Drag kings are gaining ground in which they can transform masculine expression into cabaret

Transformation shows, in which traditionally only drag queens had spaces, They are opening the door to the ‘drag kings’, people who adopt a masculine aesthetic expression and bring the codes of ‘macho’ to the stage to turn them into satire and cabaret.

Two of the most recognized ‘kings’ in LGTBI transformism shows in Spain are Marcus Massalami, behind whom Melisa Meseger hides, and Faraonix, Marta Arán’s drag alterego, who have explained to EFE how their identities on stage have also allowed them to feel more comfortable with her own “self” without makeup.

Marcus Massalami says that he had been cross-dressing for the theatre all his life, especially in the classic works of authors such as William Shakespeare, although it was when he learned of the existence of the ‘drag king’ scene in other countries that “his mind exploded” and he felt he had found his way.

The former actress and nurse says she is comfortable with the label “gender queer”which allows you to “flow” and avoid too many labels.

Although that doesn’t mean that his drag character isn’t “very macho”, with his goatee, bushy eyebrows and blue pompadour.

“Welcomed” by the drag scene

Her beginnings were “hard” despite having won a drag contest in none other than the LGTBI neighborhood of Chueca in Madrid, because the public was not used to seeing girls “performing” as men.

Now she says she feels “welcomed” by the drag scene in LGBT venues and by the drag queens themselves, although she points out that there are heterosexual men who, upon seeing their performance, “don’t feel too comfortable because no one has ever held up a mirror to them like that before.”

Furthermore, in his early days he did not have many “references” to build his character and “perform” a masculinity in which he plays with being “rude” and dares to play a bullfighter and even imitate David Bisbal.

“It is complex to be a drag king because it has more to do with postures, attitudes and interpretation. The more makeup and artifice a drag queen uses, the closer she can become to female stereotypes. But ours is different,” she reflects.

“Exploring the full range of hypermasculinity”

He points out that this is why what interests him most in the end is “exploring the whole range of hypermasculinity. Putting it on stage. Taking stereotypes and playing with them.”

“With this experience I have realized how much social and performative reading we have in one genre and another,” she adds.
The “gender issue” is also something that has haunted Marta Arán, a playwright and actress, “all her life”, who became Pharaohix after the COVID pandemic in which, locked up at home, she began to experiment with makeup and men’s clothing.

“One day I dressed as a man, drank a whiskey and looking in the mirror I realized how beautiful I was as a man,” Pharaohix explains with a laugh.

She says she realized how “comfortable” she felt like that, although that was precisely what “scared” her at first.
In a drag king workshop, she learned how to make her body movements more masculine, which she sums up as “blocking the hips and shoulders” first of all.

“I realized that masculine movements had actually always come naturally to me since childhood, but that I somehow learned to perform like a girl in order to be socially accepted. Until now,” she says.

Her character is inspired by Lola Flores, La Faraona, and likes to play the castanets, although to a techno rhythm or, as she clarifies, “technocastanets.”

Now she is having a “liberating experience” and “proudly” claims what she calls “the tomboy pen.”

She agrees with Massalami that “interpreting masculinity” is not easy, because it is “the ground zero of our society”, something “very internalized” that even children and adolescents do to fit in.

“A lot of people on the street, in that sense, are drag and don’t know it,” point.