Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that there can be some kind of parallel drawn between drag queens and superheroes. The costumes, the alter egos, the mystique, the spotlight, the joy and power that comes from being another version of self. The way the audience is split into adoring fans and jeering critics. The way in some places it’s dangerous, even illegal, to let your true self be known to the public.
It seems to me that there is something inherently queer in all these stories about heroes who wear masks. Maybe that’s why these stories resonate so much.
Maybe I’m imagining things. (There’s a lot of power in imagination.) But something clicked when I saw that photo of Barbara Lasagna. Yes, it’s the actor George Rexstrew, but it’s also the character Edwin Payne, the confident, beautiful, powerful, unapologetically queer icon. Edwin with a drag persona fits the character so well, and it’s a delight to watch this development in the world of fan art and fan fiction. We’ve seen him transform before—the quiet, bookish, bullied schoolboy became the confident, brilliant, accomplished detective—but now there’s a new name, a new face, a new costume with that new identity. And I realized we’ve seen this narrative play out before—in Peter Parker becoming Spider-Man, in Steve Rogers becoming Captain America, in so many other stories over the years. Bullied kids who step into a larger version of themselves and somehow grow to fill it. People who, in their secret identities, feel confident enough to be versions of themselves who speak up against injustice and talk back to authority figures. They’re still the same person. But the costume empowers them to let their true self shine through.
Maybe the analogy isn’t perfect. I don’t pretend to understand drag culture or superheroes. But I think there’s something here to explore.
Edwin Payne was always brilliant, but it wasn’t until he became one of the Dead Boy Detectives that he found the opportunity to show it. And I can hardly wait to see what Barbara Lasagna has to show the world, in whatever guise her story might take.
