The Mars Bar

I’m still a little bit drunk as I compose this post; hopefully that won’t make too much of an impact on the cohesiveness or the coherence of anything. In any case, I’m going to keep this short. The reason I’m drunk, in case you were curious, is because I went out to the Mars Bar, the only gay bar in all of Adelaide! Tonight I was accompanied by a couple of friends from my lab, and what was particularly special about tonight (aside from it being my introduction to the Adelaide LGBTQ community) was that it was the first drag show one of my friends had ever seen. The bar (or club) was a fairly unique scene for me, as well: Pullman and Cruces didn’t exactly have gay bars—and the venues they did have didn’t really come equipped with strobe lights, lasers, etc. Before and after the drag performances I was taken to the dance floor by my friend and together we danced like a couple of silly white people with scarcely any rhythm or style; meanwhile all around us couples and groups danced, and every so often I’d see a girl dancing with herself (but not in that cool Billy Idol way) and I would be tempted to ask her to dance. I never did, though. I couldn’t get up the guts to ask anyone (Aside from my friend...and that’s fine. We had an excellent time).

The drag show itself was something completely unreal. All the drag shows I’ve been to, each queen did her own routine solo, and the drag queens rotated throughout the course of the night. Here, they all performed more or less at the same time—it was all one elaborate show, all the drag queens performing side-by-side (with moments when some would be off-stage doing costume changes). And the drag queens themselves—damn—they were gorgeous! I suggest you check them out at http://www.themarsbar.com.au/drag_queens.html (granted, these photos aren’t of all the drag queens I saw tonight, and they certainly don’t do anyone justice). At the end of the night I was talking to my friend about another friend of mine who happens to be a drag queen. This person told me once that they feel more themselves as their drag persona. As I was telling my friend this story, an interesting thought occurred to me: delving into another gender role is liberating as it allows us to be free to explore and experience that which we otherwise would not.