“If you can’t love yourself how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”
This quote is repeated at the end of most episodes of Ru Paul’s Drag Race, a show responsible for making drag mainstream. The show starts with a dozen queens strutting on a runway, and they then compete against each other by designing elaborate costumes to fit the show’s various themes, constructing the quippiest read for the seasonal roast, and—of course—finding out who has to “sashay away” from the competition in a lip-sync battle. The drama and showmanship has made the show a staple for queer and straight people alike.
Drag has its own unique history here at Harvard. For one, the Hasty Pudding Institute, founded in 1795 and the oldest collegiate theatrical company in the country, began giving its shows in 1884 with an all-male cast. Due to this gender discrimination, a large section of the cast performed in drag: this fit right in, however, to the show’s satirical and often campexecution (each show ended with a ten-minute kickline!), leading to drag becoming a hallmark of the Hasty Pudding productions.
Women wouldn’t be allowed to participate in Hasty Pudding until 1973, where they were allowed to assist with the show’s tech, band, creative, and business components. It wouldn’t be until 2018 that women were actually allowed to participate as cast members in the Hasty Pudding productions, even after multiple performances directed by women. This drag tradition still continues today, now including the actresses on the show.
Nikita Nair ‘24 was one of the women who performed in drag for this year’s production, “HPT 173: Ship Happens!” The “fever dream” of a show was as raunchy as it historically has been, and for Nikita the hard work of the entire company was “unimaginable.” She was somebody who had never done drag before, beyond the standard acting for theatricals (and Dungeons & Dragons!), and she described the role as an incredible experience. Masculinizing her face through eye-shadow and concealer, Nikitia described the role as a chance to “honor and respect the artform of drag.”
As for performing in drag as a straight woman, Nikita likened the experience to introducing her friends to her Indian cultural traditions. She described the importance of intent when tapping into an aspect of a different culture, just like how she always enjoyed “dressing [her] friends in Sari and doing Bali, it was a great way to help people to learn something new about themselves.”
The tradition of drag on Harvard’s campus extends beyond Hasty Pudding to Adams House, an epicenter of culture for queer and artistic students through its Drag Night. This event has allowed students of all genders and sexualities to explore themselves in an environment welcoming to anyone’s first time in drag. The performance began as a protest in 1980, after an Adams student was assaulted by those at Kirkland for his sexuality, and Adams rallied around their own member by creating the Drag Ball, now Drag Night, which has been a trademark of the house ever since. Tiffany Gonzalez ‘22, the Adams Hoco Chair, says that the creation of Drag Night was “almost a protest of the social norms of the school at the time,” interrogating the Formal Dances held by Kirkland and Eliot houses. Each Adams student showed up in full drag in an act of unity for the Adams student, as their dressing in drag meant they supported their peers, even if the rest of Harvard—and the world– didn’t. My own dad, Class of ‘94 (pictured here), participated as a cishet male, and his fond memories of participating is part of what inspired me to write this piece.
The beautifully unique thing about Drag Night is that to its participants, it has never felt like a progressive act, instead feeling “fun and safe,” according to another past Adams house student, David McMurry ‘95. Today, it still feels the same way, as Tiffany explains it “doesn’t feel serious or intense.” In her words, “It’s nice to have a place where you can explore your gender presentation and feel like it’s welcome, and it’s not calling attention to you or making anything about you because other people are doing it.” Drag has a deep history with respect to queer expression, and it is inspiring to see the original itention of Adams’ Drag Night as a space of inclusivity continue to this day.
Even though housing is now a lottery, Adams has successfully kept this tradition alive through selectively choosing tutors and deans that are knowledgeable about the history of the House and are committed to keeping the tradition of acceptance alive, no matter what form it needed to be. During the online year of 2021, Adams House held a drag night over Zoom, where students submitted videos of themselves in drag and a professional Drag Queen performed to the audience of students at home. This year, Drag Night had the biggest turnout in history, with students, tutors, deans, and professional Drag Queens performing, as well as an audience of students almost entirely in drag. Ten students performed over the course of the night; this was the debut act for eight of Harvard’s own students, as Drag Night has always been a place for people to experiment. This year, Drag Night was open to members of the queer community, but in the future, Tiffany sees it growing to be open to all of Harvard.
For more than just Harvard, the drag scene extends out into the city of Cambrdige: performances from drag icons including Detox take place at The Sinclair, a bar only five minutes away from campus, and Cambridge still hosts an annual The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But whatever form drag takes in the future, we can be sure that it will show up here on campus at Harvard, and whether it is through Hasty Pudding shows, inclusive Drag Nights, or our very own students’ performances, we know that this is something that we cannot wait to see play out on the stage.
Seattle Hickey ’25 (seattlehickey@college.harvard.edu) really hopes Housing Day wasn’t a drag.
Calvin Osborne ’25 (cosborne@college.harvard.edu) would love for somebody to help him do his makeup.