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Maya the Drag Queen

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Performer, singer, activist and drag queen

Maya
BornAlex Mathew
Kerala, India

Alex Mathew, popularly known as Maya the Drag Queen or Mayamma is a drag queen from India. Alex started performing drag in 2014 at Jagriti, The Humming Tree, and gave many performances at Rangashankara, Opus and Alliance Franciase among others. Alex is also an actor, singer, motivational speaker and a corporate employee.

Biography

Alex was born and raised in Thiruvananthapuram. Alex is one of the early drag artist of India who started performing drag in the city of Bangalore. Mathew acknowledged he was queer in September 2014, and credits his mother for the courage to do so. He was inspired by RuPaul and Bianca Del Rio. He has promoted local cultural identity in the drag art form, performed in many places in India, given multiple TEDx talks, and conducting workshops. Prasad Bidapa did a photo shoot with him in 2017. As an activist, Mathew engages in the issues of gender and feminism. He has performed at live events, and hosted the talk show Chaaya with Maya, crediting Keshav Suri for the support to be Maya.

Talking about the relationship with Bengaluru as a city of drag Alex said "“I had dressed up as Nagavalli (a character from the Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu) for a fancy dress competition. The intention was not to win a prize; I just wanted to express my feminity.” Now, having been part of Bengaluru’s drag scene for about a decade, Bangalore has been very open to outsiders as well as new experiences.”. Alex believed that the repealing of 377 was one of the key moment for kickstarting drag in India, Alex said "“We had very few people attending before. But post that, we saw an influx of crowds. Now people know that there are people like us. There is awareness,” he says when asked about the boom of Indian drag.

Alex Methodology of drag is driven from the Indian pop culture and current politics of the society, Alex Said "I started performing drag in September 2014. The reason I started doing it was because it was fun, the idea of dressing up and entertaining people. But around that time, there was a 4-year-old girl child who was raped here in Bengaluru. Keeping this and Nirbhaya in my mind, I felt I had to make a change when it comes to individualism, gender equality, and feminism. In my own way. That’s when I created Mayamma, the drag queen, who is from Kuttanad. I started including messages in my performance and people liked it," Alex Inaugurated a pride cafe in Bengaluru in Jan2023.

Alex as Maya has been featured in a French documentary by Nickie Doll titled The Queer Explorer.

Personal Life

Alex came out his family in a couple of months since his first performance. Speaking about his experience to come out to his mother Alex said "That day, my mother gave away the sari reluctantly because she couldn't approve of my drag identity," says Mathew, an artist manager who lives in the southern city of Bangalore. "Now she packs my suitcase whenever I step out of the city for performance. It took her three years to accept my drag identity and understand that I perform in a sari to break the gender stereotypes in this patriarchal world."

Alex has faced a lot of discrimination due to their Malayali accent, he was trolled and subjected to bullying due to the same. Alex said " I admired my Malayali accent. And that’s when I came across this movie called Mrs. Doubtfire. Also, the Indianized version in Bollywood is Chachi 420. So that’s when I was like, if Robin Williams and Kamal Hassan can dress up as a woman I can do too. That’s how I started. After my first performance as Maya, I came out of the closet, as a queer man. Through Drag, I could express my femininity, and accentuate it a lot more on stage. It is a form of entertainment, it’s also some form of expression. And that is something which not many people from the LGBTQIA+ community have the chance to do."

Music

  • Proud Maya
  • Drag Queens

References

  1. ^ Siganporia, Shahnaz (19 September 2019). "How Maya The Drag Queen is using drag to educate and empower Indian audiences". Vogue. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  2. ^ Sargeant, Chloe. "Meet Maya The Drag Queen: one of India's few performing drag superstars". Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  3. ^ Basu, Ipsita (6 March 2017). "Meet Alex Mathew, a communications officer by the day and a feminist drag queen at night". Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  4. Shaikh, Sadaf (27 September 2018). "Being A Drag Queen In India: Maya". Verve. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  5. Maareesha, Anagha (12 September 2019). "Niche to mainstream: Bengaluru's drag community is making it happen". Indulgexpress. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  6. Service, Statesman News (3 June 2017). "The complete makeover". The Statesman. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  7. "How two drag queens and a hotelier in India are shattering boundaries". GQ India. 15 June 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  8. Indian, The Logical (11 August 2017). "My Story: It Took Me 6 Months To Tell My Parents That I Am Gay. They Didn't Speak To Me For A Year". thelogicalindian.com. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  9. ^ "Alex Mathew aka Maya the Drag Queen on Feminism, Inclusivity, Pride and Drag in India". feministaa. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  10. Sharma, Maya. "A Drag Queen And Corporate Employee, Alex Mathew's Life Post Section 377". NDTV. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  11. Riaz, Azmia (31 January 2018). "Gender bender: Alex Mathew and the 'Maya' behind conquering the world of drag". Ed Ex. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  12. Nair, Vibha Rajeev & Parvati (26 June 2024). "How Bengaluru's drag queens are redefining Indian masculinity". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  13. Maareesha, Anagha (12 September 2019). "Niche to mainstream: Bengaluru's drag community is making it happen". Indulgexpress. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  14. Rajendran, Sowmya (1 July 2019). "'Avvai Shanmughi', 'Mayamohini' and others: How cinema misrepresents drag culture". The News Minute. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  15. "Solidarity Foundation and Amadeus launch 'Pride Cafe' to empower LBGTQIA+ community". Restaurant India. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  16. "6 Gorgeous Indian Drag Queens To Follow Now, Cos It Is Pride Month". iDiva. 15 June 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  17. "India's drag queens put politics front and center". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  18. Vasudev, Chandana (28 June 2022). "Pride Month 2022: A glimpse into an all-encompassing art form, Drag". Indulgexpress. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  19. "Being Gay Is Illegal in India, but That Doesn't Stop These Drag Queens". VICE. 31 January 2017. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  20. Proud Maya, 17 January 2018, retrieved 4 October 2024
  21. Drag Queens, 7 May 2018, retrieved 4 October 2024
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