By Adriana Fallico
Joseph Berman can recall his love for dancing in dresses and playing in skirts at a young age.
Growing up, the third-year creative industries student from Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) was always drawn to musical theatre, performance and dance but didn’t know how to express his passions.
“I was always a pretty feminine kid,” said Berman.
He was also figuring out his sexuality and gender identity, something he was working to unravel in his later years of high school.
He discovered drag—a creative form of self-expression in which individuals create a persona used to celebrate gender nonconformity and the queer community—when his sister showed him a performance from the show RuPaul’s Drag Race as a young teen. Although he immediately felt drawn to the art form, Berman was still apprehensive.
He slowly eased his way into the drag race fandom, rapidly watching all seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race and immersing himself in the artists’ lifestyles on social media. From the eccentric clothing, vibrant makeup, fiery personalities and performances, Berman quickly became enthralled.
What cemented his dedication to the art form was attending a drag-themed open mic night at a Toronto bar as a first-year student—but he had to get creative with his outfit.
“I borrowed a friend’s dress that did not fit me and I bought a really not great wig and the shoes didn’t fit me,” said Berman. “So that was my first opportunity to try [drag] myself.”
This is a path that many TMU students can find themselves following: understanding who they want to be and how they can take the first step forward toward accepting their passions and achieving their goals.
As university can expose students to different walks of life, practices and activities, students can be taken down an adventurous path toward an aspiration that can be scary or uncertain. However, one thing these avenues have in common is the risks that are taken in order to reach their personal goals.
Gerald Cupchik, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto, identified the core of risk-taking as “going against the most traditional views of what you should be.”
“I’ll be backstage working on an assessment during the show. I’ll be still in full makeup and writing a discussion post”
Jens O. Zinn’s scholarly article titled The meaning of risk-taking – key components and dimensions found that “risk-taking is not always clearly rooted in a particular social environment [milieu]” but is rather “part of a process of learning and routinizing that follows an ‘internal’ dynamic of the risk-taking activity.”
This is a sentiment that Berman relates to as he practices drag himself, going by the stage name Josie when strutting down a catwalk.
“Obviously with any art form—with time and practice—you gradually evolve in all the skills,” he said. “I think I love it as much as I do because [drag] lets me combine all my creative interests into one medium that I’m so passionate about.”
He also doesn’t plan out the majority of his performance routines, freestyling on stage whenever he is given the chance, adding the element of surprise to viewers in the audience.
Amassing over 1,100 Instagram followers on his drag account ‘@nowjosie,’ Berman is continuously working his way up in the Canadian drag scene while balancing his life as a full-time university student.
“[Drag] has slowly become very dominant in my everyday life,” said Berman. “It was a gradual thing where I had one wig in my room and suddenly I have four wigs and now a shelf that is covered in wigs.”
Berman is a mostly self-taught sewer, having gotten a close friend to help him set up his sewing machine and teach him the basics. This has helped him design and create his own outfits, eventually learning how to do his own makeup over the past year. Now, he has an entire closet in his basement dedicated to storing drag clothing and sewing equipment.
Despite his dedication to drag, he acknowledged that the practice could pose a risk to his life away from his drag persona in many different ways—including his studies, transportation and even his relationships.
Berman occasionally finds himself putting his drag career over his academics, a balance he is still working to perfect.
“There have been nights where I am performing at a show or sewing a dress [when] I could have spent it studying,” said Berman. “I’ll be backstage working on an assessment during the show. I’ll be still in full makeup and writing a discussion post.”
Additionally, taking the time to design outfits and practice routines usually takes one to three days, resulting in him having to “sacrifice time with family and friends” to continue developing himself as a drag artist.
“I’ll have family over and I’ll be in my room sewing, practicing makeup or preparing for a show instead of hanging out with them,” he admitted.
Still, he ensures that he remains on top of his academic responsibilities and immerses himself in university life as best as he can.
“In my first year, I really neglected drag a little bit because I was so focused on making friends and adjusting to university—I didn’t give drag much time,” said Berman. “Once second-year came, I really wanted to get back into it to the extent that I wanted to but I really had to work harder to make time for this hobby.”
He believes that one of his biggest tests with drag has been its financial aspect, as he has to continuously purchase new products to keep up with developing trends.
“I didn’t realize how much this would add up,” he said. “Makeup expenses, hair, shoes, tights—it really adds up quickly. It definitely is a challenge.”
“I’ll need to buy a new dress, high heels and a new makeup mirror”
Berman is also hyper-aware of the extra safety precautions he may need to take when travelling to and from shows in Toronto.
“You hear so many horror stories of queer people who have been jumped,” he said. “Luckily [for me] it is relatively safe, but I never take the [Toronto Transit Commission] and always Uber to my gigs.”
In the Toronto Police Service’s 2023 Annual Hate Crime Statistical Report, the department stated that there’s been a “continued increase in reported 2SLGBTQI+ hate crimes” in the city, with the community also being the “most frequently targeted group for assault occurrences.”
Cupchik also believes that when taking risks, safety should always be of the utmost importance.
“Risk-taking requires wisdom,” said Cupchik. “At every minute we are exposed to risk and at every minute we have to make wise decisions.”
Despite the many risks and hurdles that Berman faces, what fuels him to continue is what his first impression of drag was—the infectious energy of the crowd during a performance.
“It is so dynamic and such a contagious, exciting spirit,” he said.
Berman is also unafraid to bet on himself outside of drag performances as he is currently in Ireland on a student exchange at TU Dublin. He said he hopes to travel around Europe while he’s there. However, he knew he could not travel to Ireland without dipping his toes into the country’s drag community.
“I definitely do have the intention of trying to involve myself and perform in Ireland to some capacity,” he said. “From what I’ve seen, the active drag scene is not really to the scale of what it’s like in Toronto, but there’s one gay bar that I’ve noticed that hosts drag shows pretty frequently.”
In fact, as he packed to go on exchange, he was unsure of which products to take with him.
“My dad and I were really struggling with limiting how much I could bring with weight limits for suitcases and whatnot,” remembered Berman. “He was like, ‘If you want to bring all your Joseph clothes with you, you can’t take all the drag stuff you want.’”
Despite bringing more of his own personal belongings rather than Josie’s, there was one upside Berman found.
“I’ll need to buy a new dress, high heels and a new makeup mirror,” he giggled.
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