Kinging in Hungarian lesbian culture

This article looks at the position of the drag king in Hungarian lesbian culture. It focuses on Bandage, Socks and Facial Hair (2006), a documentary about a drag king workshop. The film documents the historical moment when the Hungarian workshop participants encounter the drag king as a lesbian tool for parodying and repoliticizing mainstream masculinity. I examine the ways in which the participants interpret their performances of masculinity and the film negotiates heteronormativity. I argue that the political merits of the film can be spelled out by reading the participants' (trans)gender politics from the perspective of the cultural specificities of post-socialist Hungary.