For a long time now we have been observing the drag queen Conchita becoming more and more manly: less make up, shorter hair (= new wig) and more male clothes. At the beginning of the year there have already been rumours that the character of Conchita would no longer exist. Whether he’ll drop the artist’s name Conchita Wurst and when he’ll do it, Tom Neuwirth cannot tell: ‘I don’t know. I would lie if I told you that I haven’t thought about it – Conchita is a woman’s name after all.’
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Now she wants to be a man again.
What is certain is that Tom no longer wants to be considered a woman: It eventually made me feel uncomfortable to be seen as a woman – just like I felt uncomfortable being addressed as a ‘he’. Now I find it strange when someone calls me a ‘she’. According to Conchita, this was a sex change that happened without him realising it. Three years ago he started working out, as the jet-set lifestyle has left its mark. This has triggered a change that is still going on today and sooner or later will lead to Conchita’s death.
How does Conchita Wurst define himself as a man?
What exactly makes Conchita a man again, Tom cannot tell. When asked ‘what’s so typically masculine about him’, he answered: ‘I can only answer this question with a cliché. Biologically I’m a man, but what’s typically masculine and what’s typically feminine?’
Quite a valid question at a time when gender roles change. What’s so special about it is that there are no more precise gender definitions, whether masculine or feminine.
