1) Where did the term “drag” actually come from?
Being a British magazine, we’ll take a little pride in saying that the term, funnily enough, originated from our island, as a British theatre slang word. (Yes, Quelle surprise! Theatre!)
The meaning of drag is always micro changing. All-stars 3 winner, Trixxie Mattel, explains that going into the 1980s, it meant seeking to look as feminine as can be. She also adds that “the 2000s opened a new door for the term to extend from transforming into a broader artistic fashion for LGBTQ+ members and more.”
Trixxie believes that it could stem from when male actors staged as females, as they’d do so wearing petticoats. Given these would drag on the floor, she explains, “they ended up regarding dressing up as a woman as putting on their drags.”
The word has been around since the 14th century but wasn’t used in affiliation to THE drag we know today until the 19th. In fact, the term had its own cotillion in the UK through a publication in 1870 where the Reynolds Newspaper printed the word in a gender-bending context regarding an invitation to a party “We shall come in Drag”.
Presently, Trixxie states, drag could have a personal meaning for each individual. Whatever it meant, means or will mean tomorrow, it always was, is and will be: fabulous.