Strictly come dancing are looking for a drag queen for next year

[Campervan69]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/strictly-wants-a-drag-queen-to-dance-in-2020-0bxhln6x7?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1575139580

So we had a gay couple on the ice skating and now they're looking for a drag queen for strictly? Why do we not have lesbians represented or a drag King? Why is it always the male version that gets priority?

I don't get why cultural appropriation is such a big issue and yet no one gives a fuck that men do this when surely it's the height of cultural appropriation when it's a piss take of women.

It just annoys me that it's always the women that have to move over for the men. So in Celebrity Big Brother in the year of the woman one of the women was Willoughby. Then in the Australian show where they eat insects we have Jenner there as one of the women. It is never the male competitors who have to budge over is it?

Campervan, I said exactly that earlier this evening

Well there was a lesbian on STC two years ago but she danced with Kevin. The comedian woman. I think she'd have been gutted if she'd had to dance with a woman.

It's not the sexuality of the person really it's the fact that they're replacing one female with somebody male. So they've had a gay couple dancing for the first time so that's 1 female edged out and replaced by someone male. Now in this show instead of trying to redress the balance and maybe running a lesbian couple they are looking for a drag queen so again somebody female will be pushed out by somebody male.

In his memoirs, Horwood wrote: “A glamorous, female alter ego seemed a fitting way for me to showcase my other talents.”

If CRH, as an ex-drag act himself, is backing it, it's probably going to happen.

I've been a huge fan of SCD for years but it's lost it's sparkle for me this season for some reason. I really don't care who's out or who wins.

And introducing 'womanface' is not going to encourage me to watch next year either.

I enjoyed the Johannes/Graziano dance btw, but it wasn't in the competitive section. There are distinct roles and a male dancing the woman's part should be judged to exactly the same standard

I think of it as "Womanface" too and find it to be just as inappropriate at blackface.

ballroom dancing has different moves for men and women i think? how would an all male couple compete fairly against mixed sex couples?

In its response to the complaints about Ru Paul and the appropriation of females, the BBC has said it is "excited".

This is the problem isn't it?

The BBC views drag as exciting and on trend, without a care for women.

If a white male dressed up as a black woman, would he get a free pass because it was drag?

It is never the male competitors who have to budge over is it?

On Strictly, it was the far more valuable presenting slot where the man was replaced by a woman. And that has endured for several series, and is set to continue indefinitely, whereas the competitors are there only for one.

I thought it was quite sad that in last night's opening "Hello Dolly" number Craig took the role of Dolly.

I'd seen it being rehearsed during the week on "it takes two" and the choreographer closed the piece by asking " but who will play Dolly?" It's an iconic role, I imagined the competition would be fierce among the female professional dancers and that who ever got it would be thrilled.

But no.....the iconic leading female role was given to a man....why? Craig didn't dance at the same level a female professional dancer could in the role.

What other oppressed group could have it's best roles given away to members of the oppressors group and we're supposed to clap and cheer?

ballroom dancing has different moves for men and women i think?

Not specific to man/woman, I think that in dance there is a 'leader' and a 'follower'. Traditionally the man takes the 'leader' role.

Not specific to man/woman

but i would guess that certain assumptions are made about the leader and the follower?

the lifts are done by the 'leader' I would guess?

There's a new producer this series, I believe, which may explain Bruno's singing last week and the Kevin/Anton slot, both of which I thought were below the usual standard. It reminded me of the days when Brucie used to wheel in his mates who were well past their singing sell-by date.

As for CRH as Dolly - well, I doubt I was the only one reminded of some of the threads on here.

I can't read the article, are they proposing to have a drag queen dance with one of the male professionals or the female? Whichever 'role' they would take presumably they'd be marked to the same standard as the other contestants and have the same expectations on them WRT lifts etc.

It could be quite fun to see one of the female professionals dancing with a man in full drag doing the leading role but I don't know whether it would work for a full series.

I was a bit surprised by Craig as Dolly too. What is it with the BBC and drag? As for lesbian erasure, Susan Calman is so far as I know the only ‘out’ woman contestant but there have been more gay men - Judge Rinder, Rev Richard Coles, Dr Ranj.

On one of last week's "It takes two" shows (might have been Friday) they featured the Australian version of Strictly which had already had a drag artist dancing the female role, (apart from the Passo week when the dance was performed as two males).

I was wondering how long it would be before this happened. It's back to Elizabethan times when women couldn't be actors, or anything else for that matter (except queen).

My understanding is that it would be with a male professional, thereby visually a 'mixed--sex' couple - it was seen as a way of subtly introducing same-sex pairings in Australia on DWTS

I must admit the idea of Anton and Dame Edna could be entertaining for a couple of weeks but that's because I find DE subversively funny.

So instead of having 8 men competing and 8 women were going to have 9 men and 7 women ? Nice.

My understanding is that it would be with a male professional, thereby visually a 'mixed--sex' couple

Thinking of this year's Strictly contestants, I think Karim could possibly take on the female/follower role as he's pretty nimble. He could already dance at the start though. Most drag queens I've known are very tall even without the costume. It does depend on whether they'd be a 'serious' contestant.

I'd love it to be Dame Edna though! The key to a good drag act - the comedy should come first.

I think it would be far more ground breaking to have a same sex couple.

There was a thread on same sex couples on chat or AIBU , and someone put up a clip of two male pros dancing together in rehearsal. The really interesting thing about it was it was a dance choreographed for a male/female couple (the pro was filling in for one of the women celebs who'd crocked her ankle). They were very good (of course pros can lead or follow, because they have to be able to teach both). But what I found fascinating was how it shine a really stark light on the tropes of male dominance/female submissiveness that seem almost baked into traditional choreography (because the chorography had been designed with a male/female pairing in mind).

I'm sure same sex couples would bring something new - but I'm also sure they'd choreograph entirely differently (as, to their credit, did Michelle Visage and her partner when they did their two matadors Paso doble). The thing that was so interesting about the accidental two men pairing was the way it brought out the inherent sex stereotyping.

I agree with everyone else that it's so dull and predictable that a move to a same sex competing couple simply couldn't be envisaged with women doing it first.

That said:

On Strictly, it was the far more valuable presenting slot where the man was replaced by a woman. And that has endured for several series, and is set to continue indefinitely, whereas the competitors are there only for one.

This is true. Strictly is one of the few prime time entertainment shows where both lead presenter and sidekick are women. I've always appreciated the show for doing that when Bruce Forsyth left.

Satirical drag can be funny. Camp drag is tiresomely predictable, imo.