Jodie Harsh, one of the biggest stars of drag and performance art globally. As she’s worked through a prickly dynamic with her patriarch, fraught with conflicts in language and meaning and an equal yearning for approval. That quest started her on the path as early as her childhood when her father would try to get her to conform to a normal boyhood. Following last year’s cardiac arrest, their dynamic completely changed. Neither of them had to, but both of them deeply desired to set aside their old grudges.
For as long as she can remember, Jodie Harsh dreamed of London. She considered it an “oasis of opportunity,” a beacon of hope and a place for reinvention. At only 15, she could not resist the strong attraction of the big city. She imagined it would be the ideal environment to find herself. At 18, the young woman made the courageous choice to travel, shunning all the pressures her father put on her. This decision would spark a profoundly creative period in her life. She leaned into her role as a drag performer with glee.
Although their physical distance, Jodie Harsh on her own father growing up Their line of communication began to flounder as the years went on. Although her father quickly adjusted to his daughter thriving in London’s artistic and liberal enclave, he could not accept his daughter’s life choices. The key moment came when her father wrote a letter in 2000 about how he was coping with coming to terms with Jodie’s identity. In doing so, he slipped this critical letter under her door—his own chiseled arrogance exposed, and his love faltering to accept her as-is. This honest, painful confession cut straight to the emotional estrangement that had taken root between them.
Months later, during a planned reunion with other caregiving veterans, their paths crossed in an unexpected but wonderful way. Jodie Harsh in full drag for when her father first heard her voice. This would be Jodie’s second coming out. It was an opportunity for each of them to confront their past and redefine their future to each other. The award was a catalyst, igniting a conversation that was years overdue and requiring both sides to wrestle with their joint history.
The similarity between Jodie and her father is remarkable, further underscoring the differences between them. Jodie went on to have a successful career within the drag community. She had to keep that other side of herself hidden from her father for decades. The intricacies of their relationship serve to highlight the difficulties that come with many family members’ attempts at acceptance and understanding.
Looking back on her journey, Jodie Harsh credits this seed of doubt, sowed by her father’s stern opposition, with helping to shape her. She made and transformed a career in the sometimes-offhand industry of self-expression. Through this practice, she was able to reawaken many aspects of herself that had been stifled throughout her childhood. Through her art and performance, she discovered freedom, and thereby acceptance, which led to a future possibility of reconciliation with her father.