Students have always had standard Saturday night options, such as parties, movies or bars.
But thanks to the Women’s Center and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance, students can spice up their weekends by catching a show: a drag show.
Exposed!, the LGBTQA’s annual drag show, will be held Saturday at 8 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom.
Now in its third year at the ballroom, the free show offers a wide variety of performers, including individual students and ensemble acts of the ASUO Women’s Center, MEChA and the Multicultural Center.
The Momma’s Boyz, a San Francisco-based hip hop trio, will headline the show.
The performers are drag kings, meaning they are females wearing men’s clothing. They are well-known in the Bay Area for their R&B and hip hop moves, according to a press release.
Angela Messerli, co-director of the LGBTQA, said the purpose of Exposed! is to educate people on the societal differences that exist within gender.
“Male and female are seen as very opposite and that there are specific ways of being a man and a woman,” Messerli said. “If you deviate from those ways, you are seen as wrong or invalid.
“We’re taking that back and claiming it,” she said.
Departing from last year’s glitzy cabaret theme, this year’s show will focus on the many different varieties of drag as well as the personal meaning drag has to different individuals, Messerli said.
Others say Exposed! is about showing how gender is not a fixed concept, but it is multifaceted.
“Its purpose is just to get used to the idea that gender is not a binary term that can be easily defined into two concrete categories,” Women’s Center spokeswoman
Stefanie Loh said. “It’s not set in stone because you are always changing as a person.”
Loh said about 600 people attended last year’s show and she expects those numbers to rise for the 2006 event.
“This year’s event is definitely going to be bigger than last year’s,” Loh said. “It’s a chance to come out and expose yourself to a different side of life.”In addition to the entertainment, the HIV
Alliance will be offering HIV testing at the show from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
After the show, the audience is invited to attend the after-party with all the night’s performers at the Red Lion Hotel at 10 p.m. Admission is $5, and the after-show is limited to people 18 and older.
Exposed! and the after-party will be wheelchair accessible.