What they want, evidently, is drag. Ru Paul, a 6-foot-4-inch transvestite, is just the tallest exemplar of a wild proliferation of cross-dressing that reaches far beyond the dance floor. In fact, at times it seems there’s no escape. Not at the cinema, where actresses in films like “The Crying Game,” Gus Van Sant’s upcoming “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and even a future Steven Spielberg-produced picture are not what they seem. Not on Broadway, where the men in two Tony winners-“Angels in America” and “Kiss of the Spider Woman”-ape aging movie queens. Not even on the cover of The New Yorker, where two weeks ago artist Art Spiegelman presented a female impersonator. At least as a spectator sport, cross-dressing seems to be crossing over.
Doubtful? Turn on MTV. Bands like U2, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and the Replacements all don dresses for recent videos. George Michael, Aerosmith, Faith No More, Robin S. and the Soup Dragons all use drag extras. On the latest “House of Style,” host Cindy Crawford has no trouble coaxing Duran Duran into Sears, Roebuck housedresses. And in clubs in Los Angeles, Miami Beach and New York, drag spectacles like the gingham spoof “She-Haw” and “Dueling Bank-heads,” with two Tallulahs facing off, attract growing crowds of all persuasions.
_B_Topsy-turvy:b Amid all this quantity is a new degree of quality. At the extreme, there are working transvestites like run way model Billy Beyond who simply defy detection. “I book Billy with the same criteria I use to book Christy Turlington,” says fashion designer Todd Oldham, who this spring marched Billy down the runway in an embroidered, Arabian-inspired pantsuit. For Sally Potter, who cast the flamboyant author Quentin Crisp, 83, as Elizabeth I in her acclaimed film, “Orlando,” the casting gave the role a “topsy-turvy” spin, highlighting how powerful women are often considered essentially manly. Besides, she jokes, Quentin’s the true queen of England."
That kind of gender experimentation is historically a sign of socio-sexual upheaval, says Harvard professor Marjorie Garber, The women’s movement, gay culture, even Robert Bly’s men’s movement have stirred our curiosity about gender roles, she says. Maybe so, say drag practitioners, but there’s also a simpler explanation. “Put on a cheap wig and heels,” advises Ru Paul. “There’s no cheaper way to have fun. Laugh at yourself. “And the world-part of it, at least-will laugh with you.
