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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:
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LonginesPrime · 12/02/2020 23:41

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

I used to think that too when I was younger and saw it all as wonderfully progressive and inclusive.

Then I caught on to all the casual misogyny in live drag acts and heard the backstage banter on reality shows such as Drag Race. That's when I realised how hateful and demeaning it is towards women.

I have lots of male gay friends and I've started to keep my distance from many of them socially - they're drag fans and I'm sick and tired of hearing them call each other 'she' as put-down. As a woman, it's just shit to be around that kind of misogyny and I'm not going to deliberately subject myself to that in my friendship groups..

BlueHarry · 12/02/2020 23:42

I really don't understand this "true self" thing when it seems to mean piling on make up, fake eyelashes/breasts and whatever else. Heels maybe, for that true self extra height? Putting on a voice and speech patterns that are different to the ones you use in every day life... I don't get it.
I think I'm always "my true self" because I'm just me regardless of my clothes.

tobee · 12/02/2020 23:44

Being their true self

Or getting their rocks off in public? 🤔

ProclivitiesMcManus · 12/02/2020 23:46

I can understand why people find it misogynistic, but I do enjoy it.

TorkTorkBam · 12/02/2020 23:47

Why is people's true self so often related to sex stuff? Fine, that's what's in your mind in idle moments. Keep it in your head or with your partner. I don't care to know.

Nobody's true self, worthy of celebration as being fabulous, is ever becoming an accountant or a nurse or a mechanic even though those are things many find really quite fulfilling.

VeryQuaintIrene · 12/02/2020 23:49

So what's the consensus on drag kings?

Sagradafamiliar · 12/02/2020 23:55

Oh god, GC, those photos! (I think my kids would shit themselves and run off if faced with that)
I'm going to have to google what the ideology is behind that. The presented one, anyway. I just find this so depressing and I don't mean that lightly. I'm starting to feel like I'm becoming 'out of touch' and alienated in this world. Some things aren't ok. Yet I look around and they're being heartily accepted as normal.

Rocketship · 12/02/2020 23:57

OP I absolutely love drag queens and think they celebrate all the good things about being a woman Smile don't understand how or why people would be offended but to each their own I guess.

BoomBoomsCousin · 12/02/2020 23:57

There's still quite a lot of misogyny in some drag performances but there can be a lot of artistry too and the good ones are great to see. I think they tend to be fairly raunchy and their acts tend to be heavily focused on sex so they aren't really suitable as a focus for young kids. Drag Queen storytime at the library seems nuts to me. But I don't think kids will be instantly corrupted because they see someone in drag, it's just that - why would you have someone deliberately put on that persona to talk to young kids when it's is so heavily associated with grown up entertainment. It's like having it sponsored by Absolut Vodka.

LonginesPrime · 13/02/2020 00:00

I see drag kings as different as that's an oppressed class sending up the oppressors and shining a light on their own oppression.

Whereas drag queens are just cheap shots at the oppressed. Sure, many of their jokes are supposedly self-deprecating as often drag queens are gay men - but they're making the joke that they're almost as awful as women. So they're still taking a pop at women: the lowest of the low.

The4thSandersonSister · 13/02/2020 00:10

Panto and Drag both boring dress-up for adults masquerading as entertainment IMO.

tobee · 13/02/2020 00:10

*celebrate all the good things about being a woman
*
That just makes no sense to me.

Ronnie27 · 13/02/2020 00:14

I just find it all a bit brash and unfunny, don’t see the appeal at all.

InglouriousBasterd · 13/02/2020 00:15

don't understand how or why people would be offended but to each their own I guess.

Read the last two pages to get an idea?!

NameChangeNugget · 13/02/2020 00:20

It’s all a bit wanky

TheLionInside · 13/02/2020 00:44

I’ve seen Drag Race a few times. They don’t strike me as...mentally healthy human beings, shall we say.

It all felt a bit exploitative to me.

AutumnRose1 · 13/02/2020 01:02

I’m the opposite

I had no problem with it in the past

I remember a gay friend telling me he was uncomfortable with it and couldn’t quite articulate why

Now we both think it’s a problem because it’s a weird idea that somehow thinks it crosses over into womanhood.

He used to hate it if I got chatting to a drag queen on a night out. I thought he was being weird but now I understand the discomfort.

AutumnRose1 · 13/02/2020 01:04

OP “ I don't believe it's mocking women, I think it's celebrating them”

In what way does it celebrate women?

AutumnRose1 · 13/02/2020 01:06

Pixie. “ 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.”

But self identification means that a person hasn’t made any kind of switch.

PapayaCoconut · 13/02/2020 02:14

I have never seen a drag king and I don't think many people even know they exist. There's most certainly no equivalent of "Drag Race" starring women. So it's not a comparable cultural phenomenon.

VeryQuaintIrene · 13/02/2020 03:39

I think they are more common than your experience suggests, even if they aren't as mainstream.

1forAll74 · 13/02/2020 04:29

It 's supposed to be just entertainment really. Drag queens can be funny, ridiculous, and over the top, but nothing to get in a tizz about. I would not pay to see a drag show, but don't have any issues with them.. I did quite like Paul O' Grady as Lily Savage though !

TorkTorkBam · 13/02/2020 04:36

The Black and White Minstrels were just entertainment too. They were popular. I bet nobody would describe objecting to them as getting in tizz.

Blackface, womanface, demeaning stereotypes, what's the difference?

TomPinch · 13/02/2020 05:05

Nobody's true self, worthy of celebration as being fabulous, is ever becoming an accountant or a nurse or a mechanic even though those are things many find really quite fulfilling.

This.

It's just exhibitionism.

This drag thing is a fetish, and already had a perfectly appropriate and accepted place in society as that.

They don't need to be reading to children in the public library.

Only if you say so, you are at risk of incurring the wrath of the sea green incorruptibles that insist we all affirm and celebrate the fetish.

(There's little mention of the bloke who got hounded to suicide for protesting against the bizarre library thing).

I find it all a drag of a different sort tbh.

BovaryX · 13/02/2020 05:25

I think drag is an offensive caricature of women. Its dominance at a time when plastic surgery and the porn aesthetic has colonised popular culture is not a coincidence. As for drag storyline? How much kool aid is required to think this is in anyway appropriate?