poppunkvampire-deactivated20171:
drag queens often perform incredibly catty misogynistic stereotypes of womanhood and use a huge amount of misogynistic slurs and transmisogynistic slurs. it’s also incredibly common for drag circles to excuse or actively engage in racism, see Shirley Q Liquor, who wears actual blackface onstage (which RuPaul defended publicly and insisted wasn’t racist). and when RuPaul’s Drag Race was called out by the trans community for frequently using transmisogynistic slurs and then designing a game on the show where the goal was literally to “clock” trans women, the drag community rose to defend him, and he got away with a weak-ass fauxpology. additonally, drag is a performance, so the performers can shed womanhood (particularly the dangerous territory of DMAB womanhood) at will, and do not actually experience misogyny or transmisogyny in any real way. drag culture also often blurs the lines between drag and non-cis genders as a way of excusing transmisogyny, which perpetuates attitudes in queer communities that non-cis genders are performative and therefore to be judged on how “well” they are performed. this often makes cis queer spaces very uncomfortable for trans people; people will openly clock you and comment on your ability to “pass”. I have no problem with drag as a gender expression, or with DMAB people who express femininity, but I have a huge fucking problem with drag culture.
FUCKING THIS.
can we also talk abt how trans women are routinely excluded from and abused in queer communities while drag queens are so fucking adored that they’re basically the face of queer communities. go to a queer club, drag queens everywhere, trans women barely visible. go to a pride parade, drag queens fucking everywhere, no trans women visible. cis ppl will pay money to go see a drag queen perform but will refuse to associate w trans women. double fucking standards
I’m bringing this back because fuck I’m mad.
RuPaul’s Drag Race and Drag Culture USED to be two very different things. However, as more young gays watch RuPaul, they are more influenced and it shows up in the culture. Now, Drag Culture is basically a Drag Race fan base.
Not to mention, the racism in the show. A great example is a queen named The Vixen who appeared on Season 10. RPDR has a something called a “villain edit.” Every season, they find the bitchiest queen and edit all of their appearances to come off as a real bitch. Sometimes, it’s accurate, many times, it’s not. The Vixen constantly called out the other queens, show, and the LGBT community for its racism. She was very passionate and got into heated arguments. Now, there were a few assholes on season 10 and any of them could have been edited badly, but The Vixen was chosen for the villain edit.
Now, she defended herself on the Reunion episode (that’s where all the queens come back and discuss the drama). She called out the editing and walked off. Some queens defended her, but RuPaul didn’t care. He yelled “I come from the same place she does!” as a defense, without actually sympathizing with her and owning up to the show’s editing. Now, he’s not the editor, but at the end of the day, it’s his name on the show and he created it from nothing.
Drag Race has done some great things for the LGBT community. It discussed the Pulse Night Club attack, violence against gay people in other countries, and helped many other LGBT issues. But it has also done some really shitty stuff. The few transgender queens that were on (before their transition) are used as defenses by the fans against his/the show’s transphobia.
Honestly, that makes some sense.
There have of course been people with all kinds of different attitudes and reasons doing drag all along. But, a lot of the more recent criticisms haven’t matched up too well with my own experiences as somebody who used to know a number of people in the drag community. That was also before Drag Race hit, and as part of a smaller local community overall.
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