A-NOT-SO-FAMILY-FRIENDLY-BRUNCH Fortin and Abraham 1

A-Not-So-Family-Friendly-Brunch

Ashley Fortin and Jeremy Abraham

Arapahoe Community College

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Abstract

Drag culture is a subculture that gained increasing attention from the general public in

recent years. For a long time, the subculture became relatively obscure, but today it became a

prominent feature of pop culture with TV shows, widely-known drag personalities, and even

influenced language. To better understand this subculture, we attended a drag show at

Hamburger Mary’s where we gained insight into what drag queens are, what a drag show is, and

how the subculture allows certain individuals to safely express a part of their identity. At the

show, we saw different personalities emerge and watched the performers unite a diverse

audience. This eye-opening experience allowed us to learn about everyday people and a facet of

their lives that shapes who they are.

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A-Not-So-Family-Friendly-Brunch

An Ethnography of Drag Culture

I. Preface (Ashley)
There are stories that are repeatedly told from my mom and dad about how people used to

stop and want to take pictures with my identical sister and I. To illustrate, in Hawaii a huge

group of Japanese tourists, a monk, and drag queens all wanted our picture. When I got older and

heard this story told for the hundredth time, it came to my mind that I lacked so much knowledge

about the drag queen subculture. I started following drag queens on Instagram and watching

them do their makeup looks on Snapchat. I thought that this project might be an exciting

experience to personally go and learn about this subculture.

My partner Jeremy and I decided to experience our subculture at Hamburger Mary’s

which our professor kindly suggested. Hamburger Mary’s is a burger bar restaurant that hosts a

DIVA brunch where drag queens perform on the weekends. Going into Hamburger Mary’s, I

created a visual and an idea of what I thought our experience might bring. I thought of a tense

atmosphere and I became nervous. The stereotypes that I heard about this subculture goes against

my original thoughts. People say that the atmosphere and people are very friendly and inviting.

When we visited Hamburger Mary’s, we watched shows, contests, and interviewed several

individuals. These individuals that we interviewed became social and happy to share their

thoughts about drag queens. As we talked and observed the people and staff of Hamburger

Mary’s the stereotype relieved itself that they were friendly and open.
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Jeremy and I took notes during our time at Hamburger Mary’s so we can incorporate

visual details and an accurate timeline into our Ethnography paper. We worked together to

express our own experiences and thoughts but in a similar way to make this paper flow with our

writing styles. By doing this we worked on different parts of the paper to express our writing

styles and describe our experience. At Hamburger Mary’s I learned so much from this small

experience and hope to learn more about this large subculture.

Preface (Jeremy)

Over the past few years, I noticed that drag queens became more prominent in pop

culture. I heard of ​RuPaul’s Drag Race ​and watched a few ​Try Guys​ YouTube videos on drag,

and drag queens came across positively or with controversy in the news media. Despite this, I

never really knew what drag queens were, or made attempts to understand drag culture. When

my friend Ashley suggested working together on drag culture, I realized that this opportunity

became perfect to finally learn about this subculture.

We opted to visit Hamburger Mary’s at the suggestion of our professor. Hamburger

Mary’s is an American bar and grill chain, and the Denver location hosts a DIVAS Brunch every

Saturday at 11AM and 2PM. The show is for ages 21 and up because alcoholic beverages are

served, but the restaurant offered to host us without drinks because we are underage. We enjoyed

the show and interviewed several of the people involved as well as a few other attendees. I

learned quite a bit from the experience, and though I must not consider the show a

comprehensive representation of drag culture it certainly represented a significant facet of the

fascinating world of drag. I hope to learn more, in part through the research for this paper, but

also as it becomes increasingly visible in pop culture.

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Background Information

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, drag is typically defined as,

"entertainment where people dress up and perform, often in highly stylized ways," (Lang, 2017).

The most visible and prominent drag performers are typically men who, "present themselves in

exaggeratedly feminine ways as part of their performance," (National Center for Transgender

Equality, 2017). These men are popularly known as drag queens. The earliest drag queens first

started as theatrical performances. Drag queens existed around since the Greeks and Shakespeare

but modern drag queens made their first debut to the public eye in 1969 in New York City at the

Stonewall riot ("The fabulous history of drag", 2019). In 2009, drag culture made its debut on

television with the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race. This helped elevate the show's creator,

RuPaul Charles, making him the world's most famous drag queen. His name among Times

Magazine's top 100 became the most influential in 2017 (Lang, 2017). Nevertheless, the show

provided the world with an inside look of drag culture. It increased the visibility and acceptance

of the subculture, emboldened those already involved, and encouraged people to learn more.

Observational Data and Analysis

22 February 2020 (11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.)

We both planned to meet at Hamburger Mary’s at 11:00 a.m. to make it to the first

DIVA drag queen brunch performance. Driving through the narrow streets of downtown Denver,

it seemed impossible to find side street parking. Finally finding a spot a couple blocks away, we

meet up inside the light purple building. The loud environment caught our attention first. The

techno music blasting with the loud chatter that came from among the many groups of people

that sat close together. We sat in the back of the room by the bar by an unwelcoming young man
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with bleached blonde hair and a nicely done face of makeup. We both scanned the room and

noticed that mimosas became a popular drink during the brunch. Each table contained a group

that drank, ate, and laughed together.

At 11:15 a.m. two drag queens approached the stage. They introduced themselves as the

“Lady and the Treasure Chest.” They started to rile up

the crowd making funny inappropriate jokes,

commentary, and used a lot of foul language. It

became clear how comfortable the drag queens walked

on stage while interacting with the audience. A shot

boy named Steven who carried a tray of small plastic

cups of alcohol for the audience to drink greeted us.

He noticed our notebooks and asked in a tone of voice

normally used when talking to children if we were

having a business meeting. We told him about our project and we asked him if it was possible to

interview him. He started by saying that he practiced being shot boy for one and a half years and

thinks it is a super fun job. He went on saying that he does drag on the side along with being a

go-go dancer and a porn star. His drag name is “Maskarea” and it takes him roughly two to three

hours to get ready. We asked him what does it take to be a drag queen? Steven answered, “You

need to grow thick skin to do this. People will judge, do what you wanna do.” This answer

opened our eyes for the next performances that the drag queens carried out, they became bold,

confident, and extroverted.

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The drag queens became part of everyone's personal space because this atmosphere

became close that everyone seemed like family. The drag

queens hugged, kissed, and became clingy. We noticed

that in between shows that the drag queens and Steven

conducted long conversations with almost all the groups

of people. Some of the conversations seemed to be

personal by looking at their serious or sad facial

expressions. This made us aware that the drag queens talk to those who might be going through a

hard time or something personal related to themselves.

The drag queens disappeared and dressed up for the next show. A version of New York,

New York by Liza Minnelli began to play around 11:30 a.m. The drag queen came out wearing a

black top hat, a classy black sparkly blouse with gloves and dark purple heels. Before the drag

queen’s act she exclaimed, “The louder you guys are, the better the performance will be. It's all

up to you guys.” She started singing along with the track and danced throughout the room. The

atmosphere came alive with cheers and whistles. The drag queen seemed to eat this energy,

dancing wilder by standing on tables and swinging around on poles. The drag queen collected

tips by dancing around the room and approaching tables. The audience placed their tip money in

her clothes where it seemed fit. The drag queen moved and disappeared backstage for the next

show to begin. Each show contained some type of group effort. The drag queens needed the

support from the crowd and the crowd cheered with all their might causing the drag queen to

perform their best just for them.

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The time frames between the performances we began approaching individuals who

interacted with the crowd. We wanted to know why people liked to watch drag. We stated our

names, school, what and why we

wanted their permission to interview

them. A friendly woman named

Jennifer and her friends gave us

permission to incorporate her in our

paper. We started by asking her if she

attended the brunch before and if so

why does she come back? Jennifer

answered, “Yes I came here before and I came back because it's an open environment, good

vibes, nice people, and cheap drinks.” We then asked her what her thoughts on the show were,

she described it to be fun, entertaining, and hilarious. Before we interviewed Jennifer, the drag

queens hosted a contest to see who can ​conceivably​ fake the best orgasm. Our next question

arose after this contest and asked if she thought about participating in the drag contests? She

laughed while shaking her head no and replied, “It’s because I don’t feel comfortable with some

of the weird things that they suggest.” Jennifer seemed to become interested about our project

and asked us if males only did drag? Jeremy and I became excited because we did so much

research to prepare ourselves and to better understand drag. We explained to Jennifer that we

found out that male and females both do drag. Females do masculine and feminine looks

depending on their preference. This then led into our last question, if you became a drag queen,

what performance name do you think fits you the best? She thought about this question for
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awhile and her friends suggested “Jaybird”. Her face had a concerned look and said, “That's what

my mom calls me and it's not a good performance name for drag. I think my drag name ought to

be Jayhoe”.

When 1:30p.m. rolled around, we noticed that the crowd started thinning out and decided

that our interviewing time came to an end. Unfortunately, we were unable to interview any drag

queens and the only closest person we interviewed with drag queen experience was Steven. With

that we left the light purple building and started walking to our cars. We talked about how fun

and exciting our experience turned out to be. We both agreed that we enjoyed and learned so

much in a small amount of time from this experience.

I. Conclusion (Ashley)

I started off nervous and overwhelmed walking into Hamburger Mary’s because I became

afraid of not feeling connected and welcomed by this community. To experience this subculture

with someone else took some of my nerves away. Walking into Hamburger Mary’s and being

seated by the unfriendly employee intimidated me even more. When Jeremy and I sat down at

our table, I relaxed a little more. I observed the groups of people and saw how happy they were. I

felt the atmosphere become open and welcoming as the hours went by. The drag queens made

that atmosphere more so when they got on stage with their amazing bold makeup and outfits.I

learned that the drag queens radiated confidence and created strong skin for themselves to do

what they love. Moreover, the people in the crowd became sociable, nice, and welcoming as

well. The crowd and drag queens interacted with one another and supported them. I learned so

much from this experience and came to love the environment and shows.

II. Conclusion (Jeremy)

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I unexpectedly got an uneasy feeling in my stomach while driving to Hamburger Mary’s.

I felt concerned about not fitting in, or doing or saying something that might offend the drag

queens or other attendees. However, those worries quickly resolved--the show lasted a few

hours, and exhibited various aspects of drag culture. I learned a lot, and my uneasiness became

replaced with genuine interest and I felt more comfortable. The drag queens became capable of

uniting the shy and the loud with humor and exaggeration. Yet, the drag queens became

respectful of boundaries, and seemed to gauge the audience reactions to adjust their

performances on the spot. It is not only the attendees who benefit from the performance, the drag

queens benefit as well; they offered us glimpses into their lives that they seemed unable to share

without being a drag queen. In all, everyone gets to experience a good time together with old

friends and new friends while the performers get to do what they love and make a living. Drag

queens are no longer some abstract idea, but is rather something that I became generally exposed

to. The experience helped humanize and make real what drag culture is really about.
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References

Lang, C. (2017, April 20). ​RuPaul on Why Identity Shouldn't Be Taken Seriously, But Loving

Yourself Should.​ Retrieved from https://time.com/4746895/rupaul-time-100-video/.

National Center for Transgender Equality. (2017, April 28). ​Understanding Drag.​ Retrieved

from https://transequality.org/issues/resources/understanding-drag.

The fabulous history of drag. (2019, September 5). Retrieved from

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zbkmkmn.