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

[INXS998]

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.

I quite like a good drag queen. I'm straight female and find a good drag quite amazing, bit of an odd weird crush on them. Never gone out my way to see one so never seen the bad ones. Which to be honest good on them if their happy.

Agreed @Insideimsprinting, the good ones are truly hilarious

The queens on ru-paul seem anything but happy though....and they are so quick to knife each other in the back too.

someone said it was exploitative earlier and I think they are right.

When the only vaguely exceptional or interesting things about your 'act' is that you are doing it while in possession of a penis, you should really REALLY quit show business.

What a load of tosh it’s celebrating women it absolutely is not

Have watched one episode of drag race what a bunch of nasty self absorbed people but that in itself has become a parody of what a drag queen is certainly nothing about talent

Saying that I find Dame Edna very funny and also found Lily Savage and Les Dennis character funny

I have seen a drag all star show it was ok after the first few acts it’s was boring (drag queens impersonating female singers)

I'd like the people saying they like Drag to post us some links to examples (vidoes) of Drag artists they like so we can all see what exactly you enjoy about them.

---------

I think it's a very sad day when women need RuPaul to help them accept and love their female bodies. Why do we hate ourselves so much? Surely the misogyny of some Drag Queens contributes to that self hate (even sub consciously?)

Agree Dame Edna is funny. But then Barry Humphries is a funny bloke. When he started doing Edna he was taking off a type of suburban Melbourne housewife iirc.
Then he says she took over and became a monster. I feel the Edna character is a vehicle for Barry's wit not an outlet for his disturbed youth or as a means to escape the homophobia of his social group....thinking of some of the stories I've seen on RuPaul.
Remember Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders doing the men? That was funny in a similar way but the difference being it highlighted the disparity between men and women.

I have found this thread really interesting in that it is overwhelmingly against drag. Like many, I went to them throughout the 90s . I feel that anyone thinking that they are acceptable in the way they portray women today is perhaps looking at only the superficial elements of the acts. The dressing up and what is supposed to be humorous including the names. Maybe you should look deeper and see the dehumanizing effect to woman these acts are contributing to in the name of entertainment. is there an element of unwillingness ? Or will you just continue to cherry-pick the ‘good’ and deny the blatant misogyny that underlies the genre.

I find drag extremely misogynistic. If men want to ‘celebrate’ me then they can do so by paying me equally, refraining from sexually harassing, assaulting or murdering me, and supporting my access to reproductive rights and equality in the eyes of the law. I don’t need to be ‘shown’ how to dress and make up like a pantomime caricature of femininity, thanks.

Barry Humphries also parodied men. Sir Les Patterson is gloriously awful.

I have no issue with men choosing to wear make up. In Georgian times it was normal. Ancient Egyptian men wore eye make up. Bowie, Bolan, Adam Ant, Boy George, Pete Burns (before he wrecked his face) all wore make up and were totally mainstream.

I can accept men playing female roles where it is used for historical accuracy e.g. if someone was staging Shakespeare as performed in his lifetime or Japanese Kabuki.

However, unfunny misogynistic parody leaves me cold.

@Nowayorhighway, drag queens are absolutely classed as Transgender under the Stonewall definition.

Ello I'm confident that someone will post very, very soon to give us some specific examples of how drag has done all those things ...

I'm also confused as how questioning the opinion of others, pointing out unacceptable things drag does = hatred? Anyone able to clarify that for me? See, I consider calling your stage act Anna Bortion pretty hateful but then I'm not edgy so guess I get my (plain and not vaguely sexy) knickers in a twist easily.

I'm sorry I know I shouldn't say but I couldn't help but giggle at the use of "womanface".

If you remove the word 'womanface' from your statement and replace it with 'blackface', you will see how your opinion is deeply offensive.

Or do you just genuinely believe that women don't deserve the same level of respect as POC when it comes to appropriation?

Ask yourself this. When a drag artist is challenged to make himself and his partner look identical when one is white and one is black, why doesn't he shade his skin to match colour? Because that would be offensive right?

But he will perfectly happily teeter around on the highest heels, with his arse hanging out of the shortest skirt and coat himself in eyelashes and lipstick to look like a 'woman'.

Can you really not see the comparison?

If men want to ‘celebrate’ me then they can do so by paying me equally, refraining from sexually harassing, assaulting or murdering me, and supporting my access to reproductive rights and equality in the eyes of the law.

Well said, @ElloBrian.

I'm also confused as how questioning the opinion of others, pointing out unacceptable things drag does = hatred? Anyone able to clarify that for me? See, I consider calling your stage act Anna Bortion pretty hateful but then I'm not edgy so guess I get my (plain and not vaguely sexy) knickers in a twist easily. confused

Yep- I dont get this either. Apparently, pointing out how we find aspects of drag mysogynistic and offensive is "hateful" according to some yet the act quoted above isn't? WTF? How does this even make sense?
Just the name of that drag act is hateful as fck. If you cant see that then there really is something wrong with your reasoning skills.

Women celebrating drag is like africans celebrating blackface.

I think it’s great men want to wear bright colours and play with face paint and dance and sing. Go male liberation! But why can’t they do that and still call themselves men? It’s sexist and offensive to call a man a woman because he’s dressed up in stilettos with sexualised clothes and shaved legs and make up like some 1950s fantasy of a sex object.

It’s insulting to women, implying that make up hair and clothes are what make us female.

It’s unfair to straight guys with no mental health issues who’d like to wear bright colours and dance and sing without being associated with the whole drag delusion.

And the way the drag scene use phrases like “fight the haters” to crush any hint of free speech by actual women is beyond creepy.

Basically it’s men telling women what women should look like and how to feel and talk about that. So I’m not keen on it no.

So much hatred and anger

And why exactly shouldn’t women be angry about misogyny? It’s a perfectly rational reaction.

Basically it’s men telling women what women should look like and how to feel and talk about that

Just as they’ve always done. They defined what femininity is, what a woman’s place is, how women feel and what they want, our sexuality, our place in the world. Even now I hear men talk about shows like Fleabag and say how it’s women trying to act like men. No you dick, it’s women finally writing themselves, and we get to be fully rounded humans rather than the simpering one dimensional damsel in distress used as a prop to your manhood that you wrote us as.

Frankly I’m sick of it, women should be able to define themselves in this day and age.

I'm also confused as how questioning the opinion of others, pointing out unacceptable things drag does = hatred? Anyone able to clarify that for me?

Me! Me! I can clarify for you. You're not being nice. You're not playing nice, you're not being accepting, you're not being a 'good girl'. You're being difficult or as a Drag Queen might say, 'You're a Shady Bitch.'

POC have had the 'chip on your shoulder' thrown at them for decades in order to get them to STFU and stop pointing out racism and inequality. 'You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about that.'

Well ladies, you seem to be full of anger towards these lovely men who are just FABULOUS and BRAVE when you're just nasty little fish. They are bringing out the inner (spiteful misogynist) them and it's to be CELEBRATED.

See all those Drag Queens and gay men marching for women's rights Over there. Can't you see them?

No. Neither can I. Must have blinked.

I'm confident that someone will post very, very soon to give us some specific examples of how drag has done all those things ...

I'm not. Several of us on here have repeated asked for specific examples of how drag "celebrates" and "respects" women, as claimed by its advocates. Not one example has been forthcoming.

@GCAcademic Well they wear sequinned dresses and high heeled pretty shoes so that clearly respects women doesn’t it? Not sure what more we want!

Well, I for one am not going to stop watching RuPauls Drag Race and attending drag shows to appease you neo-feminists.

Peace out.

What’s a “neo-feminist”? Was that meant as an insult?

I think they mean 'neon' - we glow in the dark now.

Reading so many great examples as to why drag is so hateful and offensive that echo my own feelings is really amazing. I feel so understood in a world that gaslights women to force them to shut up.

I feel so understood in a world that gaslights women to force them to shut up

Love this! 👍