There are those that believe that drag queens are gay men who mock women, not out of a sense of solidarity but out of fear and disdain.
Well there are people who believe that Jews secretly control the world, that Obama is both a Communist and a Nazi, that the moon landing never happened and was staged on a TV set, that Princess Di was executed on orders of the British Royal Family, that Obama is not a US citizen and not American, and that Global Warming is a scientific hoxe. They too would be wrong.
And if that's true - to follow up on Elle's thought - then (to rock with another analogy that was recently used in regard to this topic) women who get all dolled up (and they do here) and go to drag shows are on a par with black people who'd bring watermelon and chicken to a KKK picnic. They are simply being tools of their own oppression because they've been duped by these very cleaver guys. Yes, they don't even see that those Queens, when not cowering and trembling backstage because there might be 'real women' around, and 'real women' are very, very scary, are just people out to make them look bad, and they are not just passive fellow-travelers in their domination, they are actively promoting it, funding it even. How horrible must those women be? How fantastically ignorant are they?
How come all the GGs I've met at drag shows (for almost 40 years now, from SF to NYC, and in places like Des Moines Iowa and St. Louis too, from huge shows with famous stars to little productions in the back corner of a tiny bar in the middle of nowhere) don't seem ignorant or horrible. Matter of fact just the opposite. They tend (perhaps they are just fooling me) to be pretty savvy and worldly women with charming personalities and excellent social skills. The actually tend to be the kind of smart and popular girls who everyone wants around. (...so, you know, nothing like you...)
Oh wait.
I know what it is.
They have a sense of humor. And I don't think anything in human life is an incomprehensible as humor is to a person without a sense of humor. That goes for the Queens and for the GGs there. First, if there is mocking (and there is, mocking is funny as hell sometimes and lots of people deserve it) most of it is not directed at 'all women' as a class. It's directed at specific female entertainers, most of whom aspire to, or have made it, to Diva status. And if you've ever been around a real Diva, you know it's a highly unpleasant (except for the Diva) experience for everyone. So sure, the are mocking. They are mocking Charo, and Cher - and no matter how hard you try to put yourself in the same class as Charo or Cher, you are not them. They are mocking Madonna, Britney and Ga-Ga. Or is it an homage, if not utterly lavish devotion and veneration --- it gets hard to tell sometimes.
And here's a real clue for you, Madonna, Britney, Cher, Charo and Ga-Ga - this pleases them. They understand that in some way it means they have arrived, and that far from mocking, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Hell, for Madge and Ga-Ga drag to no small degree informs and inspires their performances. Pre-Ga-Ga, back when Stefani Germanotta was 13 and her mom was taking her from tiny club to tiny club in NYC looking for a place to perform a few songs it was drag queens at drag shows who either a) took pity on the poor girl (highly unlikely) or b) knew real talent when they saw it, let her get on stage. She's had quite the love for them ever since. I know for a fact that Cher and Madonna have both judged and participated in drag shows where everyone was doing them. I know that after her second show in SF that Ga-Ga went to ->-bleeped-<-shack. I know (because I was there on one increadiblly off-the-hook night) that Charo judged the Charo competition at ->-bleeped-<-shack. So"cuchi-cuchi" baby.
Matter of fact don't Madonna and Ga-Ga do their own outright drag characters? Joey Calderone I'm looking at you.
And does my friend, who plays in an all-girl AC/DC cover band called AC/DShe (there is a similar outfit on the East Coast called 'Hell's Belles') who does the best drag 'rock out with your cock out' Angus you've ever seen - does that out of fear and/or disdain? Did they pick on AC/DC because they are so easy to mock? Or because AC/DC just flat out rocks and nobody ever rocked out with their cock out like them boys did, and if your going to do it you might as well do the best? (Which also explains why the queens do Ga-Ga, Brit and Madge and Cher -- and why they did Ethyl Merman, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Monroe back in the day.)
When I go to a drag king show, where someone doing Elvis is almost mandated, do I think they are doing that to oppress all men? Hell no, they are doing the King, and I'm not the King, hell, I'm not even Prince.
