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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWalleye
(30,996 posts)RAB910
(3,494 posts)Walleye
(30,996 posts)Ocelot II
(115,656 posts)What they hate about drag is that it's men dressed up as women, because men shouldn't do that. It's not masculine. The loathing of drag is basically a toxic mix of misogyny, homophobia and gender insecurity. Amanda Marcotte has an interesting analysis:
Needless to say, conservatives hate that. The growing fascist right, as represented by the Proud Boys and other MAGA-centric groups, especially hates that. As I've written before, it's important to understand how much the surge of far-right politics in our era is rooted in misogyny. Fascists recruit by appealing to straight male insecurity and grievance over women's burgeoning equality. They motivate each other with the promise that they can return men to some imaginary glory days when the line between the genders was thick and inflexible, and women's role was unquestionably that of subservience to men.
In service to that ideal, they tend to argue that gender is not socially constructed, but a biological imperative. It's easier to cast women as a born servant class if everything culturally associated with women especially the way women are expected to look, walk and talk is deemed to be "natural" rather than understood as learned and practiced behaviors. Drag performers and trans people, simply by existing, throw a wrench into that understanding. They stir up not just queerphobic rage, but misogynistic insecurity about how all of us perform our genders. That double whammy is fueling the redoubled rage against trans people and drag performers we're seeing all around us. More to the point, right-wing culture warriors do not draw fine distinctions between misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. It's one big rat king of gender insecurity and fury for them, one that drag especially aggravates.
Conservatives aren't just unnerved because drag reveals how much of femininity is performative. The thing is, once you understand that, it starts to become clear how much that's true of masculinity as well. Those right-wing militia dudes marching around in camo and wielding assault rifles are, in their own way, doing masculinity drag. Granted, it's a lot less fun than the more familiar version. There's always a grim, sad character to the chest-thumping theatrics of right wing hyper-masculinity. Despite all the showy proclamations of courage and strength, you get a strong whiff of fear and weakness from such behavior. They seem to worry that relaxing, even for a moment, will expose the soft-handed losers underneath the guns and baggy cargo shorts. They most definitely did not wake up like this, and are terrified that we can see that. (Believe me, we do.)
Obviously, it wasn't always like this. Shakespeare's actors were all men, regardless of the gender of their characters. In those days women weren't allowed on the stage - one of that era's expressions of misogyny - so men or boys had to dress as women to play Juliet or Ophelia. And nobody thought the male actors were being emasculated or turning gay by dressing as women - in fact, they understood how much of femininity was performative because they performed it. As Marcotte points out, the MAGAts are performing masculinity drag themselves.
Walleye
(30,996 posts)I know plenty of drag performers who are far more feminine I could ever be. As a girl who grew up in the 50s, I know it was pretty tough not to fit the stereotype. I have nothing but sympathy and understanding for people who dont fit the artificial gender roles.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,986 posts)TygrBright
(20,755 posts)Gender as we understand it today is almost entirely a cultural construct, and its purpose is to maintain a privilegedcis-hetero, oligarchic patriarchy. EVERY cultural pattern and norm is shaped by this. It is true of virtually all cultures on our planet but most intensely so in the wealthy industrialized (and industrializing) cultures where "white" and "Christian" are further used to thin the air at the top of the privilege pyramid.
Roles, appearance, permitted/encouraged tastes in entertainment, choices as to occupation/vocation, acceptable use of leisure time, laws, educational curricula, design, cuisine, architecture, urban zoning, property rights, economics, EVERYTHING is shaped by the imperative to maintain and strengthen the hold of male oligarchs on their top place in a hierarchical social construct.
Gender non-conforming in every form from seeking equal rights and bodily autonomy for women, to drag shows, to binary and non-gender identities are blows against this structure.
And now they're getting scared, because they know just how outnumbered they are, and they know demographics are against them.
I'd love to live until those forces have their final victory, but I think my grandchild is more likely to see it.
wistfully,
Bright
Pacifist Patriot
(24,653 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,724 posts)Republicans that their fellow republicans would trust their children with.
https://www.dailykos.com/blogs/CajsaLilliehook
Ocelot II
(115,656 posts)On May 29, 2015, after Hastert had been indicted for illicitly structuring financial transactions, two people briefed on the evidence from the case stated that "Individual A"the man to whom Hastert was making paymentshad been sexually abused by Hastert during Hastert's time as a teacher and coach at Yorkville High School, and that Hastert had paid $1.7 million out of a total $3.5 million in promised payment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert
Permanut
(5,593 posts)Emrys
(7,227 posts)but I wouldn't want to ruin anyone's enjoyment of their Christmas dinner.
rubbersole
(6,683 posts)Republican American Gothic.
Emrys
(7,227 posts)I'm actually eating my supper at the moment, but I don't have to watch it.
rubbersole
(6,683 posts)Thanks. I guess...😨
Wingus Dingus
(8,052 posts)Cuthbert Allgood
(4,908 posts)Last edited Tue Dec 20, 2022, 02:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Ms. Toad
(34,055 posts)Tommymac
(7,263 posts)Ridicule is potent political weaponry, but it is a two-edged sword if wielded incorrectly.
Mark Twain. Will Rogers. Al Franken. The Meidas Touch. TLP. A plethora of current comics on Social Media. All skilled Jesters in the art of comedic political assassination.
TFG, MTG, Gunner Barbie, Gym Jim, and other stupid Qanon fools are not and they cutoff their own 'noses' (or other 'prominent' body parts) in spite of themselves every single time they try to be politically funny.
Probatim
(2,513 posts)That's why we can laugh at comedians who poke fun at politicians but cringe when they poke fun at minorities, the handicapped, or anyone who doesn't fit their mold.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)thesquanderer
(11,982 posts)...but I don't think respecting a man who wants to dress as a woman was ever on the right's radar.
Torchlight
(3,311 posts)in that as we laugh at characters, we're laughing at their reactions to an absurd world; and thus laughing at our own reactions to the follies, abuses, and shortcomings of our own culture and in doing so, holding them in front of a mirror.
The Golden Ass, Punch (the weekly), Some Words with a Mummy by Poe, and Huckleberry Finn by Clemens are among the primers of this style of social criticism.
Great examples of comedy (as among those listed in the original post) do us a greater service than we may often realize in the immediacy.
Rebl2
(13,481 posts)of this so many times since GQP has decided they dont like men dressed in women's clothing.
Pictures of all the men dressed as women over the years flashed through my mind and conservatives had no problem with them. Also, it wasn't uncommon as a Halloween costume when I was a kid - guys as girls and girls as guys.
A few years back, my son dressed up for a Halloween party as a Playboy Bunny and his wife as Hugh Hefner.
Once again, this is manufactured outrage meant to be divisive. I wonder what they'll come up with next.
twodogsbarking
(9,719 posts)Against the Republican agenda.
Initech
(100,054 posts)And sex should only be for the purpose of making babies.
twodogsbarking
(9,719 posts)Diraven
(506 posts)vlyons
(10,252 posts)Here is Frederica von Stade as Cherubino on Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro."
Can you image them protesting at an opera that has been performed every year for over 200 yrs? Probably never been to an opera. Clearly they have no appreciation for art, irony, or humor.
Ocelot II
(115,656 posts)(That's a wonderful performance, btw) Women acting in men's roles isn't as dick-shrinking for MAGAts as drag (see post #5). But most of the trouser roles in operas before Mozart, for example: Orfeo in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, those kinds of roles in Handel's operas, and Nero in Monteverdi's The Coronation of Poppea, were originally written for castrati. Now they are sometimes sung by countertenors rather than female sopranos or mezzos, which is another instance of gender-bending - a man singing a male role with a woman's voice. Countertenors tend to freak out those who have problems with gender identity (though the Beach Boys technically were countertenors).
Trenzalore
(2,331 posts)As such, for the mouth breathers it is easy to have 15 minutes of hate about it than react to it with compassion and trying to understand it.
My father until the 1990s was convinced all gay men were pedophiles until my mom introduced him to a gay couple he liked. My mother than pointed out to him that most pedophiles were masquerading as straight married men to cover their activities. My father came along on gay people over time. It was a generational thing in how that generation was brought up and required some deprogramming.
intheflow
(28,451 posts)Klinger dressed in women's clothing to "prove" to the Army that he was crazy and should be sent home.
*** THIS IS NOT A TRANS-FRIENDLY CROSS-DRESSING CHARACTER! ***
Bosom Buddies was about two men who couldn't find affordable housing as men so they dressed as women to live in a women's only boarding house.
*** THIS IS NOT A FRIENDLY DEPICTION OF CROSS-DRESSERS! In fact, it's super creepy in a world where we are discussing if trans women can use women's bathrooms and the #MeToo movement. ***
After long-standing traditions of men dressed as women in Greek and Shakespearean theater, one of the first and most celebrated contemporary cross-dressing comedies was the 1892 play Charleys Aunt. Originally written for the English stage, it was translated into over 80 languages, spawning multiple film adaptations and the hit Broadway musical Wheres Charley? Its basic premise relied on a heterosexual man needing to assume the guise of a woman, with the comedy ensuing from the juxtaposition of the challenges to his masculinity. Cross-dressing out of necessity creating laughs rooted in traditional gender identity continued as a reliable comic premise for the next century, from Billy Wilders 1959 classic Some Like It Hot, to Tom Hankss breakout 1980s sitcom Bosom Buddies. Even in these memorable projects, the formula remained the same: straight men in womens clothes speaking in high-pitched voices equals laughs. Mainstream society accepted that there were hard borders on masculine and feminine identity. To cross them and then bear the consequences of doing so always resulted in high concept hijinks and hilarity.
- Dan Pasternack, Cross-Dressing at the Crossroads: A Brief History of Drag in Comedy (Emphasis mine.)
Chili Pepper
(101 posts)Back in the 70's, I went to see John Davidson in a live nightclub-type show. In one of the segments of the show, he came out dressed in drag and performed a number of songs. As a teenager sitting with my parents, I never thought twice about it.
Seeing male celebrities performing in drag was somehow more commonplace and accepted than it is now 50 years later. What progress our society has made
IronLionZion
(45,403 posts)and is deeply shocked that Republicans have turned against trans people. Shocked I tell you.
twodogsbarking
(9,719 posts)Just my observation.
IronLionZion
(45,403 posts)since she actually is trans and not a dude trying to entertain an audience
multigraincracker
(32,656 posts)Churches.
Martin68
(22,776 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,724 posts)Martin68
(22,776 posts)keithbvadu2
(36,724 posts)Mrs. Brown was a guy.
A sexy portrayal, it was not.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=brendan+o%27carroll&filters=ufn%3a%22brendan+ocarroll%22+sid%3a%22cadddda4-43a4-ad01-3eb6-3aae9bb867b5%22+catguid%3a%22c209266b-f8c2-d7d7-3f87-05560e22cfbe_fa42f1bb%22+segment%3a%22generic.carousel%22+secq%3a%22mrs+browns+boys+cast%22+supwlcar%3a%220%22+segtype%3a%22QWN0b3I%3d%22+ctype%3a%220%22+mltype%3a%220%22+eltypedim1%3a%22Actor%22&ecount=15&FORM=SNAPCR&crslsl=0