Please can someone explain the appeal of drag? ***MNHQ TWEAKING TITLE TO POINT OUT STRICTLY SPOILER IN THE OP***

[CurlewKate]

Watching Celebrity Strictly last night, it was obviously set up for Tayce to win. Why? A group of celebrities of varying degrees of charm and bumble- then they are all soundly beaten by a clearly skilled dancer who's a drag queen.
There have been drag queens on Sewing Bee and Masterchef and House of Games. And loads of other shows I can't remember.
What's the appeal? And why no drag kings? Strictly has been great at featuring same sex couples- why not do more of that?

I would love it if we could discuss this in a way that doesn't get the thread deleted, so please post with care.

As a child I remember the Black and White Minstrel Show.
Lots of song and dance numbers- pretty white girls dancing with white men with blacked up faces. The singing and dancing was good- people loved it, it was "only entertainment ". Why on earth were all those silly people (the real black people) offended by it???

Drag is like that to me- I don't like it at all.

and there does seem to be more of it on the BBC than there has been since the 70s, the last time mocking women for light entertainment was A-OK

I find it baffling. it's on the same spectrum as pissed up rugby tossers who find it hilarious to wear fake breasts

just because it's often performed by gay men doesn't mean it's in some way OK. gay men as a group don't like or respect women any more than straight ones

But they are not doing it as a major attack on women and some people say it is it’s an art form. It is what it is. I don’t feel my womanhood is any less of a womanhood because of what they are doing. I am not a snowflake, I am secure in myself. I don’t understand why people are so fucking upset by shit when reality is it’s pathetic really it’s just an act.

Could there not have been a fucking spoiler alert? It aired yesterday, there's literally no mention of it in the thread title so you avoid a spoiler and within the first two lines you've told us the winner. It's not even in the TV and film topic so we could even take a gamble on it being about Strictly. FFS not everyone spent Christmas day at home.

This exactly . It's offensive and regressive .

Just because you're shouting the loudest, it doesn't make your version the truth.

Drag is sexist and misogynistic.

there Was drag in the seventies that dick dude then we’re a savage for majority of my life as a child on TV there was always a drag. Yes it’s a bit more now but who gives a shit?

Who's a snowflake? You come here with some massive over reaction because so many women hate it.

Imagine coming on and telling any other oppressed group (females in society are) that they are not allowed to feel a certain way about the oppressor taking the piss out of them.

I dislike it and I always have. I think it appeals to a certain audience with a puerile, base sense of humour.

But again, it’s not stop claiming facts when it’s not you can think what you want. I can think what I want. Doesn’t make it a fact at all and that’s what your side needs to understand.

I decided to watch drag race once as i thought it might be fun. Jesus Christ is was biggest load of most boring, pointless drivel imaginable - and there's plenty of drivel I do enjoy. It was so shite I couldn't even get through the whole of one episode. I'm just at a loss as to how anyone could be entertained by it.

Oh and we do not need drag queens doing story time to little children in libraries either. Keep your fetishes for the adults, preferably in your own home.

It’s rubbish What’s funny about men pretending to be women. Why the need to include in so many shows?

It’s not funny. It’s sexist. It’s misogynistic.

I don’t care if it’s gay men or straight men pretending to be women. It’s not funny.

They do it because they hate women, only very stupid people don't understand this.

How is a woman disliking drag bigoted?

I would say it is similar to black face because it’s dressing up and using stereotypes to portray women/black people for entertainment….

@Workingclasslass OK. You mentioned Cheryl Hole. Can you tell me what's funny about "taking the piss" of Cheryl Cole by using a cruse word for a vagina that sounds vaguely like her name?

I don't associate drag with child abuse, by the way.

You're entitled to your opinion on drag but suggesting drag artists are paedophiles and rapists is unacceptable. Where's your evidence that they are more likely to be than any other group of men? Pure homophobia..

https://thecritic.co.uk/why-is-the-bbc-so-obsessed-with-drag/

But why the need for a man in a dress & makeup reading to a small child? How does this benefit the child?

Men oppress women. They have done so throughout history.

Who they fuck has got nothing to do with their hatred towards women.

You keeping dragging in black people just shows your racism as that has got nothing to do with this discussion.

Is it fuck actually? That’s actually very disgusting to say that because black people were very oppressed and they had to watch where white people dressed up as them while they were getting attacked for being black it’s not even anything similar as far as I know gay people haven’t been oppressing women For centuries

Drag = ‘dressed resembling a girl’ (Shakespeare I think? An old stage direction in any case)

So drag kings shouldn’t be a thing, also modern drag queens don’t make sense either as I don’t know any girls who look like drag queens even when dressed to the nines.

IMO it’s misogynist/mocking of women - if it’s not then why so many innuendos, fishy fanny references for example… I think it’s just not my humour.

Its like what they say about adverts, if you don’t get it then you’re probably not the target market.

Not everybody is gonna like the same humour some people do some people don’t I don’t have a problem with drag queens there you go