Drag: The Complete Story

by Simon Doonan

Drag is transformation, communication, and, above all, exaggeration, where gender non-conformity is the plat du jour. This fearless book observes this increasingly complex world by exploring drag's journey – from the surprising, to the sophisticated, to the utterly bizarre – through the twentieth century and up to the present day.

With witty text, dazzling photography, and corralled into thematic chapters, this is the first flamboyant and poignant survey of drag culture. Drag is not just for fabulous queens and drag enthusiasts, but for anyone interested in gender fluidity and the culture surrounding it. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Queer, LGBT, Drag, History, Art, Photography

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 17, 2019

About the author

Writer, fashionista, acclaimed window dresser and author Simon Doonan is the Creative Ambassador for Barneys New York. His books include Confessions of a Window Dresser, Soccer Style, Eccentric Glamour and Gay Men Don’t Get Fat. His memoir 'Beautiful People’ was turned into a BBC TV series starring Oscar-winners Olivia Coleman and Brenda Blethyn. Simon appears as a judge on the NBC television show Making It, co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman.

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Looks like I'm the unpopular opinion here...) This is a coffee table book, not, as the subtitle suggests, a complete story of drag and its herstory. There were some good little learning nuggets in here but I take issue with how forms of drag were classified and discussed, especially black drag. To go beyond serving a vanity purpose, this book would need to be completely reorganized and include thorough references. Not that I don't love a good picture book of drag queens and other gender performers! And I love that the author is so celebratory. But I can't help but feel that this story is anything but complete. 

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really a misnomer. It is very much an incomplete story. In fact, it hardly scratches the surface of drag. I would say what it covers is quite broad, but not very deep (and coupled with the writing style, I would even use the word “shallow” to describe it). There are little nuggets of information that leave you wanting to learn more about the historical figures and contemporary drag artists, as well as do your own research (read: google the performances mentioned). But ultimately, I wanted every section to be at least three times longer and the writing more academic.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a stunning book. The gorgeous photographs and paper quality are its best assets. It's a joy to hold this book in your hands and flip through its pages. It will make a perfect coffee table book for those who own a coffee table. And I do not regret putting it on my shelf and will undoubtedly come back to flip through its pages in the future.

However, Choices were made.

My biggest problem is that Drag: The Complete Story is very much its author’s book. I didn’t like the language, every other word choice felt grating to me. I was perplexed by the structure. The division into Glamour Drag, Art Drag, Radical Drag etc. felt pretty arbitrary to me and I would put these sections in a different order anyway. In general, it seemed pretty chaotic. I also don’t think that the framing of certain chapters that relied on psychoanalysis (e.g. a glamour drag queen as Freud’s Medusa symbol. What?) worked for me personally.

I feel that Simon Doonan is from a vastly different generation and cultural background than I am. I do appreciate how much of his personal experiences he included in the story, especially as someone who has been keeping up with drag since the 1960s. He is really trying to be inclusive, but there is no excuse that I had to read the phrase "biologically intact females" with my own two eyes, more than once(!). He also seems to really emphasize the birth names, pronouns, and sexual orientations of the people he writes about; and while it worked in some contexts, it mostly looked like a weird thing to focus on. Plus, I feel like he unintentionally ended up deadnaming a couple of people.

If you don’t know much about drag and want an entertaining introduction and you are not scared of some dated queer language or British slang, you will probably like this book far more than I did. Otherwise, enjoy the pictures, but proceed with caution.

[César MM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tanto la propia edición del libro como las fotografías hacen que se disfrute mucho la lectura. De todas formas me ha parecido un poco superficial y muy centrado en la historia drag de USA, con referencias mínimas a lo que está ocurriendo en otros lados.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore drag kings so having a chapter about them was fantastic. Queens of color, fat femmes, butch kings, comedic queens, queer, straight—many facets were gracefully portrayed.

Some of my formative childhood experiences were growing up watching and listening to things like Some Like It Hot, David Bowie, and Queen. A lot of this stuff was so pervasive in my life I really didn’t consider how steeped I’ve always been in my love of drag.

I gasped in horror to see John Travolta included for his dreadful portrayal of Edna Turnblad instead of oh, I don’t know, ANY other actor who played her (especially with actual royalty like Divine or Harvey Fierstein)

[Thijs Werkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Het boek is informatief, het is op bepaalde punten leerzaam en het hoofdstuk ‘the history of drag is erg interessant.
Het is een prachtig uitgegeven boek met prachtige foto’s, mooie kleuren en een goede opmaak. Het is een geweldig boek om op tafel te leggen zodat, mensen die op bezoek komen het door kunnen bladeren.

[Henry Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect ode to queer culture. Gave me like 5-7 movie recommendations inside that were good including a rewatch of Dallas Buyers Club and first time viewing of The Danish Girl.

[Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a book published in 2019, the language around trans and non-binary folks is cringeworthy. “Biologically intact females - with gender neutral pronouns - who identify as gay males.” Ugh I know there’s a note about language in the intro, but this language is something I would expect from a book written in the 90s, not 2019. The pictures are nice, but the book barely skims the surface.

[Kato S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gorgeous images, but the lens these stories are being told through is white and cisgender. While an important perspective, one cannot call this a complete story when its clear not one trans person was consulted in the writing and editing process.

[river · Rating 3 out of 5]

Layout störde mig väldigt mycket, sa intresserat grejer men att läsa den vart väldigt jobbigt

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drag: The Complete Story (A Look at the History and Culture of Drag) by Simon Doonan (3.5 stars) is a beautiful coffee table book with a brief history of drag.

Drag is expression, it's transformation, it's a way of communicating like nothing else. The book details some of the world of drag from the twentieth century to today and spanning sophisticated drag to bizarre expressions. The beautiful photos are really what bring Drag: The Complete Story to life. I enjoyed that Doonan did include a brief introduction to Drag Kings and the information about the transgender community.

I am by no means a Drag Queen history expert but, I can say that Iearned very little this "complete story" about drag. I enjoyed the historical references and old photos. But with the current queens, I feel like so much was skimmed off the surface. A lot of opportunities were missed. Often there was just name dropping when I think a small interview or quote would have made the section so much more impactful.

Though Doonan apologizes for this in the beginning of the book, I had issues with some of the wording in the book. I feel like more research could have been done to avoid the usage of incorrect pronouns for the performers. Also, so many of these amazing queens fall into more than one category of drag so it made the whole book feel like a bit of a sloppy mess. A fellow reviewer reported that Legendary Children is so much of what I hoped this book would be, so I can't wait to read that one.

Anyways, Drag: The Complete Story serves as a good introduction to the wild world of drag; it's good for someone just wanting to dip their toes in.

[Highjump · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want to *read* about drag I recommend Legendary Children. The pictures are definitely the best part of this book, some of the historical photos are really cool. But I found it poorly organized (sort of by time, but also sort of by arbitrary category?) and I was bored by the non-drag content like the long section on cis male musicians (yes, I know Bowie played with gender but I'm here for the drag) which kind of ends thing on a dull "everything is drag" note.

[Karolina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely chaotic. It was just a compilation of some drag queens and a few interesting facts buried under incredulous amounts of improper language referring to nonbinary people and words such as "slay", "reading" etc. thrown around without any visible purpose. If you are thinking of reading it, please save yourself the disappointment.
The only redeeming quality are beautiful photos.

[Jose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though is very informative, don't expect a highly detailed book on drag culture/history. I'd say this it serves as a great introduction on the topic and also visually pleasing with all the photos included.

[Hristo Serafimov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great encyclopedia-like book that goes in depth with the history of drag from ancient times to the media phenomenon it is today. Great quality of photos!

[Lívia Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5 estrelas, na verdade.

Se você tá em busca de um livro que conte a história "completa" das drags não é esse o livro. Algo mais próximo disso seria o Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life, que apesar de ser limitado ao contexto dos Estados Unidos, é mais completo e informativo que este.

Esse é um livro bonito e não digo isso como forma de desmerecimento, pois vou amar colocá-lo como decoração em uma mesinha, mas definitivamente seu conteúdo e informações deixou um pouco a desejar. O autor tenta dar conta de algumas formas de "drag" que não são convencionalmente chamadas de drag no meio drag, dando foco em alguns momentos históricos e personagens que se "vestiam do gênero oposto" como forma de expressão, mas não necessariamente tinha contato com uma sensibilidade da drag queen/do drag king. No começo achei que as divisões usadas nos capítulos iam ser mais interessantes porque as próprias drags se categorizam, mas a medida que o livro avança elas vão se mostrando extremamente arbitrárias e sem método, especialmente quando se fala em "popstar drag" e "black drag".

De qualquer forma, foi um livro legal e tem referências interessantes pra pensar momentos da história que podem ser lidos a partir de uma lente drag (e eu sou muito a favor disso) e queer, mas no geral desapontou. As fotografias, entretanto, são maravilhosas e com muita coisa interessante.

[Zie Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me way too long to read, which is disappointing considering the content. Look, I don't expect this book to have the true "complete story," of drag, but I expect it to be updated properly and use correct terminology, which Doonan unfortunately fell extremely short of. For a book published in 2019, there should've been no outdated terms being used in an informative context, unless it was to explain their historical usage and evolution. This book did not do that, but instead misgendered and mislabeled many people and historical icons. I was shocked to get to the end of the book and continue to see outdated and offensive terms being used to describe transgender people. Also, I'm not sure if this book was originally published in some other format, but it badly needed the help of a proofreader. There's no reason I should have to turn two pages to find out the end of a sentence I was reading.

With all that said, this book had beautiful images and artwork that is probably the highlight of this book, and I did enjoy getting a glimpse into the historical roots of drag that I would delve into on my own (perhaps this is why it took me so long to read). There were also a few great quotes that were cited and I was happy to make a list of books and movies to look into for further reading.

[Eleanor · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars for this accessible and interesting chronology of the different drag scenes & aesthetics. From Victorian vaudeville to the Harlem renaissance to RuPaul's Drag Race, it leaps through time on both sides of the Atlantic.

However.

'Drag' does not show the same amount of sympathy to its trans masculine and non binary cast. Butches and drag kings are respected in their 18th-19th C iterations, but Doonan is often patronising to the kings of today. Trans women are front and centre in the book (as they should be!) and have their pronouns and chosen labels respected, except where Doonan regrettably includes deadnames. But 21st century kings are described as 'biologically intact females - with gender neutral pronouns - who identify as gay males'.

It is a phenomenal account of drag history, but the double standards leave a bitter taste.

[Patricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was going to like this more. It's painfully shallow and is full of incomplete thoughts. There's a section on the Emperor after Caligula, who the author describes as, "If you thought Caligula was bad, the emperor who came after made Caligula and co. look like The Brady Bunch!" And then Doonan just... Doesn't give any details for how the next emperor was worse. It is only mentioned that he liked to cross dress. I can almost excuse the lackluster writing since the book is beautifully printed and designed. However, the chapter on drag kings made me very uncomfortable.

Throughout that chapter, Doonan flagrantly uses the D-slur. It's very jarring and I didn't feel very comfortable seeing that slur used so casually, especially when no other slurs are even mentioned in the book. It is also certainly not Doonan's word to reclaim. I don't understand how that got through the editor.

[Yellowoasis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard the Culture Gabfest talking to Simon Doonan about this. I thought it would be a 'once over lightly' review of the drag scene, but it is unexpectedly wide in its scope (duh, I guess that's why it's called The Complete Story!). Wonderful, and timely. Each chapter is richly illustrated with photographs. Gorgeous.

[Katy Mier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this! I read it for class, but found it super informative, well-researched, and easy to digest. I loved the photos especially and the conversational style made this a fun read as well! I recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about drag, its history, and what it looks like outside of the most famous examples in pop culture today!

[Ron Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fashionista Simon Doonan gives a nice overview of drag. I like that he didn't just focus on drag queens but androgyny, lesbian drag kings, transvestites, crossdressers and the radical pioneers who were fighting for acceptance years before the LGBT civil rights movement even began.

[Tracy Schillemore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book really interesting. Word of warning, it is a history book. Be prepared for references to ancient civilizations through to the present. I have to admit that what I really want is a dishy book about the queens from Rupaul's Drag Race.

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this - it was comprehensive, and I loved that it wasn't purely drag queens. My only complaint was that I wished it was about 40 pages long - all pictures. There were so many references mentioned that it would have been great to have visuals of.

[Briana Alzola · Rating 5 out of 5]

First off, this is one of the most beautiful books i've ever seen. It has a gorgeous cover, thick pages with full, colorful portraits. It's more of a showpiece book than one to hide away on a shelf. It's also informative and well-written, with loads of information. I loved it.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the book, we explore history and herstory of drag, black drag, radical drag, drag in movies and documentaries, and more.

Drag: The Complete Story is not quite complete, but I learned quite a lot.

The author is trans* friendly and takes care to use the correct pronouns.

[shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

a book full of rich, deep history that is often pushed to the side or swept under the rug. multiple times i almost cried reading these stories and looking at these photos, i feel like this is a book most lgbt youth should read to understand the history of drag and gender identity

[Rain Elizabeth Hilburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great informative book, however it isn't organized perfectly and a lot of people are mentioned without talking about who they are or more about them than just a few words. It can definitely be described as a coffee table book but it is a very very good read in my opinion

[Fiore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos and I appreciate there was some attempt at looking at drag across different cultures. Unfortunately some of the conclusions about why people participate in drag as well as how some of the people were talked of didn't feel appropriately thought out.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a small coffee table book. Let people flip through it and look at the pictures - read a little about the artist - move on. I did read it straight through, but that's really not what the book is best for.

[Joël · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a pretty book but unfortunately I think it lacked a clear (her)story. This is probably because of the categories used as chapters in the book. I would have loved to read the more overarching story of drag and how different types and times influenced each other.