For our “For Performance, Tradition & Cultural Studies: An Introduction to Folklore and Mythology” class, we participated in the practice of collecting folklore. For this particular exercise, I wrote about Adam’s House Drag Night. While I did not make this particular class a priority this semester, going to watch the performance was a very cool experience for me.
The room is crowded and the emcee announcing the next act can barely be heard over the raucous audience and general chaos. On stage, people are setting up for the next act. The men among them are dressed in a variety of dresses, skirts, and heels. The girls are wearing ties and loose, button-up shirts. These performances, starring participants dressed in drag, are the main attraction of Adams House’s annual Drag Night. Adams House, one of the twelve undergraduate houses on Harvard University’s campus, demonstrates its strong house spirit at Drag Night—the housemasters even participate every year with a drag performance of their own. Scheduled every year around Halloween, Drag Night could be seen as a night of quirky fun and amusement, but understanding Drag Night requires understanding the central component of the celebration—dressing in drag—and its message. Costuming in festivals is generally considered a method of disguising and concealing one’s identity, but oftentimes the role of costuming extends beyond just that. For instance, roleplaying at fan conventions or dressing up for Halloween has many different purposes that are often underexplored. Adams House Drag Night and drag in general has a mainly political purpose. This paper considers costuming as a method of community political expression by looking at Adams House Drag Night in conjunction with Cajun Mardi Gras, another event where its costumes’ origins lie in political expression. These two events and their respective costuming demonstrate that costuming for a festival may be used to reflect serious social and political opinions in a very apparent but unsustainable manner. Additionally, the tradition of Cajun Mardi Gras demonstrates that the practice of costuming may survive and continue to be practiced long after the political statements are relevant.
Costuming is an important part of the study of folklore. In The Study of American Folklore, folklorist Jan Brunvand notes that costumes hold a prominent place in European folklife research, but American folk costumes are not as researched (573). This investigation of costuming as part of a festival offers a look at folk costumes that are distinct from the day-to-day costumes and clothing that Brunvand focuses on. One reason these costumes may shed additional light on the folk life of the folk group is because festivals and elaborate costuming is not practical or sustainable; that is, it is inefficient to dress in costume on a day-to-day basis. The two examples of costuming that are examined are interesting because they are parodies of folk costumes and clothing. To understand this aspect of the costuming, it is important to look at the history of these events and their context.
Adams House Drag Night, while a raucous and fun event, has serious political origins. For a current understanding of the history of Drag Night, one may look to the Adams House website, which features an Adams student’s description of the origin of Drag Night. Drag Night’s start comes from a time when Harvard did not yet have randomization; freshmen would choose the undergraduate house that they wanted to be a part of in their remaining years in school. Adams House was known as the gay house, as well as the artistic house, among other things. In 1980, before the AIDS epidemic and the modern gay rights movement, a gay Adams student was beaten by three Kirkland students. If Adams House was known as the black, artsy house, then Kirkland House was known as the jock house. There was an outpouring of collective outrage of Adams House as a result of this “gay bashing” despite the fact that most students in Adams were not gay and some were jocks. The gay students in Adams decided that they would make a statement by throwing a Drag Ball as a mockery of the Formal Dances held in Kirkland and Eliot Houses (Adams did not have its own Formal yet). Most of Adams House attended, with the few jocks attending in full drag to demonstrate their support of their peers (“Drag Night”). While it is unclear of whether the Drag Ball immediately became a yearly tradition, it is clear that today’s Drag Night is far different from the original Drag Ball. Indeed, now that Adams does have its own formal and now that Drag Night features more performances than formal dancing (though there are still many group dance performances), the direct mockery of Kirkland House Formal is lost. This mocking origin of Drag Night is not unlike the mocking origins of costuming in Cajun Mardi Gras.
As depicted in Dance For a Chicken, Cajun Mardi Gras some roots in the mockery of French nobility. In medieval France, while the well off would celebrate with a carnival with contests and races, the poor were left to dancing and singing in return for the charity of the rich. From this medieval behavior, the Cajuns have reanimated those circumstances in a mocking fashion through the use of costumes. People dress up in masks and tall pointed hats, a parody of the tall hats that wealthy women would wear. They run around in their disguises, dancing and begging in return for chickens and money for the evening feast. Strong emphasis is placed on the disguise, with participants going so far as to wear gloves to hide their hands as well as alter their voices when speaking to others. As many participants and people familiar with Cajun Mardi Gras explain, the costuming is about mocking the wealthy and reenacting history. Unsuspecting onlookers who do not understand the costumes and the history of Cajun Mardi Gras are duped into thinking that the event is something that it is not. The role that costumes play can be considered within these contexts.
In the case of Drag Night, dressing in drag undermines the serious attitude of a formal, as was done in Eliot and Kirkland. Parody has long been one of the purposes of drag, though drag itself has its roots in theatre, where men dressed as women to play female characters. The culture of drag has evolved significantly from its theatrical origins, with modern drag being heavily associated with the LGBTQ movement. The goal of drag is not to appear to be a women, indeed, drag performances are intentionally campy, exaggerated, and more flamboyant in order to emphasis that the goal of dressing in drag is not deception but celebration and mockery. Indeed, many people want to make a distinction between dressing in drag and cross-dressing and point out that many who dress in drag do not identify as transgender. Drag may even be given its own classification of dress. Rupaul, a famous television personality and singer has said, “I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven-inch heels, four-foot wigs, and skintight dresses?” He also said, “I don’t dress like a woman; I dress like a drag queen!” (“Drag Queens and Drag Kings”). Dressing in drag may involve wearing women’s clothing, not solely out of desire to wear the clothes, but in order to make a mockery of gender norms and social viewpoints. The issues being commented on through the use of drag are still very relevant today.
On the other hand, the costumes used in traditional Cajun Mardi Gras celebrations were first designed to mock and parody the clothing worn by the upper classes in Medieval times, the mockery is not readily recognized in modern context. The behaviors and clothing customs that the costumes mock have long been dead. Instead, the costumes seem to serve yet another purpose. They seem to give some form of freedom to the participants, who make an enormous effort to disguise their identities through the use of masks, gloves, and altered accents. Participants may even swap horses and change masks throughout the event simply for the purposes of staying disguised. Participants may recognize that traditional costumes have their roots in parody, current traditions have moved far beyond that and have left that idea with the tradition’s origins. Consider the act of dressing up in blackface or as Native Americans. Participants reason that such behaviors are not racist—rather, such costumes are just that, costumes. They do not serve as a political statement. Thus, while the tradition has its roots in mockery, it is clear that current practices have moved beyond mockery.
This stands in contrast to Drag Night, which still takes place in a time of LGBTQ activism. Gender stereotypes and gender differentiated clothing and styles still exist. The costumes or drag that participants wear only disguises their identities to a certain degree—that is, they wear enough make up to play the part. Though they may some questions during the performance trying to identify the performer, the performers are usually readily identifiable. Indeed, many of the audience members come to watch their friend perform and offer their own support. The very real parody of general norms still exists, and thus the mockery feels very relevant and real, whereas the mockery in Cajun Mardi Gras is far removed from its origins and no longer relevant to onlookers.
As fashion changes, no doubt the overall culture of drag and Drag Night will change as well. Perhaps there may be one day when the subject drag is parodying is no longer relevant. In that world, Drag Night may still exist and may likely follow in the footsteps of Cajun Mardi Gras. Dressing in drag for Drag Night may end up being historically relevant, but the immediate purpose may just be for the great fun and entertainment. Change is part of tradition and Drag Night has seen its fair share of change. There were worries that randomization would alter the spirit of the night. But the tradition continues, albeit in a different form. The community of Adams embraced its inherited traditions and has kept it alive. Perhaps political messages may only be realized if there is a supportive community that helps realize and acknowledge the parody, like there is in Adams. And one day, the community may see that the festival and costumes serve a different, but important purpose and continue to practice those traditions long after they are relevant. Even today, sitting in the audience and watching the performances brings a sense of joy and perhaps that support is all that is necessary in order to keep the tradition and its message alive.