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Scenes from Drag Ball '96

by Laren Rusin

"In coming to the Oberlin Drag Ball," Queen Chita (first-year John "Chi" Wright) said, "my full title was Chita: Prospective Queen of the Ball. That doesn't mean that I knew I wasn't good enough for the ball, I was looking for a ball good enough for myself. I have chosen Oberlin as my drag ball of choice." And thus Chita was crowned.

Drag Ball is one of the biggest social events on campus, and its popularity has spread slowly throughout the country, with rumors of MTV coverage and actual space in Rolling Stone magazine. With a lip-synch floor and professional cross-dressers in the 'Sco, lounges and refreshments, a professional photographer and the "Tunnel of Love" all in close vicinity of the runway competition in Wilder Main, there was much to look at. People wore everything imaginable. First-year Melissa Reed painted her upper body in dark swirls with a flower centered around the belly button. Senior Justin Mog went as the Chiquita Banana lady, complete with a skirt made out of bananas and a bra of coconut shells. Designer Betsey Johnson would have been proud.

Ruby Macintire, Cleveland's Queen of Country, Jackie Fischer from the Gay People's Chronicle and Priscilla Power, "Miss Mona Lot," are regular drag performers in Cleveland, and they performed lip-synching acts in the 'Sco. "It's great," said Ruby. "We're so welcome here, one person stopped us for pictures and at least 12 others followed. [Drag Ball] is the only event I know of personally that is PC enough to pull it off." As professionals, they have been on the drag circuit for years, and all compete in pageants that are as competitive and as rigged as the ones for Miss America. As for clothing, they look for flashy, well-built and comfortable things, and they travel everywhere to find the appropriate apparel. Jackie said, "I just see something, and if it's right then I grab it." Fitting into the clothing takes skill and practice, especially tucking in their manhood.

The 'Sco was teeming with people, but the main event was the runway competition, where people were fighting to get in to watch. Queen Chita wore a pink bodysuit with a hat that made her over nine feet tall, and attitude, for "any queen is no queen without attitude." She felt the Ball "was lovely, but next year they must raise the ceilings to 13 feet." There were no drinks on the main floor, and Chita couldn't go downstairs because she wouldn't fit. In designing the costume, which he and some friends built in about a week, she figured she wanted to show off his legs, which are his "crowning feature," but avoid the slutty path and stay elegant? She had one of his "bodyguards" pick her wedgies for her, since she wore two-and-a-half inch fake nails that had rhinestones on the ends. Chi's creation won out of hundreds and he was crowned Queen. The bodyguard didn't even know who Chita was until that evening; "Chita is like the phoenix rising from the ashes," senior Peter Sciscioli, bodyguard, claimed.

Other winners included the Prince of Trash senior Sarah Schoomer as "Marquis de Suede," the King Christina Lowe, the Pope Emily Kaiser and Princess Diepiriye Kuku. Schoomer went as Peg Bundy from the TV show "Married with Children," and Lowe went as a Victorian man because she "wanted something that would let me be sexy in an androgynous way, so I could either be a demon which I was last year, or a Victorian man, which is effeminate anyhow."

The announcement of awards was "a flop" in Chita's and other people's opinions. There was no victory walk down the runway, no bouquet of flowers, no speech and no crown. The winners had no mementoesof their hours of preparation. Many people didn't know when the awards were being given out because of lack of communication between the runway and the 'Sco. Closed-circuit cameras in the 'Sco were suggested for next year's ball. Other peeves included the fact that the 21-piece orchestra had to buy tickets to the Ball, yet played while they were there.

The Ball winners were escorted in a limousine to wherever they wanted for about three hours. Because it was the morning of Easter Sunday and Northern Ohio, not much was open, so after the riders yelled out the windows the limo arrived at Bob's Big Boy and was received with many stares. Some Oberlin students had previously been in Bob's, and the police had to keep people from beating up men in dresses. Lowe heard one local mutter "next thing you know, Santa Claus is gonna show up."

Chita ordered a Slice, a U.S. open burger and french fries for her victory meal. The others just drank coffee; Lowe didn't have any money and Schoomer couldn't fit any food into her costume. A woman sitting across from Chita asked her to do her nails. She didn't, though. Everyone posed for pictures in front of the restaurant before calling it a night.

Schoomer can't understand the people who don't attend the Ball. "It's exciting to see people naked, painted, right in front of me." She thought this year's runway competition was successful because men who dressed as women, women who dressed as men and women who dressed as women all won awards. " You don't have to dress cross-gendered to be in drag," she said. As Chita said, "Drag is hard work but good drag is a spiritual experience."


Photo:
First-year Chris Ross on the catwalk (photo by David Reeves)


Related Stories:

Dressing for Drag Ball: find out what it takes (4/5/96)

First-years have a fresh perspective on Drag Ball (4/5/96)

Drag Ball offers mist, Miss Metropolis and more (4/5/96)

Every school has its opinion of drag (4/5/96)

Drag Ball wanes and grows (4/5/96)


Oberlin

Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 20; April 12, 1996

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