Why is drag so popular now?

[Nothingcomesforfree]

Genuine question. I have seen lots of posts on a Facebook this morning about attending some drag queen event. Mostly women and several bringing their teens ( both sexes)

It seems really popular but I have no idea why or what people going get out of it? Is it comedic or fashion or something else.

My local pub has a regular drag night which is incredibly popular. Not my thing so I avoid it. But what I do find offensive is that they like to scrawl over the walls of the ladies' toilets with stuff like 'chicks with dicks are real women'. The walls are covered with it, but that kind of graffiti seems acceptable when it's a minority group.

Good God why is everyone offended by everything these days. It's just a bit of fun saying that it's not my cup of tea.

I've never saw the appeal of it. Most drag acts look like one on the ugly sisters from a cinderella pantomime. I also loathe karaoke. But if it makes you happy 🤷🏻‍♀️

Both my DDs are at an event this weekend. They're both gay and have loved drag for a number of years now. I think they find drag a 'safe' space. Neither of them has ever had a relationship and whilst they enjoy the spectacle of drag and the beauty of the queens, the performers are unattainable due to being boys dressed as girls.
The drag community is very inclusive to those who are finding their way in the LGBTQ world and I think my girls have thrived from being a part of it all. I don't quite get it myself but I can see why my girls love it so much.

I've always felt uncomfortable with it since a kid. I grew up in 70s/80s so there were men all over the telly 'dressing up as' women for laughs all the time.

Dick emery, 2 Ronnies, Kenny Everett 'cupid stunt', etc etc

I never liked it and as a child I didn't know why it made me do uncomfortable. As an adult I realise it was because I didn't like men (dominant class) dressing up as women (subordinate class) to get a laugh. It's a piss take of the traits of 'femininity' both appearance and some behaviours that are thrust on us in the first place.

I'm dismayed it's so popular at the mo.

ODDLy enough I quite like our local pantomime dame. But it always feels more like he is taking the piss out of men more than women.

Its all to do with RuPaul Iimagine.

it's about being beautiful like women but they don't aim to look like 'beautiful women' do they? more like caricatures of women, which is why I find it so offensive in the same way black face was very much a caricature of black people. They also tend to speak in a very sexualised and crude way, a way that would be frowned upon if it was coming from an actual woman.

Drag isn't denigrating femininity though...it's celebrating femininity. It's probably the most female positive performance out there!

They don't still call biological women "fish" then as they did in the 90s when I last saw it as a lesbian going to lesbian and gay pubs?

Also just realised

'Drag isn't denigrating femininity though...it's celebrating femininity. It's probably the most female positive performance out there!'

So... Men in drag are a more female positive performance than actual women doing... Anything?

Just realised that I mean wtf.

Men are just superior aren't they. Better at manning, better at womaning.

Likening drag to blackface is horrendously racist, I can't believe you can't see that!
@SweetPetrichlor I can't see it, no. Please can you explain?

It all feels a bit forced.
Shoved down our throats.
Sinister even.

It's probably the most female positive performance out there

This is ... er ... quite an opinion

The drag kids thing is genuinely worrying.

Drag is and always has been, afaik, an adult thing. Many / most acts are sexualised. The costumes are sexualised. The humour is adult, if not actually risqué then grown up themes. Kids doing this reminds me of beauty pageants for kids and things. Copying adults but not really understanding. Adults styling them and so forth.

It doesn't bother me, but it most definitely is not an 'art form'! Otherwise why isn't my daughter an art form when she gets dressed up to go out?

Cookit I know.

Just as a random example. I thought Jessica ennis Hill winning gold at various events was a really positive female performance.

But then I went down the dog and trumpet last Tuesday and saw big dave doing a drag spot, with fishnets, big comedy breasts and badly applied makeup telling dick jokes. And I thought. You know. Sod Jessica, this is it.

Next week I'm taking my daughters so they can feel similarly empowered.

fraggling

In some ways it is far less mainstream than it was in the 70s.

It is easy to overstate popularity nowadays when everyone is essentially off watching their own thing.

The kids thing is new. And weird.

No idea, I find it really offensive as well and don’t watch drag race/panto etc

I watched one drag race and hated the bitchy Kardashian view of women. Its so utterly vacuous.

I used to enjoy the earlier seasons of Ru Paul's Drag Race. It used to be more of a talent show, they'd be presented with a bag of rubbish and have to make a full outfit out of it. There was talent and creativity there. Now it's all about who has the most instagram followers and expensive costumes before they even go on the show.

Whilst I used to admire the guys for taking part (most of them are very clear, "I am a gay man who enjoys wearing make up and women's clothing") for bending gender norms, now i can't really stop seeing the similarities with blackface. They create these bitchy, vain, diva personas making fun of stereotypical "female" traits and we're all supposed to laugh? Nah.

I do have fond memories of Les Dawson and Roy Kinnear doing Cissie and Ada.

But that is the only drag act I have genuinely liked.

Drag isn't denigrating femininity though...it's celebrating femininity.
And not just the nice bits of femininity either. It’s a celebration of more than just looking pretty.

A celebration of what exactly?