- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
- Allied war heroes buried in Netherlands... 80 years on
- Marsh coy over Australia's choice to open alongside Head
- New London sculpture pays tribute to trans community
- Lebanon doctors tell of horror after pager blasts
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ |
'Celebration of queerness': S.Africa drag queens keep scene alive
A leggy blonde sashays with the grace of a Hollywood star then drops into the splits, mesmerising an enthusiastic Johannesburg audience not used to watching major shows by international drag queens.
Brooke Lynn Hytes, AKA Brock Hayhoe, two-time finalist on "RuPaul's Drag Race", headlined the sold-out event on Saturday night.
"The drag scene in South Africa is very new, when I lived here about 15 years ago there was no drag," the Canadian told AFP, sitting elegantly in a leopard print dress and a perfectly-coiffed Marilyn Monroe wig.
South Africa has some of the most progressive laws in the world when it comes to LGBTQ rights. It was the first country in Africa to legalise gay marriage. But in practice, stigmas still persist.
"Due to the way society still views the ideas of gender and the binary of gender, drag queens still face a lot of discrimination," Theo de Jager, founder of DragCon South Africa told AFP.
"For a lot of people that's scary -- this change in the idea of what gender is -- that fear often translates into discrimination," he added.
- Drag is not consent -
Excited audience members, many decked out in colourful wigs and figure-hugging bodysuits, overflowed onto the stage in the trendy Johannesburg LGBTQ venue decorated floor-to-ceiling with artificial plants.
The host for the evening, Adam Benefeld -- or Adammahh -- is clad in a shapely white leotard with long curved horns for shoulder pads.
Benefeld told AFP that drag in South Africa is an expression of people taking what they have been marginalised and oppressed for and turning it into an art form.
"It's about showing everyone that you don't just need to be who you are, you can be so much more," said Benefeld.
A typical show includes lip-sync performances, voguing, some comedy, and a whole lot of fierceness.
But the number one rule is: "drag does not mean consent", and according to Benefeld some of the most hands-on guests are straight women.
Benefeld says he doesn't always feel safe in drag in South Africa, so these shows are more than just performances.
"I've been stopped by the cops in drag, it's tough," he said.
- 'Celebration of queerness' -
In between Hytes' multiple outfit changes, some of Johannesburg's local talent rocked the long stage, including acts such as Nicki Supreme and Lust Vegas.
Nicki Supreme said the drag industry has become more inclusive for anyone who wants to try it, even women.
For Hytes, it's much more than just a hobby.
"When you're dressing up as a woman for a living, it's hard to have people take you seriously as a boy," said Hytes, who danced with Cape Town City Ballet for two years.
"They don't realise it's my job, you're a banker, I put on wigs and I make more money than you," she said, describing drag as "a gender-bending irreverent celebration of queerness".
Hytes' career highlight to date is producing "1 Queen, 5 Queers", a reboot of a popular Canadian TV show that she started as a way to use her platform to get more queer voices onto TV.
She would love to see more drag queens in major beauty or fashion campaigns since, she said, much of their inspiration comes from the community.
K.Thomson--BTB