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It made sense in a twisted sort of way. My college had 350 students and only about 20 were young men. The young women — who were used to dancing with each other — apparently found some way to blackmail all the freshman men into being women for the evening. The men were so excited they wanted me to take their picture, except a few shy ones. One, however, chickened out and changed back into his manly clothing. Buyan took the others backstage and taught them how to walk in heels and sashay.
I stood in the audience waiting for the show to begin. For a warm up, students from the agricultural school sat on each others laps and made mock marriage proposals. As the best dressed young women in Eastern Mongolia got ready for their debut, the Stalin-era power plant cut off the electricity and cancelled the show. The females quickly changed back into males. They didn’t even wait for a photograph.
New professional opportunities in Mongolia
Today, Ganbush, a gay choreographer, has become rich by doing professional “Super Erotic Shows” at the capital city’s nightclubs. In addition to choreographing strip tease and erotic dance, he does an occasional female impersonation. When I saw him, he danced to Madonna’s “Erotic.,” He is regularly featured in the tabloids as a curiosity, but laughing as he pockets a month’s salary each night he performs.
Mongolia is the only country in the world where boys drop out of school to work on the herds while the girls stay in school to prepare for professional careers. Women are still expected to defer to their men in the ger (a felt tent or home), but increasingly they are making inroads as leaders in government and industry. Given the stress of an economic, political and social transition, perhaps drag is a fun way for men to kick off their boots and rewrite gender in an ancient land.
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