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[Afro Republican]

The Guardian is promoting Drag Queen gamers (and according to one section for the next month) to try and make them fit in natural and encourage inclusiveness and acceptance. Also a common recommended article on the site of any article related to children.

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jan/17/drag-queens-gaming-twitch-cosplay

Drag in video games is often played for laughs – see 1997’s Final Fantasy VII, in which spiky-haired Cloud Strife dresses as a woman to deceive a gullible, misogynistic mafioso, or Alfred the “cross-dressing freak” from Resident Evil: Code Veronica – but drag and video games can be vectors of identity exploration and self-expression. Drag can involve trying on a persona by putting yourself in someone else’s heels, a subversive form of role-play – and what are video games if not role-play?

Gaming has potent power for many queer people, as a space to safely explore what it’s like to be other people (or to be ourselves). Hyper-feminine characters such as Princess Peach, D. Va and Bayonetta have become drag and cosplay icons. And drag queens are visible in many parts of the gaming community, from developers to Twitch streamers. Here, four queens explain how video games have influenced their drag:

Kitty Powers/Richard Franke
Game developer

Kitty Powers was my one creative outlet and combining drag and video games hadn’t really been done before. It can get a Marmite reaction, but it’s good to provoke people and make them think. I like to think that me expressing myself in my art form is a positive thing and when there’s enough negative energy flying around on the internet, it’s good to bring a bit of fluffiness.

It’s interesting how meta it has become, because there aren’t many developers who star in their own game. Kitty Powers is a video game character but also the real person who developed the game, able to appear in productions on YouTube or on stage. I like to connect the dots for fans and explore the live theatricality of drag too.

There’s something about the confidence you have when you’re in drag that inspires other people and makes them feel safe. That’s really important when leading a design team. Video games have also helped Kitty Powers go beyond just being a drag queen. She’s all about love, positivity and inclusiveness,

Hashtag Trashly
Twitch streamer

But I do think drag streamers get a lot more trolls than even LGBT streamers. I’m sure it’s the same for trans streamers as well. Maybe I’m an easy target. They see the big hair and the LGBT tag and it attracts attention. I try to be funny and entertaining and play back with them. But I realise that they’re doing this to get a reaction from me so if I give them that it just encourages them.

Personally I don’t take any offence at what they say. Sometimes it’s hilarious. What does affect me, though, is a loss of hope for humanity. There are a lot of people out there that hold these terrible views and I’m exposed to the worst of it all through trolls.

Deere
Twitch streamer


Horror is my genre: scary, creepy, weird, thrilling. That’s reflected in my drag looks.

Every gay kid can relate to their straight friends playing as Mario or Luigi. I would always pick Princess Peach. The original Erika Klash was conceived as a Princess Peach type character – a queen but not always the damsel in distress. Her gentle nature, her softness and her beauty inspired me but I also wanted to be a sassy, fun drag queen.

Wait, you can pick prince peak in Mario? Which Mario?

Also Peach is hyper-feminized? What? Well I guess that's a good thing as opposed to being hyper-masculine I guess? But how is she hyper f- eh screw it.

 

[DeepEnigma]

My head hurts.

 

[InterMusketeer]

Wait, you can pick prince peak in Mario? Which Mario?

Super Mario Bros. 2?

I don't have much else to say about the rest. Good for them, I guess.

 

[Afro Republican]

Super Mario Bros. 2?

I don't have much else to say about the rest. Good for them, I guess.

I know but the fact they didn't specify almost makes this seem staged.

 

[mckmas8808]

I know but the fact they didn't specify almost makes this seem staged.

Staged by the media or Nintendo?

 

[InterMusketeer]

I know but the fact they didn't specify almost makes this seem staged.

I mean, I haven't read the article, but in the piece you quoted they don't specify what game they're playing, just that Luigi and Mario were picked. It could be Mario Party, Mario Kart, whatever. I don't find that part too hard to believe.

 

[Spukc]

mario def needs a beard

i present

mario italian model

 

[Futaleufu]

Drag in video games is often played for laughs

i doubt that's ever going to change.

 

[Afro Republican]

I mean, I haven't read the article, but in the piece you quoted they don't specify what game they're playing, just that Luigi and Mario were picked. It could be Mario Party, Mario Kart, whatever. I don't find that part too hard to believe.

The whole point is that these are supposed to be hardcore gamers that also stream.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Just an article from TheGuardian about drag queen gamers/streamers? I don’t see an issue? Is there an issue?

 

[InterMusketeer]

The whole point is that these are supposed to be hardcore gamers that also stream.

You suspect they're not hardcore gamers because they didn't specify the game?

 

[Husky]

>crossdressing your character for "laughs" and not to make a cute trap waifu

 

[Afro Republican]

You suspect they're not hardcore gamers because they didn't specify the game?

I suspect they aren't hardcore gamers because they don't play anything other than trends games, if even that, and constantly don't describe games with just a bit of research.

 

[struggler_guts]

i doubt that's ever going to change.

Unfortunately drag as a joke is a HUGE thing in japan

 

[InterMusketeer]

I suspect they aren't hardcore gamers because they don't play anything other than trends games, if even that, and constantly don't describe games with just a bit of research.

Fair enough. I haven't looked into any of their content, as it doesn't interest me one bit.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Let’s launch a hardcore investigation into the hardcoreness of their hardcore gaming. I need to know. NOW

 

[Shifty]

Hereby motioning for identity politics topics to take their rightful place alongside politics politics topics in the politics subforum.

All in favour?

mario def needs a beard

i present

mario italian model

Mamma Mia

 

[#Phonepunk#]

on the whole im not a fan of drag queens. specifically the weirdo horror shit.

IMO flattening out all drag into a "good thing" has inadvertently promoted the scariest version, and it's a huge turn off for the concept in general. that first pic has a big monster claw that would scare me no matter who had it. i feel like there is male and there is feminine and then there is cartoonish grotesquery.

normalizing drag may have given the cartoonish stuff a bigger platform, but it's no less offputting.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

on the whole im not a fan of drag queens. specifically the weirdo horror shit.

IMO flattening out all drag into a "good thing" has inadvertently promoted the scariest version, and it's a huge turn off for the concept in general. that first pic has a big monster claw that would scare me no matter who had it. i feel like there is male and there is feminine and then there is cartoonish grotesquery.

normalizing drag may have given the cartoonish stuff a bigger platform, but it's no less offputting.

And we are already literally competely out of the world of gaming with this thread, which of course was going to happen.

 

[CatCouch]

I absolutely love anything that embraces femininity openly. It's nice to see some article about femininity and games that doesn't demonize it outright.

I listen to music with drag queens quite a bit. There's so much great stuff like Jinkx Monsoon! (Cartoons and Vodka is an amazing song!)

I want to see more stuff like this in gaming. I love Bayonetta and I love Peach. Please paint them in a positive light! That is so much better than when game critics shout them down as sexist.

I like the roleplay aspects of drag culture too. It's not far off from things like furry and anthro communities which I am a part of so maybe that's why I relate. It's heavy on self-exploration and finding your identity.

You don't have to be gay to want to play as Princess Peach! I loved Peach my whole life! I just played through New Mario Bros. Deluxe as Peachette~

There's also lots of fun fan art of Cloud Crossdressing in FFVII. I loved that part! Not sure why our society tries so hard to see the worst in things. Plenty of people enjoyed it, it can easily be interpreted as a positive thing. I wish we could move past trying to find flaws in entertainment and just let people enjoy what they like.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The only way to "normalize" something is not talking about it day and night. This media circus is all but normalizing.

It's great news that Today videogames are so cool and trendy that everybody want to be onboard this ship, something unthinkable 30 years ago, when us gamers were labeled as geeks, riduled and pointed at by the very same people that now want to be the most talked about in the videogame industry. The irony.

 

[nikolino840]

The only way to "normalize" something is not talking about it day and night. This media circus is all but normalizing.

It's great news that Today videogames are so cool and trendy that everybody want to be onboard this ship, something unthinkable 30 years ago, when us gamers were labeled as geeks, riduled and pointed at by the very same people that now want to be the most talked about in the videogame industry. The irony.

If nobody talk they are like invisibile...and journalists are the only people Who talk
Some are scaried to stream or make YouTube videos becous at ugly or with disabilities

 

[tkscz]

If nobody talk they are like invisibile...and journalists are the only people Who talk
Some are scaried to stream or make YouTube videos becous at ugly or with disabilities

You can talk about it without making feel separate as something that cannot be normalized. I feel that kind of talk needs to be done by people and not the media, but thats just how I feel about it.

 

[TLZ]

 

[Winter John]

The whole point is that these are supposed to be hardcore gamers that also stream.

There is nowhere in that article that says these people are "hardcore" gamers.

Since you haven't bothered to read or are unable to understand the article you have posted I'll explain the "whole point" of it to you-

The article is about drag queens using games as a medium to explore identity. That's it. That's all it is. It's not about them trying to gain acceptance or "to try and make them fit in natural and encourage inclusiveness and acceptance." Although Christ knows what would be wrong with that if it was. The world could use a lot more "inclusiveness and acceptance." Maybe one day you'll wise up to that.

 

[Afro Republican]

There is nowhere in that article that says these people are "hardcore" gamers.

Since you haven't bothered to read or are unable to understand the article you have posted I'll explain the "whole point" of it to you-

The article is about drag queens using games as a medium to explore identity. That's it. That's all it is. It's not about them trying to gain acceptance or "to try and make them fit in natural and encourage inclusiveness and acceptance." Although Christ knows what would be wrong with that if it was. The world could use a lot more "inclusiveness and acceptance." Maybe one day you'll wise up to that.

Actually the issue is you're not competent enough to click the related links about these same specific peo ppl e. This is One article out of many to try and bring attention to this subject and their criteria is finding core gamer drags including if they find any, ones who took part in tournies.

But you see if you just read the article alone you wouldnt know all that eh?