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Why is drag so popular now?

712 replies

Nothingcomesforfree · 17/08/2019 09:43

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.

OP posts:
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LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:05

Bee222 - from the article

(it’s) an expression of individuality and freedom from a population that has itself been historically powerless. - Who what now? Are men ‘historically powerless’ then?

Drag Queen Story Hour will consist of drag queens reading stories to those children whose parents decide to bring them. Have you seen some of these shows? Have you read about the ‘acts’ who are sitting with little kids and have sexual convictions? Teaching toddlers to twerk? Seen the photos where small kids are invited to crawl over/lie on top of a person who hasn’t had a DRB? Ever wondered why this is an appropriate think for small kids - more for the reader than the audience I feel.

Not exactly an unbiased witness m’lud.

MsTSwift · 18/08/2019 09:05

That piece. Oh dear. He is one of those hard of thinking people who state their opinion as fact - they are always bores at parties.

Scotlass123 · 18/08/2019 09:07

People are so easily offended these days. I’d hate to live like that

sackrifice · 18/08/2019 09:08

Comparing it to the Minstrels is just rude!

It is literally the exact same thing.

An oppressor caricaturing their oppressed for money.

LemonScentedStickyBat · 18/08/2019 09:08

Have never understood it or found it funny, and a drag queen sneered at my clothes once so that kind of sealed the deal for me (not as part of a performance, we were both guests at a wedding!)

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:12

Scotlass123 - what offends you?

I’m guessing you are also a Scot. Remember Russ Abbot? See yeeee Jimmy? What a hoot.

Every Scot shown as a mean, penny pinching, incomprehensible, thick, miserable bastard - but hey, it’s all in jest!

HandsOffMyRights · 18/08/2019 09:14

Woman is not a costume, yet so many men believe it is.

I've never liked drag and the treatment of women by TRAs makes me more sceptical of any man who parodies what they believe a woman to look like.

I've yet to meet a female impersonator (be they a drag artist, a male wearing 'women's clothes' for kicks (AGP) or a TW) who wears what most women I know wear - jeans and a plain top/trainers, say. It's always a sexist, sexualised version (kitten heels, stockings, glitter etc).

It is offensive to me as a woman.

0pheIiaBaIIs · 18/08/2019 09:18

Scotlass123 I hate living in a world where misogyny is not only still a thing, but it's celebrated in the media and if women don't like it they're branded offended/over sensitive/killjoys etc. That's what I hate living like.

I'd hate to be the sort of person who's offended by women being angry about all this, tbh.

0pheIiaBaIIs · 18/08/2019 09:22

My daughter is gay and a few years ago was in the audience at an event where a drag queen was compere. He singled my daughter out and made fun of her clothes, how unfeminine she was etc. The place erupted with laughter. My daughter - who was 18 and not long 'out' - left in tears.

Tell me how this celebrates womanhood, please?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:22

Maybe it’s also to do with the imbalance of female comics. A man dressing in drag overcomes this doesn’t he?

I can think of loads of famous men comics (or ‘acts’) but not nearly as many women ones beyond the sidekicks or ‘straight (wo)men. But go to somewhere like the fringe and there are loads of women on stage.

Don’t they get the success? Why is that? Don’t we think women are as funny as men? Do we not take them as seriously?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:25

Tell me how this celebrates womanhood, please? It doesn’t. It celebrates men taking the piss.

I hope your DD has got stronger as a result of this and is ok in her skin. It showed the real face, eh - many a true word spoken in jest and all that - it gets ugly beneath the surface and the act was showing how some people think.

Society still accepts males (in their many guises) over women / lesbians any day.

Fraggling · 18/08/2019 09:28

Yes many men, really do see women as little more than stereotype and accoutrements. We're sexual or sexualised objects/ objects of ridicule, simultaneously. No more than a set of clothes and a stereotypical personality 'type'. Bitch. Ball breaker. Man eater. Frump. Man hater. Pick a personality type, and the costume that goes with it, and off you go, and there's no more to us.

This sad demonstrated really well when there was a man who had a drag persona on big brother. In his usual clothes he was a young gay man and the others got to know him. Then he got done up in his drag act, which involved the trappings (as most drag acts seem to) of 'sexy lady'. Big hair, short skirt, high heels. Makeup with big eyes massive lashes etc. He did a good job. The men were very very uncomfortable. Why? Because they had the signals in their head to say 'here is a sexy lady' but it was a man. It was a man that they knew who had put a dress on and some make up. They were confused by it. Why? Presumably because to a lot of men, the trappings are what says someone is female, someone is female and sexy...

This is a real problem for women if it's true but we've always suspected it, I think. Men do seem to overly judge women and girls based on what they wear and put them in a 'type' and then behave accordingly. She was wearing a short skirt! What did she expect. Etc.

Anyway I digress. Gay men are of course a subset of men, and not immune to misogyny.

Drag reflects the 2d characters that men believe women actually are. That women are a costume and a set of cookie cutter personalities.

OneEpisode · 18/08/2019 09:30

Lots of pp saying things like”Comparing it to the Minstrels is just rude!”. Maybe have a look at the history of the Black & White Minstrels. The Minstrel Shows reaches a peak of popularity after slavery, when black people had all those expectations and some rights and stuff. The shows were putting black people back in their place with caricatures and nice songs and jokes.
And drag, men dressing as a caricature of women, was invented in those black and white minstrel shows. It’s even on Wikipedia...

Fraggling · 18/08/2019 09:32

What other historically oppressed group, a group that is still subject to gross oppression in many parts of the world, is it OK for the dominant group to dress up as and caricature?

Fraggling · 18/08/2019 09:35

Drag was before that. Pantomime dames have been around for yonks.
Drag in gay clubs has gone on forever, years back when being gay was illegal and the clubs were v secret.

Black and white minstrel show was, what, 50s?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:36

I remember it on tv in the 70s.

Fraggling · 18/08/2019 09:37

Google it eg allthatsinteresting.com/famous-drag-queens

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:39

Yes we all know it’s been around since for ever - doesn’t make it right though.

Early 20C - women didn’t have the vote and that wasn’t ok either.

BertrandRussell · 18/08/2019 09:39

Why is drag popular? Because men hate women.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:40

Doesn’t explain why some women seem to like it.

OneEpisode · 18/08/2019 09:40

Les Dawson and Dame Edna are part of the English panto cross-dressing tradition. Edna was a mid/late life character.
Drag is a USA thing. The glam costumes. set to music and imitation of a sexy female. That’s the Minstrels. Look it up!

Whatwouldbigfatfannydo · 18/08/2019 09:42

@Fanciedachange1

That photo is exactly the problem. Femininity seems to only exist in the stereotypical trope of women dolled up to the nines, caked in makeup, hair perfectly done, big boobs, tiny waist, sky high heels and revealing clothes.

That right there is not femininity, it is only a man's perception of femininity. Confused Two entirely different things, with one being quite obviously incorrect and, frankly, insulting. It is the reinforcement of these misogynistic stereotypes that is damaging real women. FWIW, rarely have I seen an actual women live their daily lives looking like that. Although, for some reason we are expected to. Hmm

And I'm sure some pp's will agree that disliking drag is not about the fact that most performers are gay. It's about the fact that they're men. I am not part of the LGB community so won't pretend to know their struggle. But, the creativity that drag performers put into their acts would be much better placed finding a different way of 'expressing' themselves without caricaturing the mere existence of another oppressed group. At the very least it is crass and insensitive. But it's gone further than that, it is contributing to the culture of regarding women as a group to be mocked, devalued and continually reminded of their place at the feet of men.

Fraggling · 18/08/2019 09:42

I'm not saying that makes it OK.

I'm saying the idea it was invented on the black and white minstrel show is rubbish.

Why do you think I would have had such a sudden and complete turn around in views so incredibly suddenly?

0pheIiaBaIIs · 18/08/2019 09:44

Why is drag popular? Because men hate women

No other posts needed on this thread because this sums it up.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 18/08/2019 09:44

In ye olden days men dragged up to act on stage as it was seen as one step along from prostitution for women. It was just a workaround for the stage.

Drag - hmmmm I’m now thinking about US beauty pageants for little kids when they are made up like little Barbies. Nonononono. Just wrong.

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