“We put on wigs or do our hair a certain way. “We have to do different contouring on our faces,” she says. Mortis echoes this sentiment, describing her own process with Buck Wylde. It‘s a very equal skill to what people who are very used to drag race and whatnot.” "There is actually a lot of people who put so much work into their costuming, so much work into their makeup. “Everyone's style is different, but I’ve heard criticism that it’s just people going on stage in street clothes," Williams says. And so there is always that struggle for anyone who is outside that realm.” –Trigger Mortis, aka Buck Wylde tweet thisĭespite a rich history, the drag-king world is often overlooked. It’s mostly cis white males who are seen, that are heard. And it doesn’t change when it's someone who is nonbinary or transgender or something like that. “It’s a tough one because, as for most women, we’re fighting to be seen, to be heard. It was a great way at first of exploring masculine identity." “At the time, I was still identifying as cis - I don’t think I had a term for that. “It‘s a very interesting way to play with gender,” Williams says. Lili Williams, who uses they/them pronouns, performed with Mustache Envy for years as Damien Dupree. The integration of the drag-king scene and burlesque as well as queerlesque also created changes within the local form, creating a shift away from the more traditional pageantry and expanding on the freedom and fluidity within the art form. “If a drag king wants to sport a mustache, but perhaps they have boobs and want to show off their boobs, they are going to show off their boobs in addition to the way they perform,” Musico says. Whereas before it was focused on achieving the look of the opposite gender, the newer fold strays from tradition and embraces gender fluidity. I think a lot of it came more so from the pageant world." They had all these very particular rules about how you do drag: you have to bind, you have to apply facial hair. "When I first had started, there was an organization called IDKE, which was the International Drag King Extravaganza. Musico’s deep involvement in and around the drag-king scene has spanned its various courses. Now, Mustache Envy is one of the longest-running king-centric drag troupes in Texas. They've raised money for causes such as the Suicide Crisis Center and gender-affirming care like top surgery. The group’s roots lie in visibility and fundraising. “There weren’t very many drag-king-friendly places, and so for, it was about providing a space for kings and that visibility.” “Dukes of Dallas had stopped around 2009, so there wasn’t anywhere for drag kings at all,” she says. Its co-founder and executive producer, Cher Musico, got involved with the drag scene after taking photos for a former group, Dukes of Dallas. Mustache Envy, a drag and queerlesque group founded in 2010, performs throughout North Texas, particularly at Sue Ellen’s. “We don’t really display any kind of toxic masculinity unless we are doing it in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, where we are poking fun at the patriarchy, and everyone in the audience is in on the joke,” says Mortis. Mortis invokes one of Dick’s quotes when thinking about her own work: “Instead of becoming an angry woman, I became a funny man.” That is, their dismay with the patriarchy helped fuel their drag king ethos.īuck Wylde represents a particular masculinity. Dick, who is cited as one of the founding fathers of today’s Drag King movement. Mortis takes inspiration from New York City drag-king legend Mo B. When I am Buck, that is a totally different person.” “I love being able to be a completely different person. "He’s got all of the good parts of the perfect man and none of the bad parts,” Mortis says of the character. Buck Wylde is a concoction of pop culture excellence, invoking the likes of John Travolta, Brian Seltzer, Elvis Presley and Little Richard. “I was in my grandfather’s shirt and tie, and my mom’s blazer, and I had this terrible wig and terrible mustache - all forms of drag are valid, so whatever - but I’ve progressed since then,” she says.Īnd, for the past 12 years, the artist has performed as Buck Wylde across the local drag and burlesque landscape. Mortis entered the drag-king scene after dressing up as Morris Day to sing “Jungle Love” for a friend’s wedding. “There is a lot of people who don’t even know we exist,” says Trigger Mortis, who performs as drag king Buck Wylde. The drag king scene in Dallas-Fort Worth is far reaching, but there still aren’t enough stages for all the local kings.
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