What do you think about drag shows?

[AWorriedMum]

Just as the thread title says, really. I have a relative who’s been to a couple of these. I’d just like to see what other posters impressions / experiences of these shows are like.

Doesn't bother me one bit or another. Happy to see one equally happy not to.

Some are funny some are not.

I'm not offended by them.

I really dislike them tbh but I think that's just personal opinion. I don't like the premise, or the sort of caricatures portrayed. So I just don't go / watch any!

I've been to some that have been a brilliant performance and really entertaining and funny and some that have been pretty brutal and not my type of humour. Have you been invited to go to one?

It’s woman face - in an offensive, mocking and ridiculing unkind way.
Black minstrel shows are offensive and not socially acceptable so why isn’t drag?

just another form of misogyny. Men dressing up as sexualised versions of what they think women should be - big tits, sex doll mouths.
They never chose to dress as a knackered, new mum, do they?

Hate them. Imo there is nothing about drag that is either funny or nice to look at. I can't stand the nasty parodying of supposedly female attributes- the simpering, the archness, the sassy bitchiness, the horribly sexist double entendre names etc.

I see it as a celebration of femininity. It's the older style of drag that's more mocking women and women's issues.

That said, there are always different types of drag. You have comedians, singers, dancers, makeup artists, models, actors and even within that, you have some who are more political, some who are cheesy etc.

@Springisclose I agree.

I think it is demeaning to women. There are no drag artists portraying men - that I am aware of anyway.

Why does it exist I often wonder, and have never heard a reasonable reply, other than the "art form" explanation. If as you say the artist was dressing up to portray a trans person or a person of colour, or a disabled person and so on it would be banned immediately, but women and their caricatures are ok it seems.

They bore me out of my brain. I would rather peel my own skin off.

Exactly what people said about black & white minstrel shows. Should we make them socially acceptable again as some people aren’t offended by them and quite like it?

I see it as a celebration of femininity.

Presumably you wouldn't think it was a celebration of being black if white people put on a show impersonating black people though? Surely at the very least it's appropriation, however stylish they look or however funny they supposedly are?

I've always put drag artists (the funny girls cabaret club type) in the same category as clowns. Something creepy about them.

I used to be fairly neutral. Now I think they are fucking offensive and think in the future people will look back and be appalled they were ever accepted.

This

As above.

Woman face/female appropriation.

No because femininity, makeup and dresses etc are exclusively for women. The physical attributes of certain races are exclusive to those races.

I find the very idea of them repulsive and insulting.

I used to think they were funny when I was a teenager on holiday seeing them in bars and pubs on the Costa Del Sol but yeah the older I get the less funny I find them.

Tiresome. Oooh, women's vaginas smell of fish! Hohoho! Aren't I just outrageous! isn't my sense of humour.

This!

No because femininity, makeup and dresses etc are exclusively for women. The physical attributes of certain races are exclusive to those races.

I presume you meant 'are not exclusively for women'?
I think it would be extremely disingenuous to claim that men in drag are just choosing to wear dresses and make-up and are not trying to look like women. The fake boobs are a bit of a giveaway, frankly. Breasts are not feminine, they are female.

Lewd and crude.

Yes sorry I did mean they aren't exclusively for women.

So, so many drag queens don't wear fake books. Many don't even contour on their chests anymore.

I don’t agree with comparing black face and minstrel shoes to drag, I think that’s a weird conflation in white feminism and I do not agree with it. They come from very different histories, and comparing the struggle of white women to the struggle of enslaved people/black people is, at best, ignorant and at worst a little racist.

The oppression of white women and black people definitely intersects at points, but not to be confused with each other. Misogynoir is also an issue.

Anyway on the point of the post, I have seen some funny drag shoes that are definitely an ode to powerful, funny and ironic femininity. I have also seen some terrible ones, and I often find the Ru Paul’s drag shows less interesting than ones I’ve seen in person.

I've been to a drag show which was all music and dancing... no lewd so called jokes. They were extremely good dancers and impersonators. At no point did they pretend they actually were women... they were clear they were men.

The "comedians" relying on misogynistic jokes aren't funny. The offensive names aren't funny.