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.

Creepy, not funny, always based on the same old tired tropes.

I think it's no better than the "minstrel" shows and one day people will be embarrassed to have supported it. Drag Kings and Drag Queens - both as bad as each other.

Dated, pantomimy, sneery, bitchy, awfulness.

Same.
Each to their own

Really enjoy them if the queen offers something other than the stereotype.

I don’t find it offensive or think they are mocking women.

Can the people comparing drag queens to blacking up please do some research and think on? Cheers

I don’t really care as long as they stay as entertainment for adults by adults.

I always think it’s peculiar that people think it’s okay for men to dress up as women and caricature women yet the same people would say that to put black make up on and caricature black people is offensive (which it is of course). The drag queen act is offensive and it belongs in sleazy joints. It certainly does not belong in children’s story hours as some councils apparently think it does

I've never been to a drag show, it doesn't appeal to me.
I think 'drag queens' insult women by the way they dress and present themselves, and by their (reported) behaviour in performance. The people who do that and those who enjoy it must despise women and hate them.

The history is different but the grotesque appropriation is the same. So no, imo the comparison stands. Drag shows are misogynist and not fit for a respectful society.

All that make up makes them look sinister like clowns. Wouldn't go to see the circus, wouldn't go to see a DQ.show.

I remember seeing a couple
of drag acts in late 90s and they were really funny but it was cheesy innuendo and all a bit silly.

Recently I had the misfortune of having a safe sex stall at a student event which had drag acts as the main entertainment and it was just fetishisation and pornification of femininity. Lots of dragging their scantily clad carcasses across a floor with their arse in the air because as we all know thats the most sexy thing a woman does. There was very little humour and women were constantly referred to as bitches.

Oh we have done research and have done thinking. Would you go and see a show that stereotypes and mocks any other group? Would you go and see a minstrel show? If not, why not?

I'm black and think it's similar to blackface. Mocking a whole group of people who have been historically oppressed, by accentuating their features and making people laugh, by mocking said features. I hate it.

Exactly @DuckDuckDiva i think it’s not just the dressing up. It’s referring to women as ‘bitches’ and ‘fish’. They’re misogynistic as fuck and yet people will happily go and see them who would be violently offended if they did that to any other group.

I honestly loathe it and find it offensive to women.

I think the PP who mentioned black and white minstrel shows hit the nail on the head with it, tbh. How is it acceptable?

We've just declined an invite to a wedding where the theme was drag for this very reason. I don't want to be one of the few women there and mocked all day, thanks all the same, and said that on the RSVP.

They’re the more socially acceptable bookend to the same kind of misogynistic “comedy” as Roy Chubby Brown.

"Can the people comparing drag queens to blacking up please do some research and think on? Cheers"

Could you say some more about this please?

Presumably, they don’t believe women are an oppressed group.
Perhaps they’re male.

I hate it, can't quite articulate why exactly but it just makes me feel uncomfortable and that's reason enough to avoid

Drag is as offensive and demeaning as blackface.

From a values perspective, I find them misogynistic and from an aesthetic/performance perspective, I find them crass and gernerally shite.

I find those kinds of shows to be just as offensive as black face.

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.

Talking of being racist. It's not the struggle of white women is it? -It's the struggle of ALL women.

I’ve only seen the Ru Paul variations and it doesn’t endear me - horrible caricatures.
I may think differently if I saw an actual show.