At this point, most people know about drag queens — but fewer are aware of drag kings: women who dress as men. There are thriving drag-king scenes in London, New York, Paris, Los …
There are thriving drag-king scenes in London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles — and, most subversively, Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, where these women are out-dancing, out-posing and out-dressing their peers. They are also fighting for female equality in a region decidedly not known for it.
These are the Sapeuses, a branch of part of Le Sapeurs, aka the “Society of Elegant Persons of the Congo.” Formerly an all-male group, Sapeurs have been around since the beginning of the 20th Century, when colonial “masters” would gift their old clothing to their slaves.
Soon, the slaves found a way of rebelling.
“Captivated by the snobbery and refined elegance of the Coast Men’s attire, Congolese houseboys spurned their masters’ secondhand clothes and became unremitting consumers and fervent connoisseurs, spending their meager wages extravagantly to acquire the latest fashions from Paris,” writes Didier Gondola in the essay “La Sape Exposed!: High Fashion Among Lower-Class Congolese.”
“It’s not only about spending a lot of money on the clothes, but also the way they speak, the way they move,” Hector Mediavilla told NPR. “It’s a way of presenting their lives and being somebody in a society that doesn’t give you many opportunities.”
Read the full piece and watch the video clip here
