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.

Also if you have to use the word bigot you have lost the argument. People are allowed different views

I don’t have anything against drag per se but I just don’t understand the push to take it out of club culture into the spotlight - why do children need to be exposed to it well before they are even legally allowed to go out partying?

No, he didn’t do it for that reason. Stop trying to twist it. He did it cause he was just sick of acting that out. He wanted to do something different for a bit that really wasn’t the reason why he stopped doing it.

Wrong. He did it for the reasons I have already posted, he said so in his own words.

@PeachyKeane I think you are using the word 'attack' rather loosely there

"I find it interesting and that I’m amazed by how they can transform themselves so much"

Good for you. Many of us don't. And no amount of aggressive shouting and swearing from you is going to change our minds.

You think that accurate representation of our society's make up on TV is comparable to drag? Really?

I don't mind drag and appreciate it is a long standing art form in the gay world. I have done my time at Madam JoJos and Tranny shack (those Queens were terrifying!)

I do find the current mainstream obsession with drag as an indicator of modern diversity and inclusion a bit embarassing and basic. Oooh aren't we edgy cos we like watching men in make up and dresses. I mean my grandparents enjoyed watching Danny La Rue FGS.

This has already been raised on the thread, but unaddressed:

But I see drag queens as gay men who are also persecuted.

It's a huge assumption of yours that drag queens are gay. And who is doing the persecuting?

You dress up like a pantomime dame and act either 'bitchy' or sexually aggressive.

It's a form of entertainment that appears to be about performing a parody of women, taking some of the common stereotypes (ie 'bitchy') and taking them to the extreme.

I don't personally find it entertaining but different people like different things.

People don't like it when you say this but you absolutely can compare drag to the black and white minstrels. People used to find that parody very funny. It was considered great tv entertainment. .

This is no different. Over the top ridiculous make up and performing stereotypes. 🤷‍♀️

Indeed.

Not sure that was what Mrs Merton meant when she said "let's have a heated debate" 😜 🤔

Lily Savage has had a few mentions. Paul OGrady I think was one of the last in line of “female impersonators” that were on the telly in the 70s, 80s and 90s including Barry Humphries, Danny La Rue, George Logan and Patrick Fyffe, and Les Dawson. All created funny female characters but they were an act, and we got to see the performer in interviews etc as much as the act. I’d even put Caroline Aherne/Mrs Merton in the same category. The difference with today’s drag is that the drag character appears to be an intrinsic part of the performer.

I have no problem with men wearing make up or dresses (teenager in the 70s and 80s, it was de rigeur) and challenging gender stereotypes. However, in my view modern drag celebrates and reinforces gender stereotypes and that’s one of the reasons I dislike it so much.

Being black is not something you put on through choice.

Danny LaRue was brilliant, so were Hinge & Bracket.

They were not attacking women in any way.

Male non-drag comedians telling MIL jokes are far more anti-women.

I am reading these posts in the style of Vicky Pollard.
Which is ironic really. 😂

What do you think about drag queens pretending to be disabled as well as women? Is that acceptable?

This is my view. I've been to 'funny girls' in Blackpool and 'Molly Mogs' when that used to be in London. Was far less polished and just a bit more warm than the drag queens I've seen on tv.
I'm not interested really and it tends to make me switch over if there's a drag queen on a programme.

Yes but, No but.....

People say it's misogynistic, but I don't agree. They're not trying to accurately portray women. It's a celebration of camp, gay, bawdy humour.
As a woman, I don't feel offended. However, at the same time I don't find them funny. It's just not my sort of humour. It's too over the top, too in your face. I prefer more subtle humour.

Agree with this too.

I don't find it offensive or really see it as an attack on women but I've never been interested in watching it. I find it boring and unfunny.

I think the person making the comparison to Jim Davidson has it right. It's offensive 'comedy' which I don't enjoy. So I don't watch it. I can't get worked up about them having one on strictly as they managed to not make an comments that were offensive to women.

"They don’t do it to attack women" - yes, I agree. But performers using blackface didn’t do it to attack black people, yet most people would find that completely unacceptable now. I don’t see the difference.

Has no-one ever explained to you that talking about "pearl-clutching" is using a lazy cliche to denigrate women who you imagine are better off than you, or socially superior to you, and who have the effrontery to hold an opinion you disagree with? Perhaps you think it makes you seem somehow more "working class" or "authentic" or something. It doesn’t - it just makes users sound like silly people with a chip on their shoulder. And it has a whiff of misogyny - I’ve never met a "pearl-clutching" user who has a comparable derogatory term they use for men.

If drag Queens are not a grotesque offensive version of women then "blackface" is not a grotesque offensive version of black people .
But they are.

I really dislike drag queen entertainment, but I do marvel at the make up skills and wish I was half as talented at applying makeup.
I've not heard of drag kings before, going to google it now.

I feel that the BBC in particular try to push drag into loads of programmes and it puts me off watching.

Looking back, I wonder what people / we were laughing at with some of those. I liked Lily Savage, but some of the humour is so dated it’s like mother in law jokes. With the distance of time, it’s interesting to think what was actually going on. A way of getting at women. There weren’t female comedians making mirror jokes about men.

I don’t think that they were challenging stereotypes in the slightest, they were cementing them in.