Drag Queen Tradition Becomes Mainstream

French drag queen Nicky Doll attended a Hollywood preview in December 2025. (MONICA SCHIPPER/GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP)

Can a subculture become popular without compromising its values? In 1888, William Dorsey Swann, a freed slave and the first “queen of drag,” was sentenced to ten months in prison for organizing one of the first clandestine balls in the U.S. capital, where people cross-dressed flamboyantly. Over a century and a half later, in 2024, Nicky Doll, Paloma, and Piche, stars of the reality show “Drag Race France” (France 2), were honored during the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.

From shows to corporate seminars, team-building events, bingos, and children’s storytelling, drag has now become a mainstream entertainment that is part of pop culture. However, it has triggered a reactionary moral panic, with transphobia coming from the right and far-right.