A drag queen and king break down their art beyond boobs and beards

​Drag performance has been at the forefront of the conversation on gender long before RuPaul hit the music charts or started a hugely popular TV competition.

The theatrical performances of exaggerated gender stereotypes of both women and men force us to question how we think about femininity and masculinity.

It can also help illustrate the problems of gender constructs, and if not handled carefully, go on to perpetuate those precise problems.

Drag queens have certainly been more visible than drag kings in recent years and have been more readily welcomed into mainstream culture — sometimes turning a high cheekbone and shutting a fake eyelash to the politics of gender and race.

But in Montreal, things are changing. There are performers of colour, cis-gendered, trans and non-binary people performing either gender, or sometimes both.

From traditional to 'trash' — the ideas around drag performance are evolving.

Drag king Slick Hardwood's funny and critical takes on masculinity are meant to point out the fragile parts and explode gender outside of 'biological cis-normative' ideas. 

Drag Queen Uma Gahd is the co-founder of House of Laureen, a drag theatre troupe (read: family) that goes beyond traditional drag shows.

For both performers, drag is all about expression and playing with traditional ideas and images.

"I just think that drag is just learning all about gender," said Uma Gahd. "It's learning all about performance, physicality, and all of the magic that goes into it."

Slick Hardwood agrees, saying that drag performances can vary widely in tone and style.

"You can do entertainment, or you can do something that's really meaningful, and both are really important."

Close up on Gender is a CBC Montreal series for radio, web and television. You'll hear from Montrealers who are sharing their stories, or thinking and acting differently when it comes to gender in 2019.