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Former Staff

The Drag and Wrestling Connection: How One Art Form Thrives When The Other Is Vilified?

Although we have wrapped up Pride month, something has crept into my mind. Often, Pride is considered a time of celebration and acceptance. While in many ways this is true, corporate rainbow-washing has made this squeaky-clean version of Pride the prevailing narrative. Pride, even to me as a ‘baby queer,’ has always been a protest. Which is particularly poignant given today’s climate. Anti-Trans laws have swept across the US, and several anti-protest bills have reached parliament here in the UK. It is becoming harder to have your voice heard when people need to listen to us the most. 

One of the main targets of this crackdown by the right wing is drag. Drag has been demonized as sexual and has even been accused of brainwashing and sexualizing children. The frontline of this battle in the UK has been Honour Oak in South London, where Turning Point UK has held numerous protests. The small suburb has become the flash point of the anti-drag attack, the site of protests and counter-protests. A physical representation of our polarizing times, if there ever was one. 

With the stench of the anti-drug argument being so strong in the air, it caused me to notice something, wrestling and drag sure as hell have a lot in common. In fact, if you could give drag and wrestling a DNA test, you’d swear they were twins.

It feels contradictory for drag to be under attack and not wrestling. And the truth is it is contradictory. With so much overlap between wrestling and drag, the answer to why drag is currently being vilified is rooted in ignorance, an unwillingness to learn, and internalized homo/transphobia.

What do Wrestling and Drag Have in Common?

At their heart, wrestling, and drag are performances. Both involve choreography and work best in front of a live audience. The adage of wrestling being “telling a story with our bodies” equally applies to drag. The dancing and lip-syncing, the ability to think on your feet, to improvise and go with the audience’s reaction, all come into play in drag.

Then there are personal elements to both performances. Both wrestling and drag require people to play larger-than-life, more vivid versions of themselves. To tap into a persona they have created for entertainment. One of the main ways this comes across is through appearance. A crucial form of expression in both art forms, an intense drama eyeliner style is just as relevant in drag as a robe, mask, or color scheme in wrestling. Your appearance as a wrestler or a queen defines who you are. From the moment you step on stage, an audience should know exactly who you are without saying a word. This distillation of personality and confidence can turn skeptics into lifelong fans.

More Similarities than you Think

A cultural throughline runs through wrestling and drag. Drag thrives on improv, whether crowd-work at a brunch or styling a new wig or outfit. The same is true for wrestling; developing a gimmick, sewing your costume, getting bookings, and plugging shows on social media all require the same ingenuity and hustle.

Just as indie shows can be found in small auditoriums, bars, and bingo halls, drag can be found in parks, libraries, and your local queer coffee shop. There is a magic to this, to take these everyday places that sometimes feel mundane and inject them with a dose of the extraordinary.

Combining Wrestling and Drag

It’s not just me who has picked up on the similarities. Look no further than Pro Wrestling EVE. Front and center at every major show is EVE’s resident drag queen, daddy, and reptilian, Lolo Brow. Acting as EVE’s master of ceremonies, Lolo injects the showmanship needed to entertain a crowd.

Another person who knows a thing or two about wrestling and drag is Pollo Del Mar. A wrestler, drag queen, and podcaster Pollo Del Mar is a living testament to the overlap between both art forms.

In sharing their own thoughts on the similarities between drag and wrestling, Pollo Del Mar had this to say:

The similarities between drag and wrestling are well-documented, fairly obvious to anyone willing to see it, and – honestly – make for a great crossover between fandoms.”

Why Drag and Not Wrestling?

So if there are all these similarities between drag and wrestling, why is it that drag is incurring the wrath of the right wing and not wrestling? The answer is simple. Drag is considered taboo. It is viewed as lewd and sexual. A viewpoint based upon an inherent misunderstanding of sex and gender. They believe men or women playing with their gender is inherently sexual. This ludicrous way of thinking has allowed authoritarian policymakers to weaponize people’s ignorance to attack drag queens/kings and trans people, with the end goal being to repeal the rights of LGBTQ+ people. 

This argument of drag being inherently sexual strikes me as particularly odd. When placed side by side, wrestling seems more sexual than drag. Roll the clock back a decade or two; women’s wrestling was solely based on sexuality. Like overt sexuality. Like strip teases and swimsuit contests, kind of sexuality. Every joke was some crude innuendo or a childish double entendre. There were sexual storylines played off of gay-panic or gross misrepresentations based on stereotypes. Modern wrestling as we know it was built on sexuality. And while the Parents Television Council existed and WWE lost a UK terrestrial TV deal over violence and nudity, the consequences of WWE’s use of sex pails in comparison to how drag is vilified.

It is not just a sentiment shared by me but also many others. Again we turn to drag queen and wrestler Pollo Del Mar for their thoughts:

“Pro-wrestling appeals to a wide variety of people – many of whom are the same ones who all-too-readily want to attack drag. There is also the blatant hypocrisy of it. We can see that quite obviously when someone like Glenn Jacobs, who has participated in possibly the single most tasteless storylines in pro wrestling, is helping to lead the way.

More importantly, drag has become the scapegoat in an entirely imagined – and statistically disproven – threat in a blatant smoke-and-mirrors effort to rally parents wishing to ‘protect children against an already marginalized group of individuals while distracting from the very real, very present threat against kids: gun violence.”

Final Thoughts

The similarities between wrestling and drag should be abundantly clear. The reasons wrestling gets a free pass while drag isn’t are even more so. Those looking to stop drag want to do so, not because they want to ‘save the children,’ but as a way to assert authority over a marginalized group in a more socially acceptable way than being homo/transphobic. It is a way to slowly push back LGBTQ rights and make them second-class citizens again.

If you are looking to help, you can lend a hand in a few ways. The first is to treat your local drag performers like your favorite indie wrestlers. Go to their shows, share their work on social media, and mention them to a friend. Make space for drag wherever and however, you can. The other is to get out in the street. Drag is being used as a proxy to attack LGBTQIA+ rights; by protesting, marching, and raising awareness about the hypocrisy of the anti-drag sentiment, you are doing as much for queer folks as drag kings and queens.  

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