Drag isn’t limited to television competitions or social media personas — it has a vocal and diverse community in Ottawa.
However, controversy and exclusivity within the art form has led to white and feminine artists receiving more attention in the drag scene, excluding the representation of other performers.
Some local drag artists are working hard to fight for diversity and fair representation that encompasses all gender identities and races.
Performer Edith Puthie is one of those people. They said there is a void to be filled in the Ottawa drag scene.
“I’m not skinny, I’m not white, I’m not cis[gender]-passing, I’m not binary,” Puthie said. “So for me, it’s a struggle to show my worth.”
Puthie said mainstream portrayals of drag are limited to the “RuPaul of it all” with the media showing only a sliver of what drag is about. People are used to seeing white men performing in feminine drag, Puthie said, and often forget about Mx., racialized, trans and non-binary artists.
To bridge this gap and promote inclusion, Brenna Egan creates spaces for marginalized drag artists through Be Proud Productions, an event-planning company designed to elevate queer art and drag.
“I try to book almost exclusively trans and non-binary performers,” Egan said. “There are a few exceptions I make for drag kings [female performers in masculine attire] because they also tend to be underrepresented in drag circles.”
Be Proud Productions hosted Honeypot: A Sapphic Drag Night at Cafe Dekcuf on Oct. 10. The theme of the night, sapphic pride, celebrated International Lesbian Day on Oct. 8.
“A lot of queer spaces in Ottawa aren’t geared toward the sapphic community… so I wanted to do something as a little love letter to them,” Egan said.
Puthie and other local drag artists Ai Amor, Sardonyx, Lover B and Gay Fieri performed to an intimate audience at the event.
“When we have folks coming to these shows, that’s Ottawa saying ‘We need this, we want this,’” Puthie said.
While there is still work to be done to increase diversity, shows like Honeypot, which feature a largely racialized cast, show the community is headed in the right direction, Fieri said.
He said Ottawa is flourishing with a variety of drag performers and styles and the next step is to provide marginalized drag artists with opportunities to perform longer sets for larger crowds.
However, the artists highlighted that social and financial hurdles make it difficult for drag to be an inclusive art form.
Up-and-coming artists rely on spotlight gigs, usually five minutes in length, to start earning income, but making sizable earnings can be challenging due to the cost of drag makeup and accessories, Egan said.
Performers at Honeypot said the best way to break down these barriers is by challenging the stigma.
If given the chance, Puthie and Fieri said they would ask drag cynics, “What are you so afraid of?”
“This community is diverse, powerful and political, and they’re constantly pushing for good,” Egan said. “At the end of the day, why would you not support these people and give them space to be a part of the art?”
Featured image by Madeleine Gordon/The Charlatan.
