Diva Attenbra: The Wildlife Biologist Drag Queen
Image: Diva Attenbra Instagram
It might be easy to assume the worlds of drag and science have little to nothing to do with one another. Extravagance, colour and performance define the world of drag. On the other hand, science is the world of the drab, ordered and sanitised. But the two have more in common than they might initially seem.
Curiosity, a sense of ambition and the necessity of breaking new ground are all things that drive both Drag as an art form and the various fields of science.
‘Nigel Thornberry In Drag’
One person who sees this connection is Diva Attenbra, a self-described “Nigel Thornberry in drag”. A wildlife biologist by day and Drag Queen by night, Diva’s Instagram is adorned with many cheeky nods to this fact.
Cardboard cut-outs of Steve Irwin, an image of her riding a Turkey, and of course the tongue-in-cheek reference to great David Attenborough himself in her name.
However, collaborations with Triple J’s Dr. Karl, and a recent feature at Splendour in the Grass’s Science Tent educating festival goers on the many gay animals in nature, shows the partnership between science and drag is more than just a few sly puns here and there.
View this post on Instagram
“Science and drag are both a lot of work” she told Star Observer, “I’m a scientist of the people… I hate lectures and often need stuff dumbed down for me.”
She takes this role very seriously, having just taken part in several National Science Week performances, including the Drag Science Show at the Powerhouse Museum with Dr Naomi Koh Belic.
‘I Started Drag To Do Science’
“A lot of my drag performances revolve around science communication… I started drag to do science,” she said.
Her mixture of comedy, drag, and science helps to break away from the “traditional ways of learning”, she and many others struggle with, while channelling the eccentricities of individuals, like the ledgendary (and by her own admission, admittedly not so very drag) Steve Irwin.
While the world of plain-white lab coats might seem far-removed from that of big wigs and kinky boots, Diva Attenbra (or as she told us, soon to be Dr D Attrenbra once she finalises her PhD) is striving to ensure that science and drag needn’t be so far removed from one another.
Whether on stage telling us about the gay animals in nature or taking notes in the field, science is an integral to Attenbra.
