At the same time as more and more AFAB performers are making waves in their local drag scenes, the mainstream art world is also beginning to recognize drag as an art form. The crossover of these worlds is playing out in exciting ways.

Alternadrag shows also give performers opportunities to try out more experimental or political numbers, and works to acknowledge shifting conversations around inclusivity. At a recent show, Morrison, who identifies as genderfluid, performed a lip-synch to Beyonce’s 2008 song “If I Were a Boy.” She started the song dressed as Lizzy Strange, in a big gown and long hair, with the word “FEMME” projected on the screen behind her. Partway through the song she stripped off the dress and removed the long wig to reveal Strange’s drag-king alter ego, and the word on the screen changed to “HOMME.” At the end of the song, she shed the button-up shirt and pants to reveal a black bodysuit. She then wiped off all her makeup and took off her final wig, and the word on the screen changed to “FLUIDE.” “It was this moment of acknowledging that this is femme-presenting, this is masc-presenting, and that this is how I see myself,” Morrison explains. “It’s kind of a blank slate and I can do whatever the heck I want with it, because gender is fluid and I can make up what I want for that.”

Despite having to work hard to carve out spaces for themselves, AFAB drag performers are having an undeniable influence in their local drag scenes. “Some of the best drag I’ve ever seen is from AFAB people,” Raizen says. “We have to put in so much more work and effort just to be seen as drag performers or to be seen anywhere near being equal. I think that forces us to put a lot of effort in and be creative with our stuff.”

At a Winnipeg performance last fall, in a showcase called Genderplay Cabaret, Stara David burst onto the stage, with her face painted ghost-white and wearing a knee-length coat and a bowler hat, lip-synching to Rudy Vallée’s 1934 song “You Oughta Be in Pictures.” A minute into the song, she tore off the coat to reveal a tight black leather jacket and black pants before diving into an emotional lip-synch to Billie Eilish’s “When the Party’s Over.” Maskiew was in the audience for that performance, and says it was among the best they’d ever seen.“[Stara] made me cry in the fucking club,” they say. “I yelled, ‘This is art!’ and then the bro standing beside me with the beer in his hand was like, ‘This is art, you’re right!’”

At the same time as more and more AFAB performers are making waves in their local drag scenes, the mainstream art world is also beginning to recognize drag as an art form. The crossover of these worlds is playing out in exciting ways. One of the most high-profile examples is the work of Toronto-born, London, UK–based drag artist Victoria Sin. In 2018 their performance The sky as an image, an image as a net—which has been described as a “ballad of embodiment, longing and transformation”—was included in the Serpentine Galleries’ Park Nights series of experimental art, and a selection of their works was exhibited at Sotheby’s, in London.

“Drag is one of the oldest forms of theatre, but it’s not really recognized as theatre or as high art, because it is kind of low-brow. It is for the common people, but I love it and it can be super elevated and it can range in so many different ways. There’s such a spectrum of what drag can be,” says Vancouver drag artist Rose Butch. Out of drag, Rose Butch is Rae Takei, who says they started doing drag at a point in their life when they were frustrated by what was expected of them in the mainstream professional theatre community. “I went to theatre school to be an actor, and I was told that wasn’t really a thing I could do because I was non-binary,” they say.

Like Takei, Rose Butch is non-binary, and incorporates elements more closely associated with drag kings—such as masculine contouring—into their drag while also embracing femme elements. “I’ve been performing in drag for the last five years, and within that time my drag persona has really helped me grow as an individual, and has helped me in my own personal journey so much,” Takei says. “A big part of that is embracing femme and finding strength in femme.”

Since 2018 Takei has been putting on shows in Vancouver as part of The Darlings, a collective of non-binary drag performers. They say the collective formed with the intention of doing drag in spaces outside queer bars and clubs, where performers could experiment and be, as they put it, a “little bit weird.” The collective’s performances have incorporated dance, poetry, digital elements and other types of performance art.

“There is something really powerful in seeing yourself on stage, and seeing yourself in a way that is not a joke or a side character or a lesson,” Takei says. “Part of what AFAB drag performers are bringing to the conversation is one representation of one facet of the queer community that deserves to be seen, that deserves to have space, and deserves to be cherished.”