First, the disclaimers: This post is going to be about drag queens and dmab trans people. I don’t have experience with drag kings, and am not dfab. Therefore, some of these things might apply, some probably won’t. Whatever
This post is also going to be coming from a white perspective, as I’m white and don’t know enough about how the history of drag intersects with that of people of color, but since the only all/primarily black cast movies that seem to be able to get studio backing star a black man doing drag, I’m guessing there is context that I’m not aware of, and quite frankly am not sure how to research. But this has been eating at me for a while now and finally coalesced enough that I can write a post, so that’s what I’m going to do. Sorry if it ends up only applying to white people.
Alright, now that that is out of the way, let’s get started. Cis men being drag queens is inherently transmisogynistic. They create a ridiculous character/persona, and then make this character/persona a woman. There are two reasons I can see for this change, from an artistic view:
1. By making the character a man in a dress, it becomes even more outrageous. This is obviously the old transmisogyny of “I have a joke. There is a man, and he is in a dress! HAha, I am hilarious.”
2. The character is too ridiculous to be a man, therefore it must be a woman. This is obviously misogynistic (men are rational and never ridiculous. Therefore, to be able to laugh at this character, it must be a woman). But it is also transmisogynistic, because the character is never then played by a woman. It is played by a cis man in a dress. It is billed as a cis man in a dress. People are encouraged to come gawk and the cis man in a dress.
So we have that foundation, but there is usually even more transmisogyny present in the content of the shows. I have heard gender variant/ambiguously gendered people referred to as “thing” at a drag show. There is Ru Paul throwing the t slur around and saying that anyone who has a problem with it should go kill themselves. I’m pretty sure sharon needles (in addition to all the racist shit he’s said) has said transmisogynistic things. It get’s old.
And quite honestly, at the end of the day, when I see a cis man doing drag, I can’t help but feel that they are mocking my identity. They are creating and reinforcing a hurtful caricature of what trans women are, a caricature that is hurtful and harmful, and making a profit while doing so. And then they are held up as examples and spokesmen of our community, and do not deny that they can speak for our community, and then say things that harm our community. Cis drag queens need to fuck off.
“Men wearing dresses and lipstick and heels hurts my feelings! And if it hurts my feelings that must mean it was deliberately done to upset me! Ban it!”
And here we have a white woman telling a hugely diverse group (cis drag queens) that they need to fuck off and not be allowed to exist, because their very existence hurts her feelings.
You know what sweetie? I don’t need your permission to wear dresses and heels or to do anything outside of my gender. Neither does anyone else. You don’t like it? Cry about it on your blog about whatever your bloated sense of entitlement has decided is transmisogynistic. Don’t come to our shows.
Maybe you should check your own white privileges or whatever you want to call them before you start telling the likes of Bianca Del Rio, Roxxxy Andrews, Jasmine Masters, Coco Montrese, Latrice Royale, Bebe Zahara Benet, Jiggly Calliente, Jujubee, Manilla Luzon, Leshawn Beyond and the many many many other drag queens “of colour” that they need to fuck off and stop existing because their very career offends you and upsets you.
“And quite honestly, at the end of the day, when I see a cis man doing drag, I can’t help but feel that they are mocking my identity. “
Maybe you should stop being so obsessed with yourself? It’s extremely paranoid, not to mention extremely narcissistic to assume that you are such hot shit that everyone knows who you are and everyone is out to get you.
I am a dmab transwoman and I call bullshit all over this post, jonesinforjosie. The fact that you feel this way about drag queens doesn’t make a damn bit of difference; it doesn’t effect the price of tea in China, capiche? You don’t have the right to discredit or defame an entire subculture of your own community because you don’t like the way they present. You don’t have the right to piss on someone’s profession, passion, art and talent because it doesn’t line up with your moral compass.
You know what, I hate pickles. In fact, every instance of pickle consumption in my life has been traumatic and absolutely disgusting. There are literal times where I feel like pickles were created for the sole purpose of repulsing me - that is the level of my hatred for them; seriously. That still doesn’t mean I can go to a store and start screaming and crying because they sell fucking pickles; it does not mean I get to harass the customers that purchase them, the employees that stock them on the shelves or the manager that adds them to the inventory list each month. Do you want to know why?
Because NOT. EVERYONE. HATES. PICKLES!
In fact, some people actually really fucking love them. Those people are as entitled to their right to enjoy the food they like as you are to abstain from it’s consumption. UNLESS SOMEONE IS TRYING TO FORCE YOU TO EAT PICKLES YOU ARE NOT ENTITLED TO COMPLAIN. YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO BAN OR OTHERWISE DISMISS THAT WHICH YOU FIND PERSONALLY OFFENSIVE. Okay?
I’m not really sure what world some of the people on this website exist in, but I’m really sick of seeing the ‘I’m offended; change it; move it; destroy it; censor it’ - that isn’t how life works. Whoever taught you this is the way the world works did you a horrible disservice. In the real world you are confronted with things that you will find unappealing and offensive to your personal tastes and ideals constantly. This does not give you the right to force yourself on these subjects, cultures, identities that you find offensive. It does not give you the right to belittle, demean and ridicule or invalidate them.
Grow up, honey. Stop assuming the rest of the world is going to bend itself into pretzels to please you. It’s not going to.
Did… Did this man just get upset and insulted because men in drag exist. Really. Whauw.