Drag on BBC

[Ariana12]

Is anyone else moticing the Beeb obsession with drag? Can anyone explain it? I used to enjoy drag acts in the old gentle days but how did it all become so crude? And why is it de rigeur fot our kids to know all about the sexualised version??

Here's an insider's viewpoint of how the BBC's tedious obsession with drag has evolved and is sustained:

https://thecritic.co.uk/why-is-the-bbc-so-obsessed-with-drag/

I find it really off-putting - I can no longer separate drag from the Trans stuff and takeover of female only spaces.

There's a link at the bottom of the article posted upthread to another written by Jo Bartosch where the link to transgenderism is a little more explicit

https://thecritic.co.uk/the-bbc-can-be-a-drag/

It's box ticking isn't it.

Because they obviously think that men are more entertaining as women than actual women are.

It does suggest an ingrained misogyny at the BBC that there's so little critical thinking about grotesque over sexualised representations of women. But then the BBC did air the Black and White minstrels for many years so presumably haven't intellectually evolved since then?

I would agree, and your comparison is apt.

Those articles are very enlightening, thank you for linking to them @MrsOvertonsWindow and @lcakethereforeIam

The BBC's drag obsession is pretty obvious and I can see why now. My family play 'hunt the drag queen story' on the BBC news website, we usually don't have to look very far

My theory is that the BBC produces too much Drag Race, the contestants then get picked up by agencies after the show ends, and then they proliferate other BBC series. Maybe there's also something in their contracts that means the BBC gets money from future appearances, too, which happens on other reality series. ITV won't touch them because Drag Race is a BBC show, so all the drag contestants are restricted to the BBC, which is why they turn up on everything on everything BBC, which in turn promotes Drag Race and gives the entire nation drag fatigue, and the whole cycle repeats with every new series. And obviously none of the performers are recognisable outside of drag in the way say Paul O'Grady was, so they always have to appear in drag instead of doing something else as themselves.

Basically there are too many Drag Race contestants and the BBC doesn't know what to do with them and has gone with the old scattergun approach (to appeal to younger viewers?)

If you want this nonsense to end, Drag Race has to go first.

And a drag queen won the strictly Christmas special this year too. Referred to as she/her. It's just insulting.

I don't find drag funny, entertaining or interesting. It just making mocking caricatures of women. For me it's a niche, cabaret style act for adults in nightclubs etc. aiming it at children just seems bizarre. And saying it's to do with artistry of makeup and costumes? Well just be a fashion designer or makeup artist. You don't need to pretend to be a woman.

I don't either. Why is it on mainstream tv?
Strictly is a BBC flagship show, on primetime Christmas Day. How is this person a "celebrity"?

You have articulated my feelings precisely, @BobbyBiscuits.

This is very interesting. Yesterday I saw a drag act on TV (it wasn't actually on BBC to be fair) and I suddenly for the first time realised how offensive it was. Nothing to do with trans, just a man standing there fondling his "boobs" and pretending to be crossing his legs to avoid any "leaks".

I began to wonder whether EVERYTHING I do is meant to be laughed at!

I was going to watch that until I saw that a drag queen won.

I was - and to an extent, still am - a fan of drag. But good drag, the Lily Savage/Les Dawson/Julian Clary end of things. It’s clever humour that has something to say and plays on social expectations. No one thought they were women, just men playing a part.

The shite the BBC peddles (and what I suspect is popular generally now in drag circles) however, is just lazy. At best it’s all style and no substance, at worst it’s harmful misogynistic bullshit. And it has no place anywhere near children.

But hey, it ticks a lovely big DEI box and shows how progressive the Beeb is

'Granted, it takes skill to lip sync and dispense sarcasm while wearing skyscraper heels. But expert analysis of paediatric policy isn’t part of the drag package.' 😂(Jo Bartosch https://thecritic.co.uk/the-bbc-can-be-a-drag/)
The devil may have all the best tunes, but I think we have the wittiest writers😄

The other evening I saw a clip of an old drag routine in a Tv comedy show - I think the comedian's name was Dick Emery - with the punchline 'OOh you are awful but I like you'. I guess this was from the time when drag was just clean family fun, which is what the BBC etc would like us to think again.

What struck me was that the drag character was presented as a figure of fun, I'm tempted to say slight mockery? Like the way he clearly hadn't mastered walking in high heels without going over on his ankle. He certainly wasn't presented as anything socially significant, and you certainly wouldn't ask him for his opinion of the Cass review🙄

Danny LaRue mostly tried to look incredibly glamorous and diva-like, and Lily Savage added a fag to the corner of the mouth and a streak of sarcasm to the glamour, but that's all Daniel Carroll and Paul O'Grady did - they put on the shimmery frocks and the make-up and played a role, vesti la giubba and all that, but didn't go around acting as if they were women in everyday life.

The 24/7 drag queen presenting a grotesquely ugly caricature of femaleness, who never stops being she/her, is courted by the media to represent the trans movement, and seems to be top of the list for any TV show, is a recent phenomenon.

I'm not saying that drag was OK in 'the good old days'*, but I think the current manifestation of drag has added layers of misogyny.

*but please don't ask me to comment on Dame Edna, I have to confess that my principled feminist position on men dressing up as women flies out the window when it comes to Dame Edna😏

"One BBC staffer says: “It’s become a running joke in the team, especially among Gen Z members. ‘We need more drag guests’. Israel? ‘Drag’. Brexit? ‘Drag’. Terrorism? ‘WHERE IS THE DRAG?’”"
That's an interesting article, thanks @MrsOvertonsWindow.
I didn't expect it to be the younger staffers who find this preoccupation ridiculous.

I don't really go on X these days but had a quick look this morning and this thread happened to catch my eye regarding the Strictly Christmas special:

https://x.com/JournalistJill/status/1871566550391791748?t=mmRZ7dgF6EW5-5nCej2BMQ&s=19

I've added a couple of screenshots from the thread below for anyone not on X. I'd imagine that the Google cached version has now only got the updated "she" text.

What's particularly interesting/concerning is that someone with editorial control decided it needed to be changed; that "he" wasn't an appropriate way to describe a man in drag.

It's a news article... and this is a deliberate decision by the BBC to avoid (by actively replacing) accuracy in its reporting. Even if the BBC has given up on impartiality, by pushing an agenda that supports gender identity belief as fact, it should at least recognise the difference between reality and performance in its news reporting.

They are consistently allowed to actively promote this type of "news" in what appears to be a significant blindspot for Ofcom as well.

Just from this Critic article - this is a relatively new development:

As for the Nations and Regions, they’re in an odd situation. They upload material to their own websites without central oversight. The team at New Broadcasting House in London controls only what they put on the front page and the UK index. It’s odd because about three years ago the BBC’s editorial leadership developed a central commissioning model for news and current affairs, so that bulletins, website and programme output is rather more consistent. But the Nations and Regions commission and publish their own content. If they wanted to publish rubbish, there’s no one in London to stop them.

Nations and Regions didn't used to have no oversight. There used to be a central desk in Birmingham which controlled all the stories that went on the BBC website from the regional teams. And they were really successful - far moreso than the terrible regional TV and radio stations, which get barely any audience nowadays. But in 2019, they made the Birmingham online desk redundant and, since then, there's all manner of rubbish - including these drag stories - flying on to the website, totally uncoordinated, unplanned and uncurated. This is the BBC website - it should be publishing the pick of the strongest news stories around the country. Instead, it's doing this and completely alienating its audience in the process. And not one person there seems to be accountable for it.

The pronoun thing with drag is weird. And really pretty new. At one time, the only time you heard female pronouns used was when you were referring to the character - not in general use for the performer. Maybe some of the men used female pronouns when in private song themselves, but I think that's quite different than expecting the general public to use them.

I'd also tends to separate female impersonators, or sketch comedy acting, from drag. They are different because they are not trying to do the same thing.

It's absolutely ridiculous. I've remarked before about the sheer quantity of DQ 'stories' on the BBC website, which seems to extend far beyond even the contestants on Drag Race. It just shows all too clearly how captured higher echelons of the BBC are. I agree with PP that this modern phenomenon has little in common with Lily Savage etc. Probably because Paul O'Grady didn't hate or fear women.

Can’t abide it. Sexualised womanface even before the watershed.

'Before the watershed' is the whole point. That's why they want them in schools.

Isn’t the director general of the BBC very pro-trans/drag?

I saw that headline. I really don't get why they're referred to as she - surely the whole point of drag (as opposed to trans) is that it is actually a man dressed as a woman? (yes I know that many would say the same of trans m2f, but that's more controversial)