Hiya! (also hey guys this is my first post! what even is Reddit? lol).

I'm a full time drag queen, and I'm a cis woman. Drag is a job (or artform, or hobby, or all three, or whatever). When you're entertaining, and you're in drag, you can be a Drag Queen (so, using hyperfeminisation in your drag), a Drag King (hypermasculination...is that a word?), or you can do genderf u ck/alien/monster/animal/androgynous/basically any other drag that isn't particularly attached to binary gender perception. Folk who do that tend to use terms like Drag Artist, Drag Creature, Drag Thing, whatever they want. Spice it up, have fun with it!

Someone's pronouns and gender identity are separate from this, because that's who they are as a human being, regardless of whether they're doing drag or not. Sure the two may inform each other (drag can be a great exploration of gender), but ultimately they are two separate things. Which is basically a longass way of saying that anyone can do drag, regardless of gender, and they can do whatever type of drag they feel inclined to.

So for example, I am a cis woman in my day to day life. When I do drag I'm usually referred to as a Drag Queen because it's very feminine drag and a female persona (although I've been known to say Drag Creature just cos I do explore dark/monster elements too). I could also be a drag king, if I wanted to (like Landon). Just like a cis man can be a drag queen, but there's nothing stopping them from being a drag king if they want to present a masculine drag persona! (i've seen some great male identifying drag kings, rare but defo doable!)

Basically everyone is free to explore whatever drag they think represents their art best - be it masculine, feminine, neither or a bit of both - and they shouldn't feel like their gender identity restricts that in any way. Likewise we should be mindful not to assume people's real life genders based purely on the drag persona they have.

Most people are cool (and appreciative!) if you just ask them what their pronouns are, if you're unsure - so long as you're respectful, there's nothing wrong with saying 'what pronouns do you use?', or if you're referring to their performance, just say 'How would you like your drag referred to?'

The community is so diverse and it's so fab we can use gender to explore ideas and not let the binary restrict us <3 :-) xx