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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Drag socials banned by Aberystwyth Uni student union

42 replies

Signalbox · 05/09/2020 10:49

This strikes me as particularly bizarre...

Aberystwyth University student union bans drag socials, not because they ridicule women, but because they ridicule trans women.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8698723/Drag-socials-banned-university-student-union-fear-used-ridicule-trans-people.html

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highame · 05/09/2020 11:00

What a bit of a puzzle. Do Aberystwyth students think MTF transpeople look like drag acts? or do drag acts look like MTF transpeople.

Puts a bit of a kibosh on TWAW

Cailleach1 · 05/09/2020 11:03

Isn't it ironic? Have they banned blackface because it could be offensive to Rachel Dolezal et al?

Cailleach1 · 05/09/2020 11:07

According to wiki, Rachel Dolezal is an American woman known for identifying as a black woman while being white.

Hmm. Strangely, when someone just identifies as a woman, the equivalent of those last three words are left off.

highame · 05/09/2020 11:12

This debate just gets dafter. I think there has to come a point where no debate will happen, as TRA's and woksters want, because we'll all be laughing too much to respond Grin

raddledoldmisanthropist · 05/09/2020 11:19

'Including "Drag socials" as an example of a banned theme is because they are usually about members of random groups dressing up as the opposite gender in a general way that has the intention of being as funny as possible

Oh the humanity. What sort of monster would try to be as funny as possible.

Still I doubt the SU can ban a particular type of event from the uni, as reported. Presumably it is just banned from SU facilities.

aliasundercover · 05/09/2020 11:58

From the DM article:

Aberystwyth SU said: 'Including "Drag socials" as an example of a banned theme is because they are usually about members of random groups dressing up as the opposite gender in a general way that has the intention of being as funny as possible and not as a celebration of LGBTQ+ pride or sexual liberation in the same way that drag is.

'If a society or club wanted to organise a drag social to celebrate drag and LGBT pride then the SU would be supportive of that and would put students in touch with relevant people who could help make that event a success.

Coping with such extreme double-think must surely interfere with your studies.

Signalbox · 05/09/2020 12:18

What a bit of a puzzle. Do Aberystwyth students think MTF transpeople look like drag acts? or do drag acts look like MTF transpeople

Puts a bit of a kibosh on TWAW

Quite. I mean it strikes me, if you follow the logic of TWAW, that it should be transphobic to suggest that TW have any more reason than women to be offended when men imitate women.

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xxyzz · 05/09/2020 12:23

Drag Race is phenomenally popular with that age group.

I imagine Ru Paul would be unimpressed to find drag being banned because TW objected!

Redshoeblueshoe · 05/09/2020 12:32

I loved the comment I don't understand what I just read

Antibles · 05/09/2020 12:33

You couldn't make it up, could you?

They don't give a shit that drag is offensive to actual women! Only apparently to males who identify as women.

Misogyny squared.

mejon · 05/09/2020 13:03

And if you check out the AberPride FB page, you'll see that they have no problem in arranging Drag Nights as part of their ents programmes. There's also a really handy guide to some of the eleventybillon different 'genders' and their accompanying flags Hmm.

Doyoumind · 05/09/2020 13:08

I just don't know where this right to be offended will end up. They just sound ridiculous.

I am not a fan of drag but the last people any men who put on women's clothes are trying to emulate are TW.

Siameasy · 05/09/2020 13:20

..thus proving they and everyone else know that TWAM otherwise it would not need to be said

yourhairiswinterfire · 05/09/2020 13:35

So men who dress as women are being told by men that dress as women, that men dressing as women is offensive. Grin I think this wins as the most bizarre one yet.

Vermeil · 05/09/2020 14:19

Sooo...they’re basically saying TW look like men in drag, so that’s why it’s offensive? That’s what I’m getting from that statement. Huh.

WeeBisom · 05/09/2020 15:35

I remember a poster campaign a few years ago in the USA, after Caitlin Jenner was on that magazine cover, that discouraged students from dressing in drag for Halloween. It featured a very po-faced trans woman, arms crossed, with a speech bubble saying 'my identity is not a costume'. I thought it was pretty ironic.

persistentwoman · 05/09/2020 15:54

@yourhairiswinterfire

So men who dress as women are being told by men that dress as women, that men dressing as women is offensive. Grin I think this wins as the most bizarre one yet.
Grin Grin

This is where all this nonsense leads.

NearlyGranny · 05/09/2020 16:19

What is the 'trans femme experience'? Anyone?

NearlyGranny · 05/09/2020 16:52

I've googled it and only got more questions now! It seems you can be femme if you're a woman or a trans woman or a non-binary person, but you need to be gay, according to some femme writers.

The key part of being femme that they all talked about seems to be grooming, clothes and makeup. Femininity as perceived by the world.

Suffrajester · 05/09/2020 17:34

Isn't it a good thing for people to blur gender norms? I remember the rugby team having a drag social when I was a fresher, the more "feminine" lasses in the dorm had a laugh helping them dress up. The best bit was one of them "passed" pretty well to drunk men and got chatted up by a big creepy dude who wasn't taking "no" for an answer, and he and his mates suddenly got a lot more perspective on how their own behaviour came across to women. And just how arduous and how big a waste of time makeup and hairstyling is, so they didn't expect their girlfriends to do it so much after that. I used to have a laugh dressing up as a drag king sometimes too, and taking the piss out of traditional masculinity, lolloping around the place and scratching my armpits, it's harmless fun and if done right, can undermine and mock gender stereotypes rather than mocking women or men.
In the later years of my degree they had some system where you could wear a wristband to show you were in drag rather than expecting to actually be perceived as the opposite sex, which seemed a bit redundant given how OTT drag is, but I guess it kept everyone happy. Banning it altogether would imply that it really ISN'T that obvious that it's a silly drag performance (I would've thought a party wig or a beard made of fake fur would've been obvious but apparently not), and it gets to the point where you're expecting people to dress according to their assigned gender norms or else "identify as" something different. Which puts us right back to the start of imposing gender norms on people based on their sex.

Particularly interesting to me is that the rugby club also regularly had socials where they'd dress up as "homeless people", but that was never condemned as classist, even though it was largely wealthy kids straight out of public school taking part in those ones.

slug · 05/09/2020 19:32

So it seems men mocking women is OK but mocking men who mock women isn't.

calllaaalllaaammma · 05/09/2020 20:16

Purity spiral continues to spiral onwards the world seems to be being completely re-ordered according to the likes and dislikes of transwomen.

Wandawomble · 06/09/2020 01:50

I’m a fan of Drag Race and love Rupaul, but does this mean that they will try and ban drag full stop too?
Getting the popcorn out

FairPoint · 06/09/2020 01:57

oh poor tw being ridiculed. not that females ever are Confused

Signalbox · 06/09/2020 10:38

I’m a fan of Drag Race and love Rupaul, but does this mean that they will try and ban drag full stop too?
Getting the popcorn out

I'll join you with the pop corn. I've seen some feminists calling for drag to be outlawed on the basis of it being "woman face". Personally I am not a drag fan but I don't find it particularly offensive either. I've read all the arguments against it and I remain unconvinced. Also I think I care more about freedom of speech and freedom of expression than I do about being offended by stuff. But I have to say the idea that drag/cross dressing might be banned because of the offence that it causes to TW, when nobody has cared less when women have objected to it, is rather jarring. I suspect they'll leave drag queens/gay drag out of it and just target student union straight men on drunken nights out or cross dressing for halloween etc.

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