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??

Exactly. An attempt not just to normalise transvestites but to glorify them like they’re gods. It’s not inclusive, it’s a big laff at being us women.

I still have a soft spot for Pauline Calf - such a brilliant character

Yes, really funny! Of course Steve Coogan hasn't created characters to belittle women.

I believe the BBC have two fairly limited LGBT etc journalists who were kept employed when lots of other effective journalists were made redundant. These 2 produce lots of drag queen stories and other puff pieces while usually ignoring all the relevant but challenging stories about Cass, the stream of court cases or any issues that highlight the problems with trans ideology in terms of safeguarding children or women's rights?

The bbc now needs to be defunded

Part of the great conspiracy. No borders, no sex defining boundaries, no trust, no basis for sanity, own nothing, obey. eta: and when you won't obey or are of no value to your masters, die.

@AstonsGerbil thank you for saving me the effort of having to watch it to find out. I was thinking of sitting down later this evening to catch up and would have been mighty pissed off. I'll watch the latest Strike instead.

Sorry I should have put spoilers on my original post! I was just so pissed off about it as I thought strictly had finally returned to its normal self again this year after all the scandals and the ending of this year's strictly (the actual strictly) was heartwarming. I was so annoyed about the Christmas special. Switched it off too and put Vengeance most fowl on instead. Which I recommend.

Is the Strike series good then? I might give it a watch. Will see if it's all on iPlayer.

I’m somewhat confused….if it’s racist for a white person to use dark makeup, change their accent and play the part of a coloured person-why can men dress as women & it’s become acceptable, nay entertaining?
I await the pile-on?

@AstonsGerbil, I was genuinely thanking you for saving me the time and annoyance, not being sarcastic .

I've had to start watching the previous series of Strike (Troubled Blood) to remind myself of what happened. I listened to The Ink Black Heart on audible and found it hard to follow because of the way it was written - lots of text / forum exchanges between characters which were hard to follow when listening but probably fine if reading on a page, although I would be interested to see how it translates on to screen. DH started watching it but said he found it hard to get into.

From the brief clip I saw it seems a new character in BBC’s silent witness (or is it waking the dead?…but the only with Emilia fox) may be TG.

Is the Strike series good then? I might give it a watch. Will see if it's all on iPlayer.

They're very good, albeit not as good as the books. They’re on iPlayer up to and including Ink Black Heart.

There's already a thread about it here.
There was one on SCD and also one on Blankety Blank.
It's so tedious

Please can someone explain the appeal of drag? MNHQ TWEAKING TITLE TO POINT OUT STRICTLY SPOILER IN THE OP http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/5237734-please-can-someone-explain-the-appeal-of-drag

Sexuality unlike age, sex and race isn't visible.

A drag queen is a clear visual for LGBT+ inclusion. (99% are gay and it also fits in with the ambiguous trans umbrella).

So I think for the BBC drag = gay + trans.

It's very strange, it's like saying, Hannibal Lecter won an Oscar, instead of Anthony Hopkins.

I remember when the trans community hated drag. They didnt like the use of pronouns, the superficial idea that clothes alone make a man a woman, and the comedic element of men dressed as women. So I'm not sure whats changed?

Maybe its gay men pushing their dominance in the LGBT family. But i think men are using the bbc to push female impersonation as 'family friendly' and gay therefore not a sexual threat to women and girls.

I notice the Strictly winner goes by he and she pronouns which is an attempt to remove the recognition of sex which is key to tra.

Spot on.

Because this is obviously what we women do all the time - fondle our boobs and leak urine 😡

I remember when the trans community hated drag. They didnt like the use of pronouns, the superficial idea that clothes alone make a man a woman, and the comedic element of men dressed as women. So I'm not sure whats changed?

TRAs whinged to Channel 4 when they used the extremely misogynistic term "fishy" on the Big Fat Quiz of the Year because it implies that there is something physical about being female. Women also complained that it was offensive and misogynistic. Guess who got an apology?

I remember that @Ereshkigalangcleg Really nasty term to use.

It's not just the BBC. It's everywhere, increasingly so.
Dh has been to two separate corporate events this year and all the entertainment at that was based around drag acts. That would never have been the case even just two or three years ago. The industry they're in has nothing remotely to do with drag and tbh the most likely speaker or entertainment in the past would have been the exact opposite type of thing (also not ideal!)

I have been thinking about Drag as I have been disliking it more and more recently and I didn't feel that way before. While I never loved it, it was fine and could sometimes be funny.

I also read the thread that Posh linked to earlier. On that thread a poster dismisses those who do not like Drag as bigots. So, I have been trying to work out if my change of feeling towards Drag is unreasonable.

In the past i can remember my friends' Dads dressing up as Pantomime Dames for the local am-dram panto. I remember the Queen video where they all dress up in Drag inspired by Corrie. I can remember how that caused Queen issues in the US, but how it just was funny for everyone that I knew here in the UK (and how stupid the US was for not getting the joke). I thought about the sketches in the Two Ronnies and also Lily Savage. The wonderful film 'Some like it hot'.

What these all made me think of was how funny it was. The men looked so silly as female impersonators. Even the Lily Savage character was - to me - a bloke that looked so silly and that it what was funny, I was laughing at the man. Freddie was the funniest because he still had his tache! Then there was the Eurovision winner with his beard.

The more modern Drag (Drag Race inspired, which I have watched BTW) that I have seen just doesn't have the same feel of laughing at the bloke dressing up and looking so silly. It is moving to the women that they are pretending to be being the butt of the joke. I see this more and more, and the more it swings that way, the less I like it. The less we are allowed to laugh at men looking stupid in womens' clothes, the less I like it.

Maybe some will find these thoughts unreasonable. Maybe there was always Drag where taking the piss out of women was always the aim, maybe it had just passed me by? However, I guess that the important point for me is identifying who the butt of the joke is, as that is a big factor in how I react to it. Maybe my feelings towards Drag will continue to change. Maybe one day, I will decide that it just isn't funny anymore full stop? Time will tell, but I am definitely moving in that direction. Hopefully, I will always be able to enjoy 'Some like it hot' so maybe I won't get all the way there.

I really do believe the modern beauty standard for women is based on drag. The heavy makeup, the extreme enhancement of facial features and curves. The crude caricature of womanhood has become an acceptable mainstream look. I do believe it has made the acceptance of cross-dressers as women easier for society.

That's actually a really good point. I was wondering why so many girls and young women go for the extreme fake look.