She’s not your little sister’s plastic toy anymore.
Sporting blonde hair, black pantyhose, bright red pumps and a matching skin-tight mini-dress, a professional Chicago-area drag queen attempted to back up her claim as the world’s only true Barbie doll at the Rainbow Alliance’s first show in more than five years on March 14 in Norris University Center’s Louis Room.
Barbie Doll, a performer at the Mashed Potato Club in downtown Chicago, highlighted an evening that included strip teases, serenades, jokes and even an impromptu hip-shaking performance to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s song “Baby Got Back” in front of about 100 people.
Students were encouraged to dress in drag while enjoying music, food and amateur performances. Clad in an array of colorful outfits, men were decked out in high heels, leather skirts, wigs and boas. Women sported shirts, ties and baseball caps turned backwards.
Barbie Doll, who also served as a judge for the drag impersonators, kicked off the evening with what she called a quiet performance compared to more modern drag impersonations. The drag queen lip-synced to slow music, perched on a stool in front of the stage.
But when the music changed to a peppier number, Barbie Doll began to sashay around the room and serenade the audience with animated facial expressions and gestures.
The evening’s amateur acts, starring Northwestern students, kept the audience entertained.
Medill junior Miriam Berg and her roommate Sarah Warner, a Speech junior, did their best Vanilla Ice impersonations. Complete with hats, sunglasses and facial hair sketched on with eyeliner, they pulled socks from their pants and flung them into the audience.
“We have a perverse need to make fools of ourselves,” Berg said.
Having visited drag clubs in the past with friends in California, Warner was especially excited at the chance to strut her stuff.
“I think playing dress-up is fun, especially when you reverse someone’s expectations,” she said.
But the awarding of prizes to the top drag performances kept the audience interested despite the initial setbacks.
Best drag honors went to McCormick freshman Sharon Roberson in the drag king category and Weinberg freshman Wei-Han Wu as the top drag queen.
Roberson, incoming co-president of Rainbow Alliance (formerly the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Alliance), dressed up in a black men’s suit as she belted out a song to Weinberg senior Marc Hertz, who sat timidly on a barstool. She won a waterproof vibrator for her performance.
Wu, who named himself “Oriental Spice,” acted out a monologue from the musical “Rent.”
Applauding the strength of the other performances, Wu said he didn’t deserve the flavored body paints he was awarded. He said he especially enjoyed watching Barbie Doll.
“I am amazed at how she wears her shoes,” Wu said.
Although she had a difficult time picking a winner, Barbie Doll said Roberson’s act was the “most natural” and that Wu displayed “true talent.”
