theatre and The Glory. In 2016, director Nicole Miyahara produced The Making of a King, a documentary film chronicling the lives of contemporary drag kings in Los Angeles. The first drag king to appear in a television show was New Zealand artist and comedian Hugo Grrrl who won the inaugural season of the New Zealand reality competition House of Drag in 2018. In 2019, American artist Landon Cider was the first drag king and cisgender woman to appear on a televised US drag competition when he won the third season of The Boulet Brothers' Dragula. In June 2022, three drag kings made a guest appearance in series one of Drag Race France, the first time the Drag Race franchise included drag kings.