Drag in the Media
This primetime series has ran for 15 consecutive seasons, winning 24 Emmys along the way.
What is RuPaul's Drag Race?
This word does NOT mean to move at a regular pace by lifting and setting down each foot in turn. It means competing in a certain category at a ball.
What is walking?
This drag queen, the most awarded person of color in the history of Primetime Emmys, was once in a band called Wee Wee Pole.
Who is RuPaul Charles?
Ballroom culture leaders were pivotal in the empowerment of queer people during this epidemic.
What is the AIDS epidemic?
The type of motor racing in which cars or motorcycles compete to be the first to cross a finish line.
What is drag racing?
This cult classic musical by Richard O'Brien features a drag queen mad scientist.
What is the Rocky Horror Show?
The art of ritual, comedic insult within drag communities, as originated within queer communities of color.
What is reading?
This gay man, known as the "godfather of voguing", named his influences as including Fred Astaire, haute couture, and Kemetic hieroglyphics.
Who is Willi Ninja?
This Black social, artistic, and literary explosion of the 1910s-1930s set the backdrop for ball culture.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
Known as the "world's greatest roleplaying game", this popular tabletop RPG was initially published in 1971 under the name Chainmail.
What is Dungeons & Dragons?
This American TV series set in the 1980s and 90s focuses on African American and Latino ball culture, and won 4 Emmys for its 3 seasons.
What is Pose?
Improvisational, modern dancing inspired by fashion model poses in magazines, with origins in black queer culture.
What is vogue?
This person was the most famous female impersonator of the 1910s and '20s, starring in Mr. Wix on Wickham. In 1906, he was invited to perform for King Edward VII of England.
Who is Julian Eltinge?
It is believed this early theatre experience was the origin for the word "drag" as it is used today.
What is the sensation of heavy gowns dragging along the floor?
This physics concept refers to the force on an object that resists its motion through a fluid. Bonus points are awarded if a specific type is named.
What is drag force? (Specific examples may include form drag, pressure drag, skin friction drag, viscous drag, parasitic drag, wave drag, etc.).
This documentary filmed in the 1980s focused on houses in ballroom culture and was selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry.
What is Paris is Burning?
This controversial category in traditional ball scoring describes embodying the gender of your drag persona so fully that it appears authentic.
What is Realness?
The first known person to identify as a “Queen of Drag”, he was born into slavery and also the first person in the US to lead a queer resistance group.
Who is William Dorsey Swann?
Most modern queer "slang" or "lingo" has its origins in this English dialect.
What is AAVE (African American Vernacular English)?
This idiom is used to describe a reputation that has been unfairly damaged or ruined.
What is to drag through the mud?
This 1904 Broadway musical elevated vaudeville by tricking the audience into believing an actor was a woman, then having him remove his wig in the finale.
What is Mr. Wix of Wickham?
The name given to performers who do not currently have a house, making them free agents in the ballroom community.
What is 007?
These five reigning house mothers became known as the "Terrible 5" in the Harlem ballroom scene.
Who are Angie Xtravaganza, Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija, Avis Pendavis, and Paris Dupree?
This American queer movement of the 1920s led to a boom in "female impersonation" in nightlife and a period of relative openness and integration for queer culture.
What is the Pansy Craze?
This adjective phrase is typically used to describe a fight marked by extreme violence and the showing of no mercy.
What is knock-down, drag-out?