Going to a drag party

Last weekend I did something I should have done a decade ago. I went to a drag party. It was the most sensational experience I have had in too long, and let me tell you why.

- NAMRATA ZAKARIA

Everyone was in costume. Never mind that I could not tell a heterosexual from a homosexual, I could not even tell a woman from a man. And that was the most liberating experience in the world. The freedom to be who you chose to be, regardless of what your parents told you you were.

A drag performance is derived from theatre. Since centuries, it was men who performed the women's parts in plays (Shakespeare famously poked fun at this with gender confusions in his plays like As You Like It). Some etymologists state 'drag' is a literal abbreviation of being "dressed as a girl". Others say it refers to the woman's gown sweeping across the floor.