Digital Transgender Archive

Vicky White in drag (?). Process print, 197-.

Part of James Gardiner Collection: photograph album labelled ‘Drag’.

Vicky White is wearing a black tank top and matching lace leggings; striking a pose with a long cloak, heels and black gloves. After the 1967 Sexual Offences Act partially decriminalising homosexuality in parts of the United Kingdom, gay life in London and the major cities opened up. Part of this expansion was the re-appearance of drag on a much wider scale than it had been seen before. Of course, it had never gone away, and performers such as Mrs. Shufflewick and Danny La Rue had both been major national stars in the 1950s (Shufflewick) and the 1960s (La Rue). Drag had also, in this period, been standard fare in pub entertainment, particularly in London, but after 1967, and due to the popularity of Danny La Rue, it gradually became mainstream. By the 1970s there were more professional drag performers working in England than at any time since the heady 'Soldiers in skirts' era just after the War. Fashion for both men and women had also become increasingly less formal and more androgynous, and it is really not easy to guess the gender of Mr or Ms White, the subject of this card from the early 1970s (James Gardiner)