Another go woke go broke - McCains

Not sexual at all!

I'm guessing you're too young to remember page 3

Something being part of gay culture doesn't grant it a pass for misogyny.

Speaking as someone who likes the odd Carry On film and who doesn't particularly mind old-school drag acts (you know, the ones who actually had an act and weren't all about the costume and 'Ooh, me knockers!') I still find this a really strange marketing decision. It's like something that could have starred Reg Varney 50 years ago.

Glad you asked. It’s Because blackface has its origins in white performers blacking up to ‘punch down’ at a marginalised community. Women are no more marginalised than gay men. A drag performer dressing up as a character butch lesbian would be different, as would a white drag performer doing a character of a black woman. In those cases, that would be punching down. That’s the difference.

Drag has its roots in a marginalised subculture of a marginalised community that grew from a rebellion against the idea that the only was to be a man was to subscribe to traditional masculinity. It’s punching up, not down. That’s the difference between ‘woman face’ (give me strength) and Blackface. Drag in its truest form is about men in dresses - deliberately over the top, unbelievable and nonconformist. It’s not about pretending to be a woman and then mocking her, it’s about taking the piss out of the IDEA of femininity and all the things we’re told a woman should be. It’s about ridiculing society’s expectations of both genders by completely over the top characturism and at its heart, drag is self expression. Drag at its heart is ‘this is what you expect of women and it’s ridiculous, and so is what you expect of men’. Drag race and the mainstreaming of drag culture has caused thst to be lost a fair bit and most of the drag community would actually agree it’s not a good thing that drag has become so mainstream. If you think drag is offensive it’s because you don’t understand drag, it’s history and it’s deeply ingrained commentary on society, frankly. If you don’t find it funny that’s a totally different thing.

For what it’s worth, I’m a female drag performer who dresses as a lumberjack and makes penis jokes for pin money, I have PCOS so I grow my own beard if I’m feeling particularly method.

Indeed, this is why knockerfeeding is supported by the WHO, and the NHS has women in for knocker screening, breasts are completely non-sexual and the 'innuendo' is in no way sexual.

And look at us all here 'screaming'.

Nothing to see here. Move on by lest you want to be called a 'pearl clutcher', or 'prude', or 'hysterical', or any of the other names flung at women who name sexism and grooming. It's never changed.

I decided to show this to my teens to find out whether this is me being an old gimmer or it really isn’t appropriate.

their take was lacy bits and big knockers isn’t right for a kids product and “wtf were they thinking.”

lacy bits and big knockers are worthy of a 1970s circuit comedian, not an ad for kids food in the 2020s.

What part of breasts are sexual?

pretty sure having breasts isn’t exclusive to women either.

the professionally offended are out in force today screaming ‘think of the CHILDREN’ about an piece of social content their kids will only see if they let them… as women we have much, much bigger things to be fighting against right now.

Drag is honestly not the problem.

Christ, the ratio on it as well! 😂

I also seem to have an ad for McCains hash browns under this post as well...!

In any other arena, this would be seen as offensive 70s style Benny Hill sexist crap. But because its a drag queen it's progressive and hilarious?

Make it make sense!

I have to say, I didn't think there was much problem when I first started watching even though I was a bit as drag queens do seem to be the advertising tool du jour.

But then it got to the bit about 'big knockers' and creating a caricature of a woman out of meat. As part of an advert for a product the brand know millions of women buy.

Are we supposed to be cheering on this bullshit? Fuck right off.

Can someone explain what it means to 'drive a bus through' a pair of 'knockers'?

Just submitted a complaint to ASA. McCains are now Mcfucked. Won't ever buy any of their products again.

It was Harlow and Popcorn, the mini pony celebrities. 5yo knows she isn't allowed on "grown up YouTube" without me in the room. My 3yo isn't allowed on it full stop.

So if their target audience is women, why are they showing a man in woman face? If their target audience was black peoples, would they show someone in blackface? If not, why not?

And when I say in the same performances, quite literally the earliest stage blackface minstrel troupe in America in the 1820s, the Virginia Minstrels, included some of the first American drag performances in their shows, blacked up and dragged up as black women. This was the case in variety and music hall across Britain and America in the 19th and well into the 20th century — blackface and drag comedy shared the same stage and often the very same plays/songs too.

One if the reasons why feminists have always been critical of gay drag acts, was that they were parasitic on a hugely racist and sexist music hall / variety tradition that had a long history of offensive impersonating of women as well as black people.

Gay drag was not always just some kind of celebratory identity performance subverting gender norms. It originated out of a popular theatrical culture that was already highly sexist and not particularly empowering to women or gay people — it parodied and mocked “effeminate” or camp gay men: that was the original point. Similarly, burlesque and cabaret similarly get reappropriated now as some kind of great sexy empowering culture; but in the early 20thc it was not actually always particularly empowering, and was often highly exploitative with connections to prostitution, and particularly the exploitation of black women.

Drag has always had a complicated history. It’s no surprise that many women find it offensive and problematic.

It's so 70s isn't it! Get him to take his make up off and see if it's still acceptable?

I'm getting more and more fed up with drag.

Bagga Chips, I assume is from fish and chips, cos women are "fishy" to that bunch. Blah blah.

Woke? You've got to be kidding me. That's no woke. That's basic, sleazy sexism, gross

I agree, this isn’t woke

The juxtaposition of these two posts! 

From @Leftonread

It is an ad that appeared as social content, not on TV. If you're letting your impressionable child on instagram you've got bigger things to worry about than a man in drag.

Immediately following @LaPufalina

I had this pop up on a kids' video on YouTube today (video my 5yo was watching, supervised by me, was aimed at very young children).

So contrary to @Leftonread's scolding us about being shit mothers, this is an ad appearing on kids YouTube videos. Which are aimed at err children.

Not enough facepalms in the world really

@Leftonread blackface and drag have always been connected. Some of the earliest blackface 19th century shows were actually drag shows featuring white men dragged up as “mammies”; and they both originated in music hall as part of the exact same performance tradition - drag comedy began as part of music hall well before it was taken over by gay male performers. The acts that performed blackface minstrel shows on stage in the 19thc and indeed well up to the 1970s on TV were also part of variety performances that featured drag “comedy”. Same comedians and performers a lot of the time.

It’s not offensive to compare them because they are literally part of the same tradition. If you think drag is just gay men doing Pride then you don’t know enough about it tbh. Men in comedy drag mocking women on stage well pre-dated current drag acts. It’s always been offensive but also it’s always been connected to other offensive forms of performance. Funnily enough people have always thought it’s more OK to mock women though. But it doesn’t make sense to say you can’t compare them when they literally arose as the same thing in the same performances!

Loving the 18/23,300 likes 😂

My dc falls into the Gen z age group. Will show the advert to them, and report back ( a highly scientific study of one!)

Woke? You've got to be kidding me. That's no woke. That's basic, sleazy sexism, gross😫

Or even better, spend a quid on real potatoes and some oil of your choice, microwave said potatoes for 7 minutes after a damn good scrub, chop into wedges, toss in a little oil and shove on a hot tray in an oven at 200 degrees C for 30 minutes and stop feeding yourself and your kids shit.

Yeah, interesting. What part of his clothing are his 'big knockers' that the kids are informed 'you can drive a bus through'?

Am I the only one thinking Baga Shite, in the voice of Paul Calf? (I think you have to be over a certain age).

I can't believe it's not got more likes. I was sure it would have people liking it in their thousands, just to be contrary. Is the target audience still in bed?

Sorry, I really didn't mean to repeat 'drag is blackface', I just read it as 'woman face'. I don't think I've ever seen anyone refer to drag as blackface.