Dragula is the first reality drag competition in US to feature a drag king
Landon Cider is a “proud cis woman, lesbian and drag king.” (landoncider/ Instagram)
US reality drag competition The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula will be the first in America to feature a drag king.
The show is currently available on Amazon Prime video, and when its third season is released this month (August 27) one of the contestants will be drag king Landon Cider.
Drag kings are performance artists like drag queens, except they generally present masculine gender stereotypes in their shows instead of feminine ones.
Dragula is the “search for the world’s next drag supermonster,” and features spookier and more macabre drag artists than shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Cider told The Advocate: “I am a proud cis woman, lesbian and drag king. AFAB [assigned female at birth] drag performers share the same length of history with queens, fill our communities with incredible artistry, and I am honoured to be just one in an infinite sea of talent.”
Hollow Eve, another contestant who will be featured on Dragula season three, was also assigned female at birth but describes themselves as a “post binary drag socialist.”
Cider added: “Hollow and I are shattering glass ceilings. So grab a shard, AFABs, cause we’re all coming for blood!”
The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula is the “search for the world’s next drag supermonster.” (landoncider/ Instagram)
RuPaul’s Drag Race has come under fire for lack of diversity
RuPaul’s Drag Race has been criticised for the lack of diversity in its contestants, and when asked in 2018 whether a trans person who had transitioned should be allowed to compete on the show, RuPaul said: “Probably not.
“You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing.”
He later compared it to doping, saying: “You can take performance enhancing drugs and still be an athlete, just not in the Olympics.”
Transgender, Afro-Latinx drag king Chiyo Gomes previously told PinkNews they thought RuPaul’s Drag Race was “misogynistic.”
They said: “You will never see an AFAB queen on Drag Race, or a drag king that is AFAB, because Drag Race and a lot of gay men are misogynistic as f**k,” they said.
