Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #488444 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Good insight to the world of Drag Kings around the globe
I found this book very informative and the pictures are awesome. It is a good look at the lives and lifestyles of Drag Kings. Some of the ladies look so much like men and have been photographed so well one would never believe what really lies under their shirts.:-)

Your typical queer subculture fare but otherwise entertainin
...For most, the material may be groundbreaking and risque - and it should be - but I found it less than satisfying at times... It was more about performance art and I detect overtones of lesbian activism. Which is OK. It was more academic than racy. Which is not what I was looking for. Let's just say the artificial, cabberet-type setting of it all was... anti-climactic. And of course there are also those recurring themes about stretching the limits of the gender continuum, breaking the gender binary, coming up with new catagories to put these people in ect., etc..., But this book is not without its gems.

The photographs rank so-so in shock value but score high on "camp-itude". I think they've got an edge over their drag queen sisters who are limited to portraying 50's movie stars and "divas", very traditional, idealized caricatures of women. Drag kings can be fat, ugly, working-class, Joe Blows... One can quickly see that by just looking at the cover. Two of the models have quickly achieved pin-up status in my mind. Check out Jackie and Stafford on pp. 34-37! Aren't they darling? In one photograph, they are dressed in business suits. In the next two, they are topless and wearing matching (albeit different colored) pairs of Levi's...

I don't quite take to that Halberstam fellow. That scholarly pompitude and high-brow style she writes in is boring at times. Read "Female Masculinity" to really put you to sleep. She has reduced my fetish for butch women to a dry science. Sometimes she gets more technical than a medical journal. Fortunately, she's considerably dumbed down her writing in this book. And you get to read less from her because it's packed with more interviews with the drag performers themselves. I admit I found those a WHOLE lot more fun and informative...

What took you so long boys? Women stand up and be counted!
I bought this book after watching some amazing drag kings on The Maury Show--an experience which really knocked me out! Shows what an absolute obsession we all have with gender and our quest to find some kind of "truth" therein.I'm only half way through the book but just had to tell the world how extraordinary this new(?) subculture is. I loved the images and loved reading the interviews especially. You Go Boys & Girls!