Natalie Drum 20′ co-wrote this article
The third annual Royal Drag Show hosted by SJU Pride offered both entertainment and education during the event on April 26.
Erika Klash, a professional drag queen and a former contestant from The Boulet Brothers’ DRAGULA, performed at the show and explained that drag has always been about questioning identity.
“Drag really can help you come to terms with parts of yourself that you never really had been able to engage with before,” Klash said to the audience. “I have always been a feminine person and enjoyed that side of things, but it wasn’t until drag that I really had an outlet to express that safely.”
The Student Union Board (SUB) and the Office of Inclusion and Diversity (OID) helped SJU Pride bring professional drag queens for the show. In addition to Klash, there were four St. Joe’s student performers and Jujubee, another professional drag queen and former contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
John Aydin ’20, vice president of SJU Pride and head of the drag show committee, said that brining in professionals would attract a larger audience from the St. Joe’s community.
“Bringing someone like [Jujubee] here made the event something that anyone would go see, regardless if they knew about drag or not,” Aydin said. “Also [the professionals] inspire the student performers with a live representation of what they would like to achieve if they continue with drag.”
In addition to the entertainment, members of SJU Pride took the time to raise awareness about the struggles of youth who identify as transgender by raising money for the Mazzoni Center.
Maggie Nealon ’20, Secretary for SJU Pride, said that the Mazzoni Center is an organization that’s very important to SJU Pride.
“The center is a Philadelphia foundation that helps to provide aid for trans youth [and] trans young adults within the community helping them get the resources they need,” Nealon said. “They were so gracious to accept our donations.”
Along with raising money for a charity that supports youth who identify as trans, SJU Pride used the drag performances to educate the community about the gender spectrum. Educational pamphlets, student speakers and slide shows on the monitors in The Perch provided the audience with information about different ways people can identify their gender.
Aydin said the drag show is an ideal place to educate the St. Joe’s community, because it brings a visibility to the gender spectrum that most people don’t experience unless they seek it out.
“[The performances] show how gender is a spectrum that is more blurred than concrete as people might typically believe,” Aydin said. “It gives the St. Joe’s community the opportunity to see how gender manifests for others.”
In addition to being a way to educate others about the gender spectrum, Jujubee said that drag also breaks society’s stereotypical gender norms.
“Sometimes society pushes this womanhood aside, and drag breaks that barrier,” Jujubee said. “It kind of blurs the line between man and woman, masculinity and femininity.”
Aydin said during his first year, the drag show was something that made him feel more welcome in the St. Joe’s community.
“It continues to make people of our community feel welcome here, especially because of how big and successful it has been so far,” Aydin said.
