It starts with a taxicab confession. She plays a he—sometimes. But it is more than performance art, it is her life as she imagines it, as she thinks it should be.

The she is the most famous Drag King in Germany, Bridge Markland. Is she not known to you? Is the idea of a Drag King something you haven’t heard about? Don’t worry, I too was floating without a foundation here. “Venus Boyz” is a documentary-style introduction to a world populated by lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered folks all trying to find themselves within bodies that weren’t made for their psyches, or so, it genuinely seems.

It would be easy to dismiss the people featured in “Venus Boyz” as fringe dwellers engaged in deviant life-styles that add nothing productive to our society. Such characterizations are unfair because after watching the 104 minute documentary about a few of these fellow travelers on this earth, I have an appreciation for them. Drag Kings alone entertain but after they leave the stage, they have something to say and they mean it—there intentions are real and some have taken steps to change their gender which cannot be anything but sincere given the permanent effect such changes have on their bodies.

“Venus Boyz” is a documentary shot in 2001 prior to 911 mainly (as best I could tell) in New York City (at one point, the towers are visible). The film is now getting a limited theatrical release by First Run Features. It follows several performers in the Drag King culture. On the surface this is performance art akin to their Drag Queen counterparts. However, the performances featured which include lip-syncing are laced with gender bending references that threaten to redefine what is “man” and “woman.” The entire vocabulary may be new to most viewers as we hear words like “transgender” and “intersexed” bandied around.

One Drag King performer the film focuses on is Dianne Torr whose work in the area goes back over two decades. In addition to performing, Torr is shown giving workshops to prospective Drag Kings. These workshops try to define what it is to be a man, how to walk and act manlike. It is telling that these women all recognize the inherent benefits to taking on a man’s persona. Men are taken more seriously in public, Torr tells us. Torr tells us that when a woman walks into a room she is immediately checked out as sexy or not sexy and if the woman is over the age of 35 or 40 years then she is practically invisible.

We are introduced to the youth of this culture with the sexy Mildred a Haitian-American whose male persona Dred Gerestant reminds one of a slim shady Shaft or pimp daddy Isaac Hayes. She struts her stuff on the streets of New York City with the Amazon sized Queen Bee Luscious (Drag Queen Zanthony Preston) questioning people “Real Sex” style about what they believe makes a man or a woman. Surprisingly, the responses are not directly related to anatomical correctness, rather, to mental and emotional character. Of course, the street interviews were selective, but they demonstrate that it takes more than balls to be a man, which few on either side of the aisle could deny.

Much of the entertainment in “Venus Boyz” takes place onstage at a New York Club which I learn from the press materials is called the “Slipper Club.” The performances are clipped which because they are incomplete and interrupted by voice overs, lose a little of their punch and entertainment value. Of course, I suspect that most mainstream audiences would never go into “The Slipper Club” and pay for such entertainment, so, it might be likely that sparing us from the onstage shenanigans makes this film more palatable for everyday viewing. Still, the segments featuring onstage performances are sufficiently titillating to strike a sexual chord with even the most straight of male or female audience members. A little healthy curiosity is never a bad thing, is it?

The film intentionally delves into the personal thoughts of their subjects asking many of the hard questions that we crave to hear answered. The subject of sex organs and the transformation experienced by woman who decide to take testosterone to become more masculine is handled well here even providing photographs to display the transformation due to the enlargement of the female organs. In London, we are introduced to Del LaGrace Volcano who lives with several transgendered people (who I believe could be now considered men). One transgendered person refers to herself as a Cyborg because she utilizes a prosthetic penis that enables her to urinate standing upright. (Without wanting to sound flip or disrespectful, this territory could be used by Brian DePalma in his next thriller, remember that I mentioned it here first.)

Ultimately, “Venus Boyz” is a key hole camera look at both the world of Drag Kings and transgendered folks who want desperately to see the traditional views of gender melt away. I was struck by the thought that gender is a state of mind in addition to a state of body. And no matter how theatrical these Kings are, they really live their craft because that is what they are and who they must be.

For more information about "Venus Boyz" visit the website: http://www.venusboyz.com/

Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003