Drag Queens and Kings

My plan for this blog writing exercise is to write and publish every morning. The publishing part is important to keep me honest! So far, so good. Almost at the one week mark. How is that for consistency.

But today I must be out of the house early. No time to develop an anecdote. What to do? As it other creative areas of my life, my problem is never coming up with ideas… in fact life would be simpler if I didn’t have so many ideas buzzing around. 

On days like this, I think my offering may consist of a story starter, of what Wikipedia would call a “stub” A stub they define as a short article in need of expansion. Through the wonders of time and hyperlinks I hope to develop stubs into fully fledged stories. I beg your indulgence if they remain ugly ducklings for some time. Blog comments may remind me to return if you want to hear more of the tale.

For today, this stub is about so-called cross dressing. The idea was re-ignited when I was researching the painter Zoffany for a previous post. He painted Garrick, the famous actor of the 18th century, several times. One striking portrait was of Garrick in drag. This popped up on my radar at the same time as the opening of Priscilla Queen of the Desert in Auckland, New Zealand. I know this because several friends have posted on Facebook about their attendance. And after all that is what Facebook is for: to inform our friends and if it makes them a little envious at that same time, so much to the good.

Back to cross dressing… I have other historic figures whose alleged penchant for dressing in clothes more customary to the other sex I intend to explore. People on this list include James I/VI of England/Scotland, Queen Christina of Sweden, a former governor of an American colony (damn I have forgotten his name), and the Scandalous Lady W. Oh and don't forget that female pharoah.