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.

Grim isn’t it! 🤢

No one owns anything they just are.
Women have Breast drag queens take the piss out of them.
did you not see the X post just back a bit!

I also love dame Edna, just so funny, I think it’s because women could not say those things without being judged so badly. I think Joan rivers was equally funny, but it’s hard for women to be so rude and funny without everyone jumping all over them.
dame Edna was so rude to so many men, and they all reacted very placidly because they knew it was a big man insulting/ribbing them. That was Dame Edna’s power.

I didn't say being a woman. I said femininity. I am a woman who is more or less feminine depending on the day, and who subscribes to some but not all aspects of femininity. Womanhood and femininity are not the same. Similarly, masculinity and manhood are not the same.

@WallaceinAnderland I don't defend bad jokes. Bad comedians are not funny. I just think that the drag aspect is separate. I don't feel offended by drag at all. Equally, I don't always think they are any good, just like I don't think all comedians are any good. There are good drag acts (several PPs have mentioned Lily Savage as one they like, for example) and there are bad ones.

I don’t find it offensive particularly, they don’t represent me in any womanly way. But since the 80s I’ve found them tedious and unfunny, although Lily Savage has made me chuckle.

It's the Blackface of tomorrow.

Or should be, but won't as 'us wimmin' should know our place and accept stereotypical misogyny in whatever form it comes.

They're not mocking glitter and eyeshadow, they're mocking women, and we can no more change our sex than we can our skin.

Woman face, demeaning and dull.

We went to our first drag show last week and it made me uncomfortable. Not because of the nudity. Not because of the stereotyping of women (which others have already discussed in this thread). But because I couldn’t help wondering whether the entertainment was built on exposing personal vulnerability for public consumption. Is it empowerment or are we commodifying difference for amusement? 😕

It's beyond cringe and I never understood Englands fascination with drag humour even before it became a political hotbed.

Personally in the 80's and 90's I didn't find them offensive, because they were not trying to force their way into our spaces, sports, trashing every female led innovation with unnecessary and always lengthy discussion about how to phrase things to suit them (see NHS tying itself in knots about the word womb).

As far as I am concerned if they do drag respectfully to women, fine. If they want to do a crude pantomime caricature of a woman I lose respect for them, as they clearly have us. It's always the ones who don't hide their hatred for women who show the least respect on stage.

If were talking la voix - which we are. Okd school drag, love it - very talented entertainers

If were talking the new breed of oversexed insta filtered "okrrrrrr yes miss fish" vapid idiots - i agree.

I think we're all a bit over saturated with drag now, especially the latter

Cannot see the difference between drag and the old black-and-white minstrels. In the same way I can't see the difference between that Rachel woman who thought she was black and trans women.

I think it really depends on the individual drag queen. My SIL saw one once who did an Avril Lavigne lip syncing act at a gay bar - he wasn’t trying to mock her, he was just a really big fan and wanted to have fun dressing up like Avril Lavigne and pretending to be her on stage for an evening. Like an Elvis impersonator, except for a female celebrity.

I think drag can easily become insulting if a performer uses it that way, but I don’t think the entire concept is “fundamentally insulting.”

I hate the stereotyping of women - the bitchiness, the sexualisation, the flouncing. It makes me cringe.

I dont see what talent there is to it, men put on fancy costumes and sing or act and women then do the same boring wear a tuxedo to pretend to be a man thing

It is not new and interesting just repetitive like they are the first people to wear something different, I dont find it funny, or offensive or anything other than just old hat really

“Drag Queen never claim to be real women or to represent women accurately.”

But neither did Black and White minstrels claim to represent black people. Or even “black face” in Morris dancing. But both are seen now as at least “problematic “.

I have always (and I am not young anymore) found Drag at uncomfortable, actually including some discomfort at other related portrayals such as Pantomime and Monty Python. At least as uncomfortable as past sexist shows such as : “On the Buses” etc

Dame Edna, Lily Savage et al always seemed to be respectful of women, they were hyper confident versions of women, saying the things maybe women wished that they could say but never dared. Where it goes into the bitchy territory is where I have a huge issue. We don't need men in frocks dragging us down even further than men in trousers do already.

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My god! I’ve heard it all now 🙃 ffs!!

But men putting on womanface to take the piss out of women is not insulting? Why?

For those that want to go down the ''womanface'' (ridiculous term) people are born with certain biological characteristics wearing makeup, wigs, dresses is choice and there is no biological characteristic or law that says men and women can or cannot wear certain clothes or makeup or heels or pink wigs or glitter

Then why do drag queens wear fake boobs?