Shantay, you play: the drag queens of gaming

Video games and drag offer potent opportunities to play with identity. Four artists explore personas, avatars and cosplay, taking down trolls on Twitch and the power of Princess Peach

Drag in video games is often played for laughs - see 1997's Final Fantasy VII, in which spiky-haired Cloud Strife dresses as a woman to deceive a gullible, misogynistic mafioso, or Alfred the "cross-dressing freak" from Resident Evil: Code Veronica - but drag and video games can be vectors of identity exploration and self-expression. Drag can involve trying on a persona by putting yourself in someone else's heels, a subversive form of role-play - and what are video games if not role-play?

Gaming has potent power for many queer people, as a space to safely explore what it's like to be other people (or to be ourselves). Hyper-feminine characters such as Princess Peach, D. Va and Bayonetta have become drag and cosplay icons. And drag queens are visible in many parts of the gaming community, from developers to Twitch streamers. Here, four queens explain how video games have influenced their drag.