Drag - Fun or Fundamentally Insulting

[hellosumner]

Triggered by the strictly line up thread I wonder how people feel about drag.

YABU - Drag Queens are incredibly witty and talented and they are not insulting women by dressing as an exaggerated version of the female sex. It’s funny and clever.

YANBU - Drag is woman face and any other type of comedy based upon stereotyping a group in an exaggerated manner would be seen as unacceptable.

I’m not offended by drag queens, but nor do I find them particularly funny or entertaining.

I think there’s also different types of drag queens - the kind who are men who like blasting out Shirley bassey with a fabulous costume on and some tame jokes I see as a kind of art form in itself (they couldn’t perform in quite the same way while dressed as a man) - it’s part of the theatre.

The hyper-sexualised, demeaning to women kind of drag queen is a different sort of act. Again I wouldn’t be offended but, I wouldn’t elect to go and see it (I wouldn’t elect to see anything hyper-sexualised in that way).

I generally think we shouldn’t be offended by comedy that is exaggerated versions of stereotypes, being able to poke fun at ourselves is a good thing on the whole.

Easy enough to opt out if you don’t enjoy it.

I just find it rather tedious and rarely funny.

In a show - brilliant and v witty usually

in primary schools - not approval !

so depends on the setting and context

Drag is woman face. Can you even begin to imagine a white performer blacking up and being celebrated and fawned over? Virtually everyone would be horrified by the Black and White Minstrel Show these days but we're all supposed to be cool with drag. I don't get it

🙄 at womanface.

How is Blackface unacceptable and Drag still accepted?

Because Black people are known as discriminated against so there is a compensatory level of awareness in place.

whereas Women are uniformly agressed against, parodied, raped, harassed, and ….oh well, boys will be boys, even if they happen to wear nail polish.

it’s disgusting and repellant and a huge stain on our culture.

I didn’t vote because as some have mentioned, I’m not offended by it in the slightest but I also don’t think it’s funny, just not my type of humor.

It’s easy to opt out of racist comedians too but I’m not sure that’s relevant.

It’s men appropriating women and taking the piss out of women. It’s offensive, it’s not funny. It is grim. YANBU.

Love drag.

being able to poke fun at ourselves is a good thing on the whole

We are not poking fun at ourselves though are we? It's men poking fun at women.

Would you find it amusing if white men poked fun at black men?

A woman couldn't show up in such sexualised clothing, hair, make up and carry out family shows. That's my issue. I know that drag is traditional in panto, but an older woman wouldn't be as accepted and thought of as funny, or get a way with the sexualised jokes a older drag Queen does, it sums up sexism with the double discrimination of ageism for me. I find it particularly distasteful when they are making insulting jokes about older women, as though it's directed at them, when they are just playing dress up.

I find it a little bit creepy. I hate some of the names.

I'm not "offended", but do not choose to watch drag shows as I guess I just don't "get" it.

Why eyeroll?

How is it not womanface?
1 in 4 Woman are raped by men in their lifetime. Men are aggressors towards the female sex. men dressing up stereotyping women in an over sexualised way is womanface

I think the vast majority look utterly stupid.

And the few who look beautiful are utterly creepy.

Putting drag in the same category as racism and black face is insulting, it’s not the same at all.

Personally I find the costumes and skill some of them have amazing. A lot of it now is androgynous and based on characters with awesome make up.

This

I find the old fashioned acts like panto dames and Dame Edna funny, but the new breed of highly sexualised drag acts are offensive and unpleasant.

I lean towards YABU because I do find some Drag hilarious and don't find the stereotypes involved offensive on a personal level. Nor do I think the goal of Drag is usually to demean women. It seems to be more about playing with gender roles and creative self-expression... and often of course picking low-hanging fruit for generating laughter through crude jokes and shock factor.

I just don't believe that most people who enjoy Drag will be taking a woman-hating message from it in any way.

I don't like the way you've phrased your options though as of course many Drag performers are just a bit shit. There are also very different types of Drag and I don't find it all equally to my taste.

I also appreciate that some might argue that Drag is no different from, say, blackface, and that the only reason Drag is acceptable where blackface is not is because women are not seen as a group deserving of respect. I don't buy the comparison completely but nor can I totally dismiss it. I guess I worry about Drag a lot less because it isn't about a majority stigmatising and mocking a minority, and because the people who do Drag will all have women in their lives with whom they are connected, whereas white blackface performers might have no connection with actual black people. I don't think the power dynamics and intentions within Drag are the same, not least because men who want to express feminine aspects of themselves or dress in a feminine way have historically been marginalised themselves.

In any case, I just can't get fussed about it, and I love watching Ru Paul's Drag Race for the outfits and the moments of human warmth, even though I have to fast forward through 75 percent of each programme to avoid the irritating parts.

Please can you explain how it isn’t the same.

Both groups are oppressed by the group the person imitating them comes from.
Both groups have a person from the oppressing group dressing up to imitate a stereotype of them.

I do agree with the early poster who said there are more than one type of drag queen and the level of misogyny varies.

However, it can’t help but have tinges of misogyny whatever type it is, so I think now is a good time to leave it behind.

Somewhere in the middle?

Its mocking, but also idgaf about drag itself.
I am terfy af, but I dont care about drag queen's or the public toilets part of the discussion

They do not offend me, nor do I think they are making fun of women. It certainly isn’t ‘womenface’ and cannot be compared to blackface.

why?

because race is something you are born with and blackface denigrates everyone of that race. Whereas make up, big hair and dresses are not uniformly ‘womenly’ I don’t wear make up or dresses, and men can wear them if they want to. It is not inherent to who women are

Depends on the drag artist.

I don’t mind the old school drag artist - Lily Savage or Dame Edna Everidge who were a bit of fun. Not so keen on the more modern, sexualised drag queens, some of which have some very dodgy names. Love a good, traditional, pantomime dame.

Lily savage is easily my favourite ever comedian. However I felt Lily was more of a character than a drag act