“Baphomet worship”: Kim Petras introducing drag alter ego divides fans on social media

German singer and songwriter, Kim Petras, recently went viral over her male alter-ego pictures posted on on social media on September 28, 2023. The 31-year-old introduced her fans to "Hans," her male alter-ego, during the promotions of her Feed the Beast Tour.

Petras posted several black-and-white portraits of herself on social media and was seen wearing huge ram-like horns on her head as she flexes in front of a camera. Yahoo Entertainment noted that the singer was seen with short hair and some leather accessories.

When fans saw the images, they were divided about their opinions about the same. While some complimented her pictures, others criticized her for her alleged promotion of Satanism, with one person even saying that the pictures showed "Baphomet worship." Baphomet is a symbol of balance in various occult and mystical traditions, as per Britannica.

One fan compared her pictures to occult activity. (Image via Twitter/PopCrave)

It is worth noting that he Grammy-winning artist went through Gender Reassignment Surgery when she was 16 in November 2008.

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Kim Petras's viral posts about new alter-ego Hans

Kim Petras posted a carousel of pictures on her Instagram and Twitter on Thursday night with the link to her Feed the Beast Tour's Ticketmaster. In the caption of the picture, she urged fans to meet her alter-ego, Hans as she described Hans in a way that people do on certain dating apps. She also added the flags of America and Germany after the caption.

"Meet Hans. Bi D*m Top. Libra. 420 friendly. No pic no chat," the caption read.

Fans believe the Hans persona is a teaser character that might appear during the sets of her Tour.

In the pictures, Petras looks quite buff and muscular. Yahoo Entertainment reported that one of the pictures seemingly indicated that some of the muscles were practical prosthetics as opposed to a digitally manipulated trick

As per Just Jared, the Unholy singer also introduced Hans during her performance while singing to a pre-taped version of Hans moving around on the screen for a routine clip.

In her TikTok video about the same character, the singer made a small joke about her transition. When Kim Petras was 16 she was thoroughly evaluated by the head of the psychiatric unit at Frankfurt Hospital, Bernd Meyenburg, and approved for surgery, as per People.

The TikTok clip showed the words "So what’d you look like before…” in subtitles. Meanwhile, Petras lip-synced to an audio clip of someone saying, “Oh my goodness, I love this question!” This was followed by a short footage of Kim Petras as Hans shirtless with horns.

Fans had mixed reactions to the openly transgender artist's new persona, Hans. Most fans were completely on board and appreciated her boldness while some disliked the concept. Some were simply confused about how Kim Petras made her look so natural.

Petras is known to challenge gender norms and this photoshoot and new alter-ego is a great example of that. Other female pop icons have also taken up male personas to portray gender expression.

For instance, Lady Gaga's famous male persona was Jo Calderone, a character she appeared as from 2010 to 2011. Most famously she appeared as the male alter-ego during her 2011 VMAs performance of You and I.

Mariah Carey took up the role of her own stalker in the music video for Obsessed.

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Kim Petras Feed the Beast World Tour

Kim announced her debut studio album Feed the Beast on May 15, 2023, and the Feed the Beast World Tour supporting the album began on August 4, 2023. The tour began in Mountain View, California, as per USA Today.

The world tour is ongoing and it is the third headlining tour by Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Kim Petras. The tour is scheduled to end in Milan, Italy on March 5, 2024.