Why do gay men dress like girls for fun?

[Mahsa Tezani]

I've always wondered why. But I have no idea who I should ask.

Btw, I meant some gay guys. Not all of them.

[AbraCadabra]

Why, oh why?

Simply to give expression to their inner feelings - to make them feel good – AND also earn some money doing it. "Look mommy no hands" I'm a girl, he, he.

It be the opposite of the leather, chain and muscle gay-faction.
Those TVs I know... ARE gay males, i.e. "Queens", and the reason -due to their usually high visibility in public- that trans-women are constantly mixed up with them. It sucks if you are not a male-gay, but simply of female brain-gender, transsexual only.

And if you don't believe me doll... I'll ssscream and hit jou with my handbag!

Axelle

[Amy85]

Maybe it's just that sometimes playing dress-up is fun? I dunno, I don't think there's a lot to it really.

[Chloe]

I've always wondered why.

Masha, can't speak for "gay guys" but not all drag queens are gay. Many have gg wives and perform just because it is fun and they're NOT gay? A couple of 'ole PanAm friends of mine who own nightclubs in Jackson Heights and Columbia sponsor MtoF Cabriolets all the time.

Makes what i'm doing seem quite dull & boring indeed!

[JadeS]

what's the point of this thread?

[Chloe]

what's the point of this thread?

Oh? What's "the point" to transitioning? Does anybody really care if were "happy" with ourselves or not? Perhaps i'm just a SPAMMER drumming up some business?  Eddie did dedicate one of his festivals to me as a "coming out party" gay guys ARE fun to be around as there's always plenty of gg girls hanging as well!

lol Are YOU a "gay man who dresses like girls for fun?"

[JadeS]

this has nothing to do with whatever your post is saying, i was just wondering what this thread is about. I obviously have nothing against anyone's sexual orientation... so i don't know what you're really saying.

[JenJen2011]

'Cuz they love to be in touch with their feminine side.

[Bird]

Mahsa, your answer is in your question.

To avoid being cryptic: they do it for fun.

[tekla]

fun, money, curiosity, performance, style, sexual thrills, masturbatory fantasies, role playing - same as straight guys who do it.

[GinaDouglas]

I think this is one of the biggest problems we have.  People hear the word transsexual and in their mind's-eye they see Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Drag and female impersonation are no better than blackface.  When I was young, I competed in two Ms Amateur contests, and came in last in both of them, because I was the least effective parody of a woman.

Gay men participate in drag (or enjoy watching it) because of underlying misogyny.  They are making fun of women, exposing the worst female stereotypes to derision, particularly vanity and sluttyness.  It's a way of mitigating the jealousy that they have of the fact that women get most of the great guys.

[spacial]

'Cuz they love to be in touch with their feminine side.

And they perhaps don't feel any pressure to prove their manhood. Though of course, some gay guys do.

[Torn1990]

I think this is one of the biggest problems we have.  People hear the word transsexual and in their mind's-eye they see Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Drag and female impersonation are no better than blackface.  When I was young, I competed in two Ms Amateur contests, and came in last in both of them, because I was the least effective parody of a woman.

Gay men participate in drag (or enjoy watching it) because of underlying misogyny.  They are making fun of women, exposing the worst female stereotypes to derision, particularly vanity and sluttyness.  It's a way of mitigating the jealousy that they have of the fact that women get most of the great guys.

How dare you compare drag queens to black face. Black face is racism.
There actually is a character that  I would question is a trans women in Priscilla Queen of the Desert the word "transgender" hasn't always been available or accessible.
So an avenue to express gender variant people can be through performance. Your accusations against the drag queen community is in itself masculinist and elitist as a trans person you're not allowing for gender to be given space in that community.
There are drag queens who feel they lie on the transgender spectrum. If gender is in the mind, how can you be so presumptuous about someone's gender as a drag queen? it may be a "performance" but to assume what it does for them on the inside is completely misogynistic on your part. What of those drag queens that are trans and the only way for them to make money is to perform as a drag queen?

There is a difference between a gay man dressing in drag and a trans woman i get that but there's also a difference between a gay man and a drag queen. They are separate issues that i feel need to be focussed on in different unique ways. You clump them together and take a feminist perspective which i appreciate but in doing so you have ignored many members of the community that don't fit into your harsh description of a drag queen. i think these are separate gender issues that aren't ever accounted for.

[Annah]

Drag and female impersonation are no better than blackface.  When I was young, I competed in two Ms Amateur contests, and came in last in both of them, because I was the least effective parody of a woman.

Gay men participate in drag (or enjoy watching it) because of underlying misogyny.  They are making fun of women, exposing the worst female stereotypes to derision, particularly vanity and sluttyness.  It's a way of mitigating the jealousy that they have of the fact that women get most of the great guys.

you totally lost me when you got to this point of your belief. Do you really compare dragqueen and dragking shows to that of white people making fun of black people??

[supremecatoverlord]

you totally lost me when you got to this point of your belief. Do you really compare dragqueen and dragking shows to that of white people making fun of black people??

She may be implying that drag queens and drag kings are often what comes into the mind of the general public when people think of trans-people, even though they are not the same thing as us. I think she may be comparing it to black-face because it ultimately caused everyone that was associated with the African community not to be taken seriously. However, I don't necessarily agree with what she is saying because it's a very extremist standpoint. This is because I'm pretty sure that people in drag aren't in the business of mocking trans-people; if anything, they mock gender stereotypes through ostentatious and hyperbolic display. A drag show seems to challenge the ridiculous of what we see "gender" as more than portray it falsely. Early minstrelsy shows consisted white performers in black-face intentionally portraying blacks as simpletons. They did not make fun of the way people portrayed blacks, as more of our culture is borrowed from them than we think, but instead falsified the truth in order to negatively portray a race and therefore strengthened a racial hierarchy. I don't think drag shows make trans people look stupid, because the whole premise of drag shows is based off of gender stereotypes that already exist.

[kelly_aus]

I think this is one of the biggest problems we have.  People hear the word transsexual and in their mind's-eye they see Priscilla Queen of the Desert.

Drag and female impersonation are no better than blackface.  When I was young, I competed in two Ms Amateur contests, and came in last in both of them, because I was the least effective parody of a woman.

Gay men participate in drag (or enjoy watching it) because of underlying misogyny.  They are making fun of women, exposing the worst female stereotypes to derision, particularly vanity and sluttyness.  It's a way of mitigating the jealousy that they have of the fact that women get most of the great guys.

You are aware that the character of Bernadette in that movie was a transexual woman? And her character was based on a real transwoman?

And frankly, your attitude seems like sour grapes to me.. Of course, I'm coming from an Australian perspective, where Priscilla was just another great Aussie movie.. And where we've had drag shows that were popular amongst the general population for years.. Go look up 'Les Girls'... Over the years there has been quite a number of performers in that show who were trans, not guys in drag..

[Padma]

Fundamentally, each gay guy who dresses up is doing it for a different set of reasons from the next one, so the best approach is to ask each one why they do it, and not assume that tells you anything about why the next one does.

[GinaDouglas]

I dare say it, because I believe it.

Whites making fun of blacks, men making fun of women.  Same difference.  The roots of drag-queen shows and female impersonator shows go way back, and those roots are misogynistic.  It's less so now, just like Amos N Andy was less racist than the old minstrel shows, but it's a difference of degree, not of kind.  Drag-king shows are a more recent addition, and not so rooted in hatred/jealousy.

Sure there are some transgender people who do it for a job, but these exceptions are exceptional.

Yes, I know the woman in Priscilla was trans, but she is hardly representative of the majority.  That was my point about the movie.  That's the kind of image that sticks in the public mind, not something more realistic.

[Mahsa Tezani]

  The roots of drag-queen shows and female impersonator shows go way back, and those roots are misogynistic. 

-1

I'm a part time drag queen/transgender performer(dancer) and to me it was discovering the darker side of my femininity. For a lot of gay men, it is embracing their feminine side.

And drag queen acting like women? More like gay men with too many mimos. Some do, some don't.

But truth is, when they werq it properly...they are better looking than most GGs and most of the TS's on this board.

[eli77]

Yes, I know the woman in Priscilla was trans, but she is hardly representative of the majority.  That was my point about the movie.  That's the kind of image that sticks in the public mind, not something more realistic.

Who the hell is representative? All I see are a bunch of people wandering in their own direction who happened to meet on one single characteristic. I don't think you are any more like me than Priscilla.