What makes a gay icon is someone who possesses both masculine and feminine qualities simultaneously.
Doing drag in a male-dominant culture is an act of treason. It's the most punk-rock thing you can do.
When I was younger, I was fascinated by David Bowie, for example. he had created an entire myth around himself. It was as important as his music.
I've been a fan of 'Rocky Horror'... my mom let me see it at a really early age.
If you walked around like David Bowie in 1973 in Reading, you'd get beaten up. The 1970s in a small town was more like the 1950s.. and that's the truth. The backdrop was probably Victorian.
Drag will always find a way to be weird.
I'm really into kind of finding different masculine pieces and making them feminine. Like cool oxfords.
The truth is, I'd never seen a Cary Grant film. Since then I have watched his stuff and it's astounding, but I don't see any similarity between us. Except for the fact that I'm told he used to wear ladies' underwear, which is something I also do.
I liked him, that Jarvis Cocker. I like the fact he was androgynous, he could appeal to everybody. He wasn't just a lad pretending to be a thug.
My style very much leans towards the masculine, but I think I am feminine in it - I like the feminine body in masculine shapes. The androgynous look suits me.
I will do comedy until the day I die: inappropriate comedy, funny comedy, gender-bending, twisting comedy, whatever comedy is out there.
Most people don't know that I am an accomplished dramatic actor... But I've performed in several Shakespeare productions including Hamlet, except in this version, Hamlet lives in an apartment with two women, and has to pretend he's gay so that the landlord won't evict him.
Well I loved the idea of playing a girl who dresses up like a dude.
Leigh [Bowery] obviously loved having me in the club because I would attract media, and he loved and lived for his column inches.
I think that androgyny is so amazing. Men's shows I can look at and say, 'I would wear that.' But there's things I see at Nina Ricci, and I'm like, 'They need to make that in men's,' or 'I want those pants.' Everything is inspiring.
My favorite one to see is the metal bikini on men.
Leigh [Bowery] would make up stories about people committing suicide or going on hunger strikes because they were refused entry at the door.
The audience of 'Drag Race' and the fans of drag queens are often very surprising.
It really bothers me when I see people doing my mother in drag. I mean, just imagine if you saw people doing that with your mother.
Drag has been featured in popular culture for decades. Movies like 'Kinky Boots,' 'Tootsie,' 'The Birdcage' - even 'Mrs. Doubtfire' - have showcased men, some gay, some not, who dress and perform as women.
I love wearing drag.
I am more into guys' fashion, but I'm inspired by women's fashion in a weird way.
Instead of making Friday The 13th, Part VIII or whatever, I was making the girl-meets-boy, girl-meets-girl-dressed-as-boy movie. It was fun. I liked it. It's goofy. I look back at myself and think, "What the hell was I doing?"
I was a girly-girl until I moved to New York. Then I got really into the androgynous look of the early-'90s club scene. I had really short hair and started blurring the line a bit. But for me, grade school was about Benetton, Esprit, and Guess jeans.
I'd never seen anything like it in my life. Someone so blatantly challenging the ideas of race and gender and sexuality. In a way, it was comparable to David Bowie, except that Prince brought that to the black community.
