I just got back from the second part of a very interesting weekend- from an event where, for once, I wasn’t the strangest looking person in the building. I heard of RuPaul’s Drag Con 2023 a couple of days ago, and it seemed like it was worth a look. It was in the Excel Centre, meaning it was easy to get to, but it wasn’t something I would be disappointed about missing. However, when I headed over there early yesterday afternoon, I was instantly intrigued.

You might remember that I used to like to dress up in dresses and leotards: I suppose it was a form of escape or sexual exploration. I grew out of it though, and I haven’t dressed up in years. Boys clothes just seem so much more practical. However, I haven’t lost my interest in the cultural aspect of cross dressing, and that seems to have exploded: what was once my dirty little secret has now become it’s own subculture. The excel centre was filled to capacity with men in dresses and all kinds of exotic costumes, enough to make me wish I had made the effort and dressed up too. Of course this is probably due to the popularity of television programmes like RuPaul’s Drag Race, but I also think that the desire to be other, which I have written about here before, plays a part too.

People are becoming more sexually liberal, expressive and tolerant than they have been, which is obviously a good thing. Yet I think the desire to escape being perceived as normal also plays a role: being straight, white and able bodied is no longer politically fashionable, so people are now playing with aspects of their personalities which may have previously been hidden. Thus this weekend I saw all kinds of people, male, female, black, white, able bodied and disabled, wearing all kinds of costumes. It was quite fascinating.

While the event was largely about selling merchandise, there was a great atmosphere of camaraderie in the air, with people all over the place playing and joking with each other. I am in no position to judge, but I daresay that, while there were no doubt quite a few long term crossdressers and transpeople there, there were also quite a few people for whom this weekend was their first time expressing that aspect of their personalities. There was thus a sense of freedom in the air, as if events like this allow people to let them selves loose. The result is a new and growing culture, which allows people to explore and express desires which they have previously had to keep hidden. Where for me it was going to university which allowed me to experience the tug of tights, at a time when crossing gender lines was still rather taboo, events like Drag Con allow people to open up and play around, generating a new open, tolerant, welcoming subculture. Surely that can only be a good thing.