Conchita Wurst

Tom Neuwirth is an Austrian man who is a notable and highly revered pop star in Europe. He is an example of someone who loves going against the status quo in several different ways. The main way he accomplishes this is by performing as a female pop star. Neuwirth performs under the stage name Conchita Wurst, and dresses as a woman with a wig and makeup. Obviously, society expects men to dress as men and women to dress as women, so by performing in gender swapped clothing he is going against the status quo. However, he is not the only man to become famous while dressed in drag. Gay icons such as RuPaul, Divine, Coco Peru, and many others have made successful careers around performing in drag. Drag queens have their own subculture within the LGBT community, and there is a status quo, albeit for a smaller group, within that community. Conchita defies that status quo as well, by performing as a female with a beard. One of golden rules of female impersonation is to have absolutely no visible facial hair, because that is the standard that society expects of women. Neuwirth chooses to keep his beard when he transforms into his drag persona Conchita because he loves to challenge social norms. By keeping his beard while dressed as a woman, he is rebelling against society’s notion of how he as a man should dress, against society’s notion of how a woman should present herself with no body hair, and against other drag performer’s notions of how she should present herself as a female impersonator. Despite all of these things that Conchita does that society is not accustomed to, she is incredibly successful and adored by many fans. She won the televised 2014 Eurovision song contest with her song “Rise Like a Phoenix,” becoming one of the few LGBT identifying contestants to win the competition and the first drag queen to ever win. Since then the song became a number one hit in Austria and the UK, and placed high on the charts of other European countries. The Eurovision competition has also gained huge support from the LGBT community and has cultivated a massive gay following. Conchita Wurst is a perfect example of someone who is rebelling against social norms and making statements on how society views gender and sexuality. She is an inspiration not only to gay people and drag queens, but to all people who feel outcasted by society and instills the courage in people to be themselves and go against the status quo.