Texas Christian University Offers Drag Course, Asks Students to Act Out Drag for a Grade
Texas Christian University now offers a course on “The Queer Art of Drag” which asks students to perform lip syncs and create an alter drag queen egos and study sexually explicit music.
TCU’s Women and Gender Studies Department began offering the drag course in the spring semester of 2023. The course is taught by Dr. Nino Testa, the male associate professor of Professional Practice, Women and Gender Studies, who also goes by the drag persona “Maria von Clapp.”
“Drag is an art form with a rich history of challenging dominant norms and systems of oppression; building queer community; and cultivating experiences of queer joy in a hostile world” TCU’s webpage on the course reads. “Critical drag explores drag performance as an outlet for social critique, pedagogy, and queer world making.”
The course’s recommended reading materials include an article from the Huffington Post that attempts to distinguish between drag performances and blackface. “Blackface is a relic,” the writer argues, “whereas drag is what we all do, every day, every time we put on clothes.”
The supposedly-Christian university’s course resources recommend videos by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The group comprises men who describe themselves as a “leading-edge order of queer and trans nuns” and perform drag while denigrating the crucifix and mocking Christianity. The group recently appeared at the LA Dodgers’ Pride Night after receiving an award for “its decades of community ministry” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The course rejects the gender binary and begins with a study topic titled, “What Even is Gender?” and
“introduces students to texts including The Gender Binary is a Tool of White Supremacy by bisexual blogger Kravitz Marshall,” according to a Daily Mail report.
Students are tasked with studying the pseudo-history of drag, sex work, and even Cardi B’s song “WAP.”
“Students are required to name their drag persona, describe them, create a drag greeting, strike a pose, write a reflective essay on the development of their act, and perform a one-minute lip sync,” the Daily Mail reports. At the conclusion of the course, students are to perform for one to two minutes at TCU’s Annual Night of Drag. Those who want to ensure a grade above an A minus, however, are to participate in a group performance at the Spectrum Drag Show the same night.
TCU Student Affairs’ social media accounts temporarily shared videos of student performances. Participating individuals were dressed in all forms of drag clothing, some more conservatively covered than others, who chose to wear “bralettes and suspenders” according to reports.
The course’s introduction provides students with a “content warning” for instances of “anti-queerness, racism, misogyny, and other forms of violence” that may be encountered throughout the course. “Some of the performances we will read about or watch may actually perpetuate or circulate racist/sexist jokes, ideas, and norms,” it states. “We watch these texts in order to engage critically with them, but please take care of yourself while reading/watching difficult materials.”
Texas Christian University also considers diversity, equity, and inclusion to be “core values” and has a dedicated “Office of Inclusiveness and Intercultural Services” which is available to serve students’ various needs.
The state of Texas recently banned sex change surgeries for minors, a move that outraged progressive trans-activists and drag queen enthusiasts who want to incorporate children into gender ideology.
