Drag Queens, are they outright offensive?

[Sophds]

Now I’ve never been the biggest feminist, I know that’s probably not the best way to characterise myself on a feminism board but I don’t want to quickly be dismissed as wrapped up in groupthink.

Read about todays protest at the tate modern against drag queen story hour and I’ve not read enough in to the story hour thing to have a strong informed opinion about that specifically it got me thinking aren’t drag queens just a misogynist version of black face?

I’ve never really thought too much about it and have never really had an issue with drag queens but now I just feel like something doesn’t sit right with me about men dressing up with hugely caricatured female features and caricatured stereotypical female behaviours that often cross over in to overt sexualisation.

I just feel like the entire idea of drag is to caricature and degrade women? Does anybody else feel like this?

PumpkinspiceLeggongs
I don't know. I'm very divided on this. I know older drag queens that were really just closet gay men that didn't have a healthy way to express themselves or meet men like them in a safe way and drag was their escape

We’re in this mess because we were kind to some men who didn't seem threatening and we felt sorry for them. Other men have used that to trample over every boundary with glee and hatred for us.

Pantomimes have existed long before the BBC ever did, but nice try.

Degrading and insulting.

And adult sexuality needs to stay away from children.

In the context of children's story time though?

Danny La Rue was probably the most famous ' female impersonator' of the 20th century. He played both drag queens and pantomime dames and described them as completely different art forms. There's just no way he would have taken his adult drag act into a children's school or library.
But Danny could sing , dance and tell jokes. His act wasn't a crude mockery of women.

A local garden centre ran drag nights, and the names of the acts were horrible.
Can't remember any, mostly iffy puns, one which was a distortion of my name. They were a good source of plants, but for that and some other racist stuff, I no longer use them. The names were designed to put women down.
I sometimes come across Hinge and Bracket on the radio, and I don't feel 'off' about them, though I don't see the point - rather like Archie Andrews! I think they like women though. Like Les Dawson and friend, and the Pythons.

It's funny, I don't know quite how to analyse it, but there are certain female impersonators who don't grate. Probably Dan La Rue, Dame Edna, Dick Emery. You don't detect misogyny behind it.

but today's drag, has a different flavour. There's a meanness to it.

I get what you're saying Datun. I felt the same about Lily Savage/Paul O'Grady. These mainstream comedians from years gone by didn't seem to be putting the knife in to real women in the way today's drag queen's do. There's a real seediness in their behaviour and costume today and they should be nowhere near children.

Yes. Drag is as offensive and derogatory as blackface.

The RuPaul style of drag is sex clown porn performed by attention-seeking sexists and narcs.

Old school British drag is end-of-the-pier silliness performed by actual comedians.

there is a wide range of drag, some absolutely not suitable for kids but some very much family friendly and in the pantomime tradition.

its interesting how many people here refer to Lily Savage as some kind of paragon! Paul O'Grady was vehemently opposed to drag as a " family friendly" artform, and would NEVER have done storytime! He saw drag as a political art, his drag was fiercely class-based and very much a lefty viewpoint that was angry, hilarious, and full of heart. Do people forget that Lily was a backstreet prostitute??

we have actors and comedians doing jackanory on cbbc despite their adult oriented resume? does every aspect of a performer's repertoire need to be PG rated for them to be able to deliver a wholesome performance??

i genuinely dont get the problem with actors reading books to kids

Modern drag, as others have said, is black face for women.

There is no problem with actors reading books to kids. What makes you think people are saying there is? The problem is with drag queens with their outrageous costume whose acts are based on sexual innuendos and misogyny. Why should little kids be exposed to a male whose genitals are clearly outlined in some ridiculous outfit.

So bored with this shit.

Just get people with normal clothes in to make reading normalised. Reading is a perfectly normal thing to do.

ive never seen a drag queen do these events in the costumes you are describing, just like teachers don't wear revealing clothes to work.
As i said in my post..... there are MANY different versions of drag, not all is sexualised

that would be great too.....
Have drag queens REPLACED this? or have they filled a role that wasn't being served previously?

my local library has hosted 1 drag queen storytime as well as a few "disney princess" storytimes from actresses and singers, and some "dad" storytimes from volunteer parents. i think the variety is pretty cool actually

No doubt like most people on this thread, I've seen them. The images and videos are shocking. It is so inappropriate and even abusive.

Drag queens are deeply offensive to me. But there is such a thing as the 'right to offend', which the deeply offensive Stephen Fry has spoken about. I am also offended by pre-pubescent girls wearing hijab, and there are lesser offences such as 'go toilet' 'go shop'. I try to shrug off things that merely offend me and reserve my deepest ire for things that outrage.

I think the thing about the issue is not that they exist. But that they have been lionised, glamorised and celebrated. That the BBC is actively focused on them. It normalises the message that women should be caricatured and is a costume.