The drag transformation is painful, but you get used to it, Alexus says. Demonstrating how she creates cleavage,
Beauty is Pain
The girls have converted the women's bathroom into their dressing room. The smell of hairspray is thick as Montana fluffs a wig on a plastic foam head. Alexus keeps her stage makeup in a huge electrical box; inside are M.A.C cosmetics and Ben Nye stage makeup. "Cover Girl is to cover a girl, not a boy, honey," she says. They keep their costumes in large blue plastic storage bins. Because the clothes they need are made to fit women's bodies, they have to make a few modifications, such as buying strapless tops to accommodate their wider shoulders, or making their own drag clothes, as Alexus does.
that people think she wants to be a woman. She also says she doesn't do drag for a sexual kick, and she doesn't do sexual things with men as Alexus. Montana tells me there's even a stigma in the gay community that all queens are whores. This perception of immorality seems strange when I find out Montana does drag on Sunday nights and gives all the profits to the Kansas City Free Health Clinic, 5119 E. 24th St., Mo.
Drag Queen/King: A person, usually homosexual, who dresses in exaggerated clothing and makeup of the opposite sex. Drag is a form of performing art.
Cross-Dresser: A person, usually hetero- sexual, who dresses in clothing of the oppoisite sex, sometimes as a sexual fetish.
Transexual: A person who switches sex through hormones, surgery or both.
Source: Wikipedia
Montana chose her drag name from a character in the 1991 movie Soapdish. She's been doing drag for 16 years. At age 21 Derek Dyer, Montana's male name, was working at a gay bar in Kansas City, Mo., where he met drag show director, Miss Sandy Kaye. "She did a Judy Garland you would not believe," Montana says. Derek was fascinated that men could look like women. He moved to San Francisco, where he made a living just doing drag, but missed his family in the Kansas City area. He moved back and is again working with his "drag mother," Miss Kaye, and managing an apartment complex. Montana does drag two to three times a week in Kansas City, Mo. She says there is no difference between her and Derek. "I'm the same person on the inside," she says. "There's no emotional change."
she grips the sides of her chest with one hand, and pinches them together. She tapes her faux cleavage with clear packing tape before she stuffs. Drag queens also have to tuck their male genitalia between their legs, and if they're wearing skimmy they
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use duct tape to hold it in place. I wince, but Alexus just shrugs. To avoid shaving their legs, some queens wear up to 10 pairs of pantyhose, Alexus says, but she can get away with a pair of dance tights covered with a pair of nude fishnets. She also glues her heavy jewelry to her skin to keep it from falling on during her dance routines.
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