A few years ago I wrote a thesis on Drag Kings. I wrote about music hall and the advent of women on stage. And I wrote about Drag Queens. I have written before about how my feminism has changed dramatically over the years. Because most people's gateway feminism is Greer I think many cis white feminist women will tell you that they went through a period of...hmm not dislike but maybe a belief that drag queens were taking the piss out of womanhood. And anyone who lives to be The Whole Woman will no doubt feel a scepticism about trans (I am not saying drag and trans are by any means the same incidentally - but I note often reasons for hostility are weirdly similar). That is putting it lightly. It is put lightly because transphobia is not properly recognised yet. A dinner party won't suddenly fall into an uncomfortable silence because someone uttered a transphobic slur in jest. But it's time we moved on from Greer's chapter on "Pantomime Dames" and recognise that we are seeing a threat in the wrong places.
Last week seemed to rather indulge in fear of drag and camp. The Guardian published two letters in response to Owen Jones'sarticle about camp, specifically Alan Carr's Peta campaign. Not because Carr has chosen to work with Peta, who constantly launch offensive campaigns such as the one that mimicked domestic violence for a sexy laugh. But because Carr and Peta had decided to exploit the stereotypical camp gay man: "There he was, smiling cheekily as he posed with a set of pink wings and a pink wand, beneath luminous pink text inviting us to "be a little fairy for animals". Yuck, I thought to myself: that'll really help along the stereotype of gay men as a bunch of mincing court jesters."
Jones noted other gay men had responded similarly: "But then Carr faced his detractors down with aplomb: "The most homophobia I get is from gays," he tweeted back, completing his riposte with a dig at their alleged "self-loathing". And then I felt quietly ashamed to have flinched in the first place. Carr's defiant response forced me to examine prejudices I share with all too many other gay men."
Jones noted other gay men had responded similarly: "But then Carr faced his detractors down with aplomb: "The most homophobia I get is from gays," he tweeted back, completing his riposte with a dig at their alleged "self-loathing". And then I felt quietly ashamed to have flinched in the first place. Carr's defiant response forced me to examine prejudices I share with all too many other gay men."
| The letters to the Guardian said: "it was camp itself which represented self-hatred. Comedians such as John Inman and Larry Grayson personified everything that I did not want to be. They were almost a third sex: grotesque pantomimic creatures, willingly collusive in the mocking laughter of the TV audience." | The trouble is this loathing (self directed or not) gives legitimacy |
Now, I understand (or I can grasp the idea as to why it is frustrating) the anger at seeing an only occasionally accurate stereotype used to portray something you identify with if this is its entirety. A stereotype that means you if you are a gay man people might cast you in 'feminine' or frivolous roles instead of the 'masculine' or 'ordinary' job you do or desire. There are echoes of this in feminism with regard to Sarah Ditum's Cool Girl dislike. Although I recognise the history is not the same. However it's a question of demanding diversity rather than banning camp.
The trouble is this loathing (self directed or not) gives Bindel legitimacy when she writes in the Spectator blogs about her acute aversion to drag queens and camp. Rather than refining her argument to attack the rape jokes in the drag queen (and John Waters muse) Divine's comedy material, Bindel instead informs us that the film I Am Divine: the story of Divine reminded her why she's "always hated drag". As if any of us had forgotten.
Bindel said: "Footage from Divine’s one and only appearance on Top of the Pops (he was banned as a result of complaints about obscenity) in 1984 singing 'You Think You're a Man' reminded me why I always hated drag. Feminists at the time of the TOTP atrocity labelled Divine 'woman hating'."
Is drag women hating? No. It might send up certain aspects of ideas of womanhood but ultimately the drag act is hardly fooling anyone. Nobody goes home from seeing a drag queen and tells their family 'you won't believe the woman I just saw!'. Drag acts don't take women down with them. But it seems they are sent down by some gay men. To then follow suit within RuPaul's TV show Drag Race transphobic remarks have been made.
I'd go as far as to say drag has little to do with the men or women it is parodying and everything to do with the community it lives in. It might seem like it doesn't matter to reject it, but it's another way to make members of a minority feel unsafe.
And that is not solidarity. And that's what all these communities need.
Squeamish Kate
The trouble is this loathing (self directed or not) gives Bindel legitimacy when she writes in the Spectator blogs about her acute aversion to drag queens and camp. Rather than refining her argument to attack the rape jokes in the drag queen (and John Waters muse) Divine's comedy material, Bindel instead informs us that the film I Am Divine: the story of Divine reminded her why she's "always hated drag". As if any of us had forgotten.
Bindel said: "Footage from Divine’s one and only appearance on Top of the Pops (he was banned as a result of complaints about obscenity) in 1984 singing 'You Think You're a Man' reminded me why I always hated drag. Feminists at the time of the TOTP atrocity labelled Divine 'woman hating'."
Is drag women hating? No. It might send up certain aspects of ideas of womanhood but ultimately the drag act is hardly fooling anyone. Nobody goes home from seeing a drag queen and tells their family 'you won't believe the woman I just saw!'. Drag acts don't take women down with them. But it seems they are sent down by some gay men. To then follow suit within RuPaul's TV show Drag Race transphobic remarks have been made.
I'd go as far as to say drag has little to do with the men or women it is parodying and everything to do with the community it lives in. It might seem like it doesn't matter to reject it, but it's another way to make members of a minority feel unsafe.
And that is not solidarity. And that's what all these communities need.
Squeamish Kate
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