Notes on Drag:

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are abominations unto the Lord.”

— Deuteronomy 22:5

Preacher: (to the Bride) Do you take this man for better, worse or what have you?

Bride: Yes, yes.

Preacher: Do you promise to milk the cows, feed the pigs, and farm the land and make the hay and sell enough eggs to give him money to buy tobacco? Do you promise to clean his house, cook six square meals a day, wash his back, clean his toe nails and take over his job at least three times a week so the poor guy can have some rest?

Bride: Anything he says.

- From a mock wedding script of Alvena Oryszczyn, Lintlaw, Sask.
Saskatchewan Archives Board. Michael Taft Fonds A618. 87-25d

“I can quite easily think of opposites but it isn’t men and women.”

— Dame Rebecca West

“Tell the boys I am wearing the same.”

— Marlene Dietrich

“The drag phenomena is out of control – there’s a female impersonator on every street corner in New York. Bums and blind men with pencils in tin cups are doing drag. It’s got to stop.”

— Bruce LaBruce

“We’re born naked and the rest is drag.”

— RuPaul, supermodel

“There is more to be learned from wearing a dress for a day, than there is from wearing a suit for a life.”

— Larry Mitchell

“Those were the more innocent – or perhaps the more short-sighted days. Words like “homosexual” and “transvestite” weren’t kicked around as freely as they are now. Dressing up like a woman and singing and dancing like one, was looked upon as a damned clever trick – something like sawing a female in half, or making a rabbit disappear – nothing more.”

— Max Braithwaite in Never Sleep Three in a Bed recalling the female
impersonators he saw at Saskatoon’s Empire Theatre in the 1920s.

Saskatoon Fridge “Drag-net”

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