To kick off Midd MAY-hem, a long weekend of festivities and celebrations, Middlebury Queers and Allies hosted a drag show. While it was originally planned to be on Battell Beach, the rain forced the show’s dancing and duck-walking to Wilson Hall. Not at all deterred by the change in plans, performers took the stage before a small but captivated audience.
This isn’t the first time this year that the performers had to deal with a change in circumstances. Like drag artists across the country, Middlebury’s own performers have had to navigate pandemic performances and explore new ways of doing drag.
“When I’m performing in a non-Covid environment, I take songs I identify with lyrically and am able to pour my emotions out through them, but during a Covid semester, I’m trying to take myself in new directions fashion-wise and music-wise,” said Miss Ogyny (Donovan Compton ’23). “I wouldn’t say I’m a dancer, but now that the emphasis is no longer on lip syncing, I’m trying to adapt.”
In the spirit of adapting, Miss Ogyny performed two Japanese pop songs, Supercell’s “The World is Mine” and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s “Cherrybonbon.” Inspired by Harajuku streetwear and Lolita fashion, they wore a baby pink dress with white frills and baby pink Mary Janes to match. On stage, they looked entirely in their element, clicking their heels and dipping in a way that revealed their cute, pink panda underwear. They admit that they “may or may not be a weeb,” to which fellow drag artist and Queers and Allies board member Ripper Hymen (Devon Hunt ’23) lovingly cuts in with a sarcastic “noooooo.”
For Hymen, drag is a powerful form of self expression and empowerment. “When I choose a [song to] lip sync, I think [about] what song makes me feel my gender and gives me a god complex,” they said. “It’s like how can I put every TikTok cosplayer and queer-coded supervillain to shame. There’s a lot of My Chemical Romance in there,” they joked.
The best part of the Queers and Allies drag shows is the absolute pure love shared between the board members, performers and the audience. From spectators, there’s a lot of whooping and hollering, snapping and “yassssssssss”-ing, but you can tell that even on the practical side of things, there’s a lot of support. Off stage, Compton and Hunt are great friends and joke about their very opposite aesthetics (Ripper Hymen has a very punk, all black couture while Miss Ogyny is straight from an episode of “Winx Club”). In this way, they compliment each other: Middlebury’s own Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamo.
When host Expo Marker (M Stiffler ’23) first walked on stage, the audience knew it was going to be a good show. With a Sharpie penis on one leg and several doodles on the other, they brought out a fun queer energy that’s often missing at Middlebury. For their lip sync, they chose Lil Dicky’s “Hannibal Interlude,” a perfect song to begin the night of queer debauchery ahead.
There were moments at Friday’s drag show that made viewers laugh, holler, “YASSSS” and even tear up a little bit. When Francis Shiner ’23 began singing Mitski’s “Class of 2013” while stripping off various layers of clothing as a commentary on gender expression and acceptance, the audience sat stone-still, moved by the passion in their voice. It was a reminder that this night of celebration comes with a long fight for queer and trans liberation attached to it.
The jubilation of any drag show is also a celebration of defiance and obstinacy in the face of those who think we in the queer community “don’t” or “shouldn’t” exist. Queers and allies and their performers filled up Wilson Hall with a powerful reminder that queer and trans people are a vivacious and important force on Middlebury’s campus. Despite our trials and tribulations, we are here, and that is something worth celebrating.
Midd MAY-hem Drag Show celebrates queerness at Middlebury
Courtesy of Queers & Allies
Courtesy of Queers & Allies
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