Letters

A Real Drag, Part 2

In your last Letters section, one alum wrote (in response to the Summer 2023 article on Sasha Velour’s on-campus performance) to say that an AI chat had failed to help her make sense of “drag.” Vassar always encouraged us to refer to “primary sources,” so as a gay man who has experienced drag, I thought I’d contribute where AI has failed her.

Drag queens don’t mock women; drag kings don’t mock men. However, there is often an exuberant freedom one may sense when a man embraces the effeminacy he’s been shamed for since early childhood, and that often shows in drag performances. My sister got to slide by as a “tom boy” for all her childhood, whereas I was labeled a “faggot” before I understood the word—a rather universal reality for gay, trans, and other boy children. Reclaiming the right to effeminacy by doing drag can be an outlet for this cruel experience.

I would ask the letter writer: As a woman of the 1960s, do you recall the freedom you felt when you were allowed to wear pants on any occasion that would “normally” have required a dress? Were you trying to mock men and male sexual expression by wearing “men’s” attire? When men grew their hair long beyond their shoulders in the late 1960s, were they mocking women and female sexual expression?

Heterosexuals normalized this style-swapping decades ago, and no one equated it with “blackface.” Gay men who express a feminine side in drag are embracing it with ferocity and courage. And really, when’s the last time you wore your ’50s Dior cinch-waist number with five-inch heels, Jungle Red lipstick, and a wig that would make Dolly Parton green with envy? If that is an expression you want to reclaim, it’s there for you to do it without any backlash or derision. That is your privilege.

Jon Andersen-Miller ’84
Concord, MA

Native Trees

Two students bend down to plant trees on the preserve.
My eye was drawn to the article in the Fall/Winter 2023 issue of VQ about tree planting at the Preserve at Vassar (200 trees!). Having enjoyed many hours at “The Farm” (what we called it in the 1970s), I was keen to learn which native species had been planted this fall. However, I suspect that there are two errors in the trees mentioned in the article. Sorghum is a grass (could it have been sweetgum?), and boxwood is a non-native shrub that I hope would never be planted at the Preserve. Maple is a good choice, depending on the species, and I believe cCockspur thorn is a native hawthorn, so kudos to that.

I hope that the folks who manage this wonderful resource would agree with a former biology student and retired botanist that sticking to native tree species at the Preserve is a good idea!

Laura Mansberg Cotterman ’76
Hillsborough, NC
Editor’s Note:
Laura, you are correct. Boxwood and sorghum should have been American basswood and sour gum. Volunteers planted native trees and shrubs representing 45 different plant species selected based on site characteristics as well as the at-risk status of the species.
Letters to the Editor
We value your feedback on the magazine’s content. Please send letters to vq@vassar.edu.
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