drag queen

A man who dresses in female clothing for entertainment purposes, such as Ru Paul and Danny La Rue. Can be distinguished from a man playing a "straight" female role, such as Danny Schiller as Dolly in the film "Personal Services". Drag queens wear exaggerated costumes and makeup, and often present a caricature of the most flamboyant kind of actress or singer. Drag queens are fairly likely to be gay, unlike crossdressers who are usually hetero. The etymology of the word "drag" has absolutely nothing to do with Shakespeare or his contemporaries. There is no such stage direction as "DRessed As a Girl" in the Tudor period; that idea was invented in the 1980's as a film joke. "Drag" actually comes from the long skirts that dragged on the floor in the 1870's when the word was first used in print. The phrase "Drag queen" first appeared in print in 1941.