Spain's female female impersonators

They are characters who are rarely seen in public. They do their best to exaggerate what might be inherent in the female sex. They are the drag queens who have become a key attraction of the carnivals held on the Costa del Sol.

Ever since drag queens have existed, society has developed its own definitions and stereotypes of what they are. Some still confuse them with crossdressers, although the motivation for drag queens is merely recreational.

For many years, drag queen shows were successfully performed by men, predominantly gay men, who were long considered the only real audience for this entertainment. However, a new wave of young women is challenging this conventional wisdom by becoming the biggest consumers of drag culture. In particular, women are increasingly being ‘reincarnated’ as drag queens.

In the 90s, they were called Faux Queens or Female Female Impersonators. Now ‘bio queen’ is typically used to describe a female drag queen. Bio-drag queens have grown in popularity thanks to American diva RuPaul’s TV show Drag Race.

Victoria Scone from the UK became a star after competing on RuPaul's UK show in 2021, where she became the first cisgender contestant. In 2023, Clover Bish from Barcelona was the first female drag performer to compete in Drag Race España. That year she released a music video for the song Sí soy mujer (Yes, I am a woman) accompanied by other women as drag queens on the Barcelona scene.

On the Costa del Sol there are many female drag queens who perform in local nightclubs and participate in contests. For example, at last week's Gala Drag Queen in Benalmádena there were two bio-drag queens out of 18 contestants.

"This is the second time that bio-drag has participated in the oldest drag queen festival on the Costa. Last year we had one woman and this year we had two, La Babie and Deseo. Both are Malagueñas. Perhaps next year's special anniversary edition will feature more female drag queens," Javier Boxó, presenter of Gala Drag Queen, told SUR in English.

La Babie has been performing on the drag queen stage for three years. She still confuses people with being a woman and playing a queen.

"I am glad that now women can do everything men can do, including being a drag queen! My idols were Alexis3XL from Mexico, Creme Fatale from Los Angeles and of course, our local Alice Wonderland inspired me a lot in my professional life," La Babie told SUR in English.

La Babie belongs to the so-called La Haus von Bimbo, and she is accompanied by Culona, Jade Puta, Minerva and Hecatombe. The ‘Las Bimbos’ perform in La Comedia in Malaga.

Apparently, a drag queen today is a ‘one size fits all’ kind of thing. It all depends on who or what you want to be. It's just being or not being. And as it turns out for many women, that's no longer an issue. What matters in drag today is the gender that is presented, not the gender that is underneath.