Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder if a lot of people are still against drag ?

743 replies

INXS998 · 12/02/2020 21:41

Shows like Drag Race have become incredibly popular. I have tickets to see the live show in May, and I think drag culture is amazing. It shows how far we have come that such a show is so popular on TV, and I think it should be celebrated.
I asked some friends if they wanted to come to the show with me and they very firmly and quickly told me that they were not fans of that sort of stuff.
When I was a teenager, I used to think Drag Queens were just some middle-aged men on Canal street with a blonde wig and high heels, and I was quite intimidated and scared of them in a way. I wonder if some people still feel that way, and don't judge them for it, just curious.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
6
Mossyfern · 12/02/2020 22:06

It definitely seems trendier now. I get the potential "men laughing at women" undertones but apparently female drag queens are a thing too now, so not sure where that fits - more info en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_queen and there was an episode of The Untold on R4 about it.

CallofDoodee · 12/02/2020 22:07

Calling a drag queen who may pass as an actual woman 'fishy'.... Nope, no misogyny here to see at all Hmm

PixieDustt · 12/02/2020 22:08

I love watching RuPaul and drag doesn't bother me when they behave like human beings towards one another.
What bothers me is some of them turn into vicious little bitches when in drag and use drag as a cover up for their bitchyness.

Sagradafamiliar · 12/02/2020 22:08

It shows how far we have come

What do you mean?

PixieDustt · 12/02/2020 22:10

I also don't understand how you can be a drag queen if you're transgender. Not being mean but if you're transgender you've already made the change to a woman you can't 'drag' yourself up because you've already made the switch.

eurochick · 12/02/2020 22:13

It's men doing womanface. It's misogynistic and offensive. I can't think of many things I would be more reluctant to spend money on tbh.

powershowerforanhour · 12/02/2020 22:14

I think I have said this on the same subject before: I don't like it because it reminds me of the viciousness and misogyny of this:
God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another. You jig, you amble, and you lisp; you nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance.
Men ripping the piss out of women- not in a fun, kind-at-heart way, but making women out to be ridiculous, unhuman caricatures, tottering about out-bitching each other and smelling of fish. Fuck that, sideways.

Gay men don't get a free pass to be shitty to women either. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Fairenuff · 12/02/2020 22:14

Dress like a man's version of a woman. All hair, makeup, tits and arse. Make fun of women. How is that entertaining?

3rdchristmaslucky · 12/02/2020 22:16

^I don't believe it's mocking women, I think it's celebrating them. Some drag queens are transgender.
I think many of the contestants have suffered a lot and some are disowned by their families, or they have not told them the truth about their career.^

You can't identify as a female and then be a drag queen. That's not how it works.

There are crossdressers all over who I take no personal issue with. Because they are doing what feels right to them with no harm to or mockery of others.
However, drag specifically appropriates the traits of females, exaggerates them and serves to benefit no one but the man committing the offence.

Samhradh · 12/02/2020 22:18

As others have said, if you don’t find blackface acceptable, why is womanface fine? I have genuinely no understanding why anyone other than entrenched misogynists are ok with it.

I think you got off lightly, OP. I’d have been very clear about exactly why I found your invitation outrageous.

Warmfirechocolate · 12/02/2020 22:19

I used to see drag shows when I was younger, as I had a gay male friend who dragged me along...
Sorry about that.

I used to get picked on by the drag queens as the only woman there.

Most of them were really funny. I thought that they were very sharp, in the way that you can only be if you’ve had deep pain. I imagine being a drag queen you’d have got some terrible bullying at some point.

However I don’t know now. All the aggressive stuff about men needing to be totally accepted as a woman has put me off. Maybe the scene has changed?

Antihop · 12/02/2020 22:19

It bothers me. It's mocking womanhood. There seems to be an obsession with drag queen shows for children lately, which I find baffling.

finnmcool · 12/02/2020 22:21

I don't like drag. I don't see why it is being pushed at children either. Why the need for drag queen storytime in libraries? Just no.

Winesalot · 12/02/2020 22:22

Celebrating women? I cannot agree when they use the term ‘fishy’ In relation to how well they pass for women. I watched two drag queens read a question regarding ‘fishy’ on tv on Boxing Day complete with waving of hands around their genitals and screwed up faces. No celebration of women there that I can see.

MrsJamin · 12/02/2020 22:23

Cannot stand it. Men performing femininity in a grotesque and mocking way. And no I don't think I would go to a pantomime again either. I don't understand why some women collude in the "joke".

Starksforthewin · 12/02/2020 22:36

Totally agree with 3rdchristmaslucky and the majority on this thread.

I wouldn’t go to a drag show if you paid me. Just another form of misogyny, dressed up with make up and glitter. Fuck that.

NextdoorNeighbourIsATwat · 12/02/2020 22:43

I find it as entertaining as blackface.

Which is to say, not at all. Not even slightly.

It really feels anachronistic at this point. Needs putting in a box with Jim Davidson and racism.

CallofDoodee · 12/02/2020 22:44

I don't believe it's mocking women, I think it's celebrating them.

How, exactly, does drag 'celebrate women'?

What a load of bollocks (no pun intended).

ActualHornist · 12/02/2020 22:44

Drag queens aren’t transgender, I just wanted to put that out there. The two shouldn’t be conflated suggest you check out the ‘trans umbrella’.

I dislike it for all the reasons stated above. It’s not ‘a bit of fun’. It’s offensive womanface.

To wonder if a lot of people are still against drag ?
TorkTorkBam · 12/02/2020 22:45

How do you think it celebrates women? In the same way that being catcalled is a compliment to a woman?

Anyway, if a mate suggested we go to a drag show, I'd react like they'd asked me to go watch burlesque or go to a strip club with them. No thanks. That's not the kind of relationship we have. Keep your sexualised entertainment out of our friendship please.

MorganKitten · 12/02/2020 22:46

@INXS998
I know a lot of the drag race casts and have friends on most seasons.

I had a lot of drag queens and kings as friends I understand the culture, last time I mentioned it on here people said I supported sexist behaviour- wrong, yet people said drag kings weren’t offensive as they were women... and no one answered the bio queen or king questions.

I’m not going to go backwards and forwards again with anyone on this as no one would answer questions just repeat the same thing.

If you enjoy it awesome, if not up to you.

nocoolnamesleft · 12/02/2020 22:47

Womanface is not funny. It is misogyny.

MorganKitten · 12/02/2020 22:48

@3rdchristmaslucky You can't identify as a female and then be a drag queen. That's not how it works.

Yes you can, Tete Bang, Holester, Lolo Brow... all London bio queens

TorkTorkBam · 12/02/2020 22:48

Needs putting in a box with Jim Davidson and racism.
This

TimeMarchesOnNeverEnding · 12/02/2020 22:51

I don't know where I sit on this yet. I love drag race and always saw it as men recognising that women are bloody magnificent and wanting to live that for a bit.

Then I saw stuff about 'womanface' and can see that side of the argument too.