Do you speak drag queen? "20 Minutes" helps you get started

• While Drag Race France, a culture program of drag-queen competition, was launched on France Télévisions,

  20 Minutes

  took the opportunity to provide an overview of this ancient and little-known artistic practice.

• History, political repercussions, big figures and little stories, this series of articles is an opportunity to get to know this universe better.

• Today, we offer you a glossary to help you find your way around.

Ten candidates, mini-challenges and performances combining comedy, song and dance:

, the French franchise of RuPaul's famous show landed on television this weekend for a first episode.

A cult program adapted for the French public, but which retains its codes and above all… its vocabulary.

If you found yourself a little lost after this first episode, here is a little glossary of words to know when talking about drag.

Drag

This is the term that comes up the most, and yet is the most difficult to define.

Some sources indicate that it would be the initials of "DRess like A Girl" (dressed like a girl, in French), in reference to the actors of the XIXth century wearing female clothes in Shakespearean plays, women not having the right to play in the theater at that time.

However, the origin of the word remains uncertain.

Drag characterizes an artistic practice consisting in embodying a character using costumes, make-up… With this character, drags perform, through singing, dancing, stand-up.

We speak of

when the incarnated character takes on feminine characteristics: this is the best known type of art, and very represented in Drag Race France.

The drag-queens thus play on the codes of femininity, using corsets, high heels or flamboyant make-up.

The

, on the other hand, play on masculine codes, with, for example, mustaches, beards and masculine clothing.

The type of drag says nothing about the performer's gender identity or sexual orientation.

These definitions are not exhaustive: in recent years, we also find performers who claim to be

or

.

Thus, their art no longer serves to present male or female characteristics, but to create their own character, in creature form.

Transformism

It's a bit like Drag's distant cousin.

Transformists are artists who also use make-up, costumes and wigs to transform themselves... But transformism is based on imitation: artists seek to resemble as much as possible a well-known person, such as Cher or Céline Dion for example. .

In Paris, you can find transformist cabaret at Michou, a top performance venue in Montmartre.

But unlike the transformists, the Drags do not seek to look like a known celebrity… But create their own character.

RuPaul

It is undoubtedly the most famous Drag-queen in the world: RuPaul Andre Charles multiplies the caps, from song to cinema.

RuPaul rose to prominence in the early 1990s within the New York club scene, before producing his own records and having his own reality show as early as 2009, now world famous,

.

Due to his media presence, many consider RuPaul to have revolutionized the portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community on screen.

The program

, which is now in its 14th season, with several variations by country and a broadcast on

, has given international visibility to the art of drag, not without creating some conflicts: many critics have emanated from the LGBTQ+ community accusing the show of mainstreaming drag and depoliticizing it.

Ball Culture

The "ball culture" is an LGBTQ + subculture born in the United States from the end of the 19th century, with growing popularity during the 20th century, especially the 1990s. These events, created by black and Latino drags, were aimed at combating the racism experienced in traditional drag scenes.

Over time, these events have been a place of celebration and struggle for non-white trans women, victims of discrimination.

The

are places where participants can dance (including voguing), show their drag, and participate in competitions according to given themes.

Drag and ball culture are intimately linked.

House

A term from the "

", the houses represent "houses", namely communities of performers.

These chosen families serve as refuges for LGBTQ+ youth entering the

and/or drag scene.

When entering a house, each artist is assigned a "

" who will serve as a guide and mentor.

In the different editions of RuPaul's Drag Race, we have seen many drag queens belonging to different

in major American cities.

Lipsync

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From the English

(lips) and

(synchronization),

refers to the fact of interpreting a song without singing it, in playback.

Lipsyncs are

characteristic performances in drag shows, where the drags play to interpret the song by miming it and moving their lips, and often exaggerating, like in the theater.

These performances may include dancing or even acrobatics.

In RuPaul's show, the host asks candidates to "

", namely to perform a

to avoid being eliminated from the competition.

Padding/Tucking/Contouring

For some drag queens, when they blend into the character, it is a question of corresponding as much as possible to the stereotypes of femininity: wide hips, imposing chest, thin face... In fact, drag queens can use subterfuge to inflate their hips and their buttocks, with what is called

, a sort of filling that is wedged under clothing.

Similarly, drags may use makeup to contour

and thus sculpt their face with finer or more pronounced features.

Finally, for drags with a penis and who don't want it to show under their clothes,

is a technique to hide it.

Slay

It's an onomatopoeia not limited to the drag circle, but used a lot in some shows like

(and in Beyoncé's discography).

The term "

" simply means that something tears or rips.

During the competition, the drag queens can tell each other that a competitor has "

", or encourage her with this term, and thus boost her self-confidence.

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• Culture

• RuPaul's Drag Race

• LGBT movement

• Spectacle

• Television