Drag...

[CurlewKate]

I have an issue with drag. I accept that most people disagree with me, and it's completely main stream. All fine- I'm old and the world changes. But I need someone to explain something to me. There's a drag artist on Celebrity Masterchef. Their name is Cheryl Hole. How can this not be read as offensive to women? Am I missing something?

Why would society care more about this being offensive to women than they do about the many, many, other things that are?

I think it’s a prerequisite to have a drag queen on any BBC ‘Celebrity’ show nowadays, all it does is inch me closer to giving up on paying the TV licence.

And I see they’ve got Ritchie bloody Anderson on it, they are desperate to make him happen. I was half expecting him to be announced as Ken Bruce’s replacement on Radio 2!

I was enraged when I saw that too. I am so sick of drag. I have always hated it. I love watching Masterchef with my 12 year old daughter and now I am going to have to have a conversation about drag and all the annoying ways it is misogynistic.

The name doesn't have a non-offensive meaning,does it?

Yeah. I thought exactly the same. The Beeb loves a bit of misogyny 🤷🏼‍♀️

And how is a drag queen that nobody has heard of a celeb? Masterchef is getting as formulaic as Strictly 🙄🙄🙄

Wait until you hear about Ana Bortion and Miss Carriage.

I have an issue with drag. I accept that most people disagree with me, and it's completely main stream. All fine- I'm old and the world changes.

I think you'll find that there are a lot of people who don't disagree with you.

I fail to understand how it's acceptable to dress as a parody of a woman but not acceptable to wear an Afro wig.
It's not just a parody of a woman either, it's a highly sexualised parody of a woman.

Those names...those men are sick.

I gave up on Gardener's World and also my tv licence when a drag queen gardener was featured. It seems that the BBC must get drag in to every fucking programme and it really pissed me off.

@PurpleChrayne I'm well aware of those-and worse.

It's a play on Cheryl Cole as she was in a drag act with others performing Girls Aloud.

Maybe it means bum hole because he's gay?

Think you're reaching to take offence here a little.

Just came on to here to post but can see OP beat me to it. To use the name Cheryl Hole is about as offensive as its gets. It's the language of someone like Andrew Tate and I don't see how anyone can not see it as mysogeny.

@StaunchMomma "Think you're reaching to take offence here a little."
I get the puns. I'm not taking offence. I'm angry at the misogyny. Why are they "Cheryl Hole" and not, for example, "Cheryl Mole" if all they want is a play on words? And is Masterchef the place for bum hole jokes?

Wasn’t there a drag queen on MasterChef before?

Is this a new series of MC? I’ll be complaining about the misogyny, especially that directed at Cheryl Cole (although think she’s back to something else now). I wonder if they’d direct that kind of nastiness towards anyone else other than women.

@BabyStopCryin "Wasn’t there a drag queen on MasterChef before?"

Yes. They were called Kitty Scott-Claws.

@BabyStopCryin yes there was! Can’t get enough of them obviously at the Beeb.

Can we all complain please. I’m getting fed up with this none sense.

Well no one is stopping you from complaining.

@Anotherblueday Can you help me understand why this is OK? Misogynist "humour" on a family TV show?

Where did I say it was OK?

A man in a dress should be normal.

Depending on the man and where and why he is wearing it, he could also be someone to look up to. Alternatively he could just be a bloke getting on with his life in what he wants to wear.

A drag queen is not just a man wearing a dress. It's a man deliberately appropriating the cultural garb assigned to women, which carries a lot of social baggage that he as a male does not expereince or appreciate, to create a pastiche, larger than life character based on stereotypes and social constructions, is very rarely (not never, but rarely) someone to look up to.

He's appropriating something he doesn't understand for money and cheap laughs. He's like the music hall acts and their TV and film light entertainment descendents who would perform as an "Egyptian" or "Red Indian".

So while the idea of A Man in A Dress in a culture where Men Do Not Wear Dresses might seem edgy and progressive on the face of it, at the end of the day a drag queen is just another man taking up opportunties and cultural space that could have gone to a women, in a world already well weighted towards male people.

I'm sorry-@Anotherblueday-your response to @LizzieSiddal suggested to me that you did. My mistake.

And I have no problem with men in dresses. There is more to drag than a man in a dress.

I remember him, he was on drag race uk when it was good. I thought the name was funny…
but only in its specific gay night club cabaret context. It IS inappropriate and sexual, and trying to pretend like it’s just a harmless pun is insulting to everyone involved.