Venus Boyz

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Available Summary:

Club Casanova, home of the legendary Drag King Night in New York City, is the point of departure for an iconic gender odyssey, where women become men – some for a night, others for a lifetime. Starring Drag King pioneers Mo B. Dick, Diane Torr, Dréd, Bridge Markland, renowned poet Storme Webber, and photographer Del LaGrace Volcano. Also with Drag Queens Mistress Formika and Queen Bee Luscious.

-Vimeo.

Jack's Summary:

This documentary features drag kings of all kinds. Some are women who do drag for political/social reasons, rather than being motivated by gender. One is a self-described butch who also identifies as trans, recounting a childhood where he identified as a boy, empathising with Brandon Teena and describing similar experiences of rural violence. One trans king describes a queer upbringing, with a crossdressing bisexual father and a lesbian mother, and meditates on the complexities of gender and ethnicity and class.

I really enjoyed interviews with Mildred/Dréd, who offered a rare and very nuanced look into her life and identity, and I adored a scene where Dréd and his drag queen friend speak to strangers on the street, asking what they think important qualities of men and women are. Dréd gives a man a photo of Mildred, saying, "That's what I look like," and he gasps in awe, saying, "Wow!" It's such a sweet interaction.

The same man, when asked what qualities make a good woman, replies, "Somebody who's just there for you, somebody who's gonna hold you through the thick and the thin, somebody who's on your side... It doesn't matter the sex... Somebody who's gonna be there, no matter what, and accept you for who you are."

Some of my favourite interviews involved a non-binary intersex person named Del LaGrace Volcano. "In my everyday life, I'm probably perceived as a man," they explain, "which is fine, for people to perceive me as a man. That doesn't mean that's how I perceive myself. I perceive myself in the same way that I always have, which is something that is a combination of both. Sometimes maybe more female, sometimes maybe more male."

Of their partner, they say, "Finding Simo, for me, was, like... so amazing, because she was the first woman I had been with who had a really positive, healthy attitude towards men. She wasn't anti-men at all, and we were both attracted to the masculinity of each other. We've been together, and not together, for just about six years." I absolutely adored this insight into the couple's dynamic.

Del goes on to talk about their relationship being ethically non-monogamous, and also draws attention to the unnecessary, nonconsensual surgeries which are performed on intersex infants, noting that mutilation of genitalia is often based on an arbitrary judgement of "acceptable" clitoris or penile length. The interviewer, like many people I've spoken to in the modern-day, is shocked that such surgeries are still occurring, highlighting the importance of such advocacy.

"When I was born, I was assigned to the female gender," Del softly explains, "My first conscious realisation that I didn't quite fit as a girl came when I was about five years old... I have a silicone implant that I never wanted. I, too, always wanted a flat chest."

Del shows footage from an adult film that they made with Hans Scheirl, an Austrian trans man, and explains identifying as pansexual rather than bisexual.

Hans, who began his transition at the age of forty, is interviewed about his life and identity. He shares his aspiration to live until eighty, whereupon he will have spent half of his life embodying his male gender.

The pair discuss bottom surgery, with Hans saying that he aspires to have phalloplasty but retain his existing anatomy as well. (Viewers should prepare for potentially dysphoria-inducing language throughout this discussion.) He uses the term "hermaphrodite" which, while not offensive to Del, is considered both inaccurate and stigmatising by many modern-day intersex individuals, so I would advise against using this term unless an intersex person self-identifies that way.

Del takes time to pointedly emphasise that, while drag king performances were a way to begin their journey of gender realisation, being a drag king does not "turn" someone trans. "You don't go, right, I'm gonna be a crossdresser, then I become a drag king, then I become a transsexual. No. No, no, no. That's what people are afraid of."

Explaining their eventual preference for drag queen performances, and dramatic femininity while inhabiting a character role, Del says, "Naturally, if you have a default, my default is masculine. Being a drag king, once I was performing as a man, that did not feel like a performance. That just felt pretty natural to me. It wasn't as much fun, and it still isn't. I still far prefer to be a drag queen, than a drag king."

In terms of the documentary overall...

One king's daughter criticises her mother's portrayal of men, and takes issue with the stereotyping of men as inherently aggressive and bad. Many viewers may feel similarly about some aspects of the kings' routines. Regardless, this documentary is valuable. People of many different ethnicities, backgrounds, sexualities, and genders are interviewed. As a female-to-male transsexual who feels utterly disconnected from his birth gender, I don’t see myself in most of the interviewees... but I love witnessing the diversity which has always existed in female-assigned masculine spaces and, while I didn't agree with some of the views expressed, I'm glad I bought the film.

WARNING: Extremely unsafe chest binding, potentially confronting themes, explicit content.

A drag king binds his chest with duct tape, and another binds with bandages. Even though binding with duct tape is clearly painful for the king, who actually says, "It does hurt," the binding continues without this being taken seriously; a reflection of outdated binding practices, an authentic representation how these people bound, and not an example which should be followed today. Learn more about chest binding here.

There are uncensored photos (and discussion) of genitalia, pornographic footage, footage of STP packers, and discussion of potentially distressing topics.

Del is filmed wearing a sari to a birthday party, purely because they had a dream about wearing one. I am not Indian, so I won't assume to know how this lands for people of that culture, but if you would consider this inappropriate or appropriative, you should proceed with caution.