AthensNews.com – Bridget Whelan – Athens News Campus Reporter
PRIDE Week 2006 at Ohio University is featuring a rainbow of events to promote expression and acceptance in the LGBT community, but none so colorful as last Friday evening’s performance by Vaginal Davis. Mitchell Auditorium wasn’t quite large enough for the tall, muscular African-American drag queen.
Audience members filled the floor, aisles and doorways trying to get a better view of Davis’ domineering frame, clad in a dirty blonde wig, lacy black negligee and ballet slippers.
“It’s just gonna be a little show and tell,” said Davis in her sugary, hyper-feminine voice. “I’m gonna show a little something and maybe you’ll show a little something. Let’s get intimate.”
According to his/her Web site (www.vaginaldavis.com), Davis was a key proponent in the underground homo-core punk movement in Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s. (We’ll use the feminine pronouns for Davis for the rest of this story.) She has been involved in several concept bands, including The Afro Sisters and Pedro, Muriel and Esther. Her performance art and “no-budget” films introduced a new aesthetic to the world of concept art. She has dubbed her departures from the mainstream gay community as “terrorist drag.”