{"id":3726,"date":"2025-08-04T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.satecsite.org\/?p=3726"},"modified":"2025-08-04T10:14:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T10:14:46","slug":"drag-kings-are-struggling-to-survive-theres-one-reason-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.satecsite.org\/index.php\/2025\/08\/04\/drag-kings-are-struggling-to-survive-theres-one-reason-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Drag Kings are struggling to survive \u2013 there\u2019s one reason why"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The alternative drag scene is exploding with talent – but it’s also dying (Picture: Lina Sakovi\u010da)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When you think of drag, images of RuPaul’s Drag Race likely come to mind: with shiny wigs, professionally slapped-on makeup, and ultra femme Queens strutting their stuff. But that is only just the tip of a much more disruptive and enticing underwater iceberg: the alternative Drag scene. <\/p>\n

Drag Kings are at the forefront of London’s buzzing comedy<\/a> scene, and the capital is a hub for them in return. Yet it’s unlikely a regular comedy-goer can name one.<\/p>\n

Once you go to an alternative Drag show – of which there is just about one for every weekday in London, with 100s of Drag Kings and Things on the circuit – prepare to be captivated.<\/p>\n

Why we need Drag Kings as an exploration of men <\/h2>\n

Eliza Nelson, a Drag performer and producer, is taking their show Cabbage the Clown to the Edinburgh Fringe<\/a> this year for the first time, having performed first as a Drag King, then a Drag artist on London’s vibrant scene for years.<\/p>\n

Milo Highclub was Eliza’s first Drag character, and embodied the arrogant cockiness of all her friends’ ex-boyfriends. <\/p>\n

‘I think what’s so amazing about Drag Kings is that you can satirise so much about toxic masculinity,’ Eliza tells Metro<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

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Eliza Nelson’s Cabbage the Clown is their alternative drag act at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe (Picture: Lina Sakovi\u010da)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I grew up being very much androphobic, so Milo became such an excellent channel for all of these really nuanced and complicated feelings.’ <\/p>\n

Drag artist and actress Izzy Ward is taking Mr P From HR to the Fringe after a memorable single shift at Harrods. A ‘nuts’ man from HR gave them her induction, and it stuck. <\/p>\n

‘He was just like this very flamboyant gay man, and you could tell that this was his moment<\/em>,’ Izzy says. <\/p>\n

‘This is his dream to do these inductions. At the same time all the stuff about Mohammed Al Fayed and the sexual abuse scandal was coming out.’ <\/p>\n

But there was no disclaimer from Mr P about what to do if something like this happens to you. It was ignored.<\/p>\n

‘I felt like it was a really good setting and character to explore complicity in sexual abuse culture,’ she says. <\/p>\n

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Mr P from HR is Izzy Ward’s flamboyant alter ego (Picture: Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As someone who also enjoys her Drag Queen persona Coco D’Hole, Izzy can speak as both a King and Queen.<\/p>\n

‘Recently, I’ve not wanted to do Coco, because I actually get a lot of really creepy men messaging me,’ she says.<\/p>\n

‘As Mr P I feel powerful,’ Izzy says. ‘I feel like I am so respected in a room, like a pin could drop and you would hear it. But whenever I am Coco I do feel sexualised a lot, and like not taken seriously.<\/p>\n

‘But I mean, that is just like the experience of being a woman.’ <\/p>\n

On the flipside, successful Drag King and writer Daisy Doris May’s most famed act, the hapless man-spreading geezer-wannabe Steve Porters – who is getting his own sitcom with Olivia Colman’s production company – is an exploration of male vulnerability.<\/p>\n

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Daisy Doris May’s Steve has captured hearts all across the country (Picture: Katinka Bester)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘What I find so incredible is there’s often a political streak to Kinging without even trying too hard,’ Daisy explains to Metro<\/strong> in a Kensington pub. <\/p>\n

In a time when misogyny is at the forefront of public conversation with figures like Andrew Tate emerging, Daisy wonders how we talk about the M word without scaring men away. <\/p>\n

Sympathetic Drag Kinging is an accessible language. <\/p>\n

‘Steve is a massive cuddler. He puts on a front, but he lives with his mum in Guildford. He isn’t afraid of getting emosh,’ she says.<\/p>\n

‘Steve says the wrong thing the whole time. Right here, he would be chatting you up,’ Daisy laughs, adding: ‘I don’t believe that people should just be cancelled straight away for saying the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

‘I just think it’s way more interesting in the grey area of creating a character that is flawed but has a heart of gold. He’s trying his best.’<\/p>\n

London is a hub for alternative Drag <\/h2>\n

After lockdown, when Cabbage was born, Manchester-raised Eliza took their clown to London. <\/p>\n

‘The standard of Drag Kings available in London is amazing and mesmerising. I feel so lucky to be here and I would not be doing drag if I lived anywhere else,’ they say. <\/p>\n

Europe’s biggest Drag King competition Man Up’s home is London, attracting performers from all over the world. Certainly in Eliza’s native Manchester, the scene is only just beginning to build momentum.<\/p>\n

About time: mainstream Drag Kings can be traced back to the 17th century in Italy and France, and to Victorian England. But they somehow disappeared out of public consciousness in our modern day, while Drag Queens thrive.<\/p>\n

That’s why Eliza is taking Cabbage to the Edinburgh Fringe – despite the soaring costs involved. <\/p>\n

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https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CegPADio7GY\/?hl=en<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

‘Last year, at the Edinburgh Fringe there were like 68 drag shows, and 10% of those had drag kings,’ they say. <\/p>\n

‘So I have to go. I have to show alternative Drag at the fringe. Even though Cabbage isn’t Drag King, I need to show them that there’s other stuff going on.’<\/p>\n

But there’s a problem.<\/p>\n

‘The alternative Drag scene is dying,’ says Eliza. ‘We’re having to cancel shows because it’s just exhausting. There’s no money there. It’s so anxiety-inducing having to produce a show and not sell any tickets, and then you sell out the day of the show.’<\/p>\n

It’s not that Drag Kings aren’t interesting or lack quality: their stories just aren’t being platformed. Instead they are shining in the shadows of East London. <\/p>\n

There’s a big problem with a capital M stopping them thrive <\/h2>\n

Daisy, Izzy and Eliza all agree the reason Drag Kings haven’t boomed into the mainstream like Queens is down to one thing: misogny. <\/p>\n

‘We’re living in a man’s world, right? Even in drag, it’s still a man’s world,’ says Daisy. <\/p>\n

‘Misogyny has leaked into everything we do,’ Izzy agrees. ‘Women are expected to be feminine, or they’re not deemed to be women.<\/p>\n

‘So it seems to be okay when men dress as women, because I guess they’re becoming the ultimate thing that men would desire from a woman.’ <\/p>\n

It seems the male gaze is a powerful commercial driver – even in artistic spaces in the LGBT+ world. <\/p>\n

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Daisy’s three characters all make her feel certain ways (Picture: Katinka Bester)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Izzy feels powerful as Mr P – he can command a room (Picture: Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I think the core of the issue is patriarchy and misogyny,’ Eliza agrees, clarifying this issue is more about biological sex than it is gender. <\/p>\n

‘Drag seems the most liberal, the most left, open world ever. You can’t imagine that there would be sexism in the drag industry, but it’s like any other industry… Sexism is rife.’ <\/p>\n

Eliza has endured comments about their body, and questions about whether what they do is<\/em> Drag – even though they have won multiple Drag competitions. <\/p>\n

‘Drag to me in a very broad definition, is just delivering a fantasy that is not you in any capacity,’ Eliza says. <\/p>\n

‘I belong here, even though it’s hard to feel that way when the world says you don’t.’ <\/p>\n

The RuPaulification of Drag is suffocating alternative acts <\/h2>\n

Eliza was a huge Drag Race fan for years, until she began experiencing the disparity between Kings and Queens firsthand. <\/p>\n

After winning a Drag competition Eliza got no work for months, while all the Queen competitors beneath her were booked up to their barnets. <\/p>\n

‘I found it a little bit shocking when I was first starting out, the different energy towards me and other performers,’ Eliza says.<\/p>\n

Then the blindfold came off on Drag Race for Eliza, when she realised how sexist some of the Queens’ portrayals of female bodies were. <\/p>\n

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Eliza has produced many Drag King shows over the years and is passionate about alternative drag (Picture: Lina Sakovi\u010da)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Izzy also has a Drag Queen persona, but she’s finding Mr P a funner route to explore right now (Picture: Supplied)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘I watched an episode of Drag Race where one of the Queens was wearing these gigantic, long tits and the whole joke of it was that they were running around with tits.<\/p>\n

‘I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days, and it just sat with me, and it just rotted, and it just rotted. <\/p>\n

‘I was like, “Why can I not stop thinking about this?” And I was like, “Oh, it’s because the butt of the joke is an assigned female at birth (AFAB) body.”‘ <\/p>\n

Many Drag Queens Eliza works with don’t perpetuate sexist tropes. But so many that they love and respect also do, but without realising, thinking or caring. <\/p>\n

While Drag Queens back in the day were trans women, on Drag Race at least, it’s a cis man’s club. <\/p>\n

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RuPaul has set the precedent about what’s desired from drag artists (Picture: Denise Truscello\/Getty Images for Live Nation Las Vegas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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