I saw writing on a similar topic in this zine Flashpoint back in the 90s, and had been thinking about this lately, though I don't believe the writer of that article made the connection to blackface. Hmmm. It's definitely something to think about.

I'm moving my Feminist Blog to a more blog style environment. It's still under construction but my response is up, here.

Hmmm,

Interesting observation. I've never thought of drag queens as being anti-feminist. I do believe that they are demeaning to the male gay community, but in a sense that it's okay for Jewish comics to tell Jewish jokes, but not for Christians.

I've always considered it to be an anti-cabaret ... well, cabaret. More of an inside joke than a demeaning put down. Not a put down of women, but a put down of men who aspire to an artificial female stereotype. Inside the male gay community, there is a subset that assumes stereo typical female charistericts, drag queens serve to remind everyone that the stereo typical fem male is as much of a joke as the stereo typical fem female. They poke fun at people who conform to stereotypes by taking the stereotype to the extreme. I don't think it's demeaning at all. I think it helps explode the stereotype by showing how absurd it is, via humor.

Got my comments up here. Interesting subject. It seems to be taking a long time to get my page to load lately, so please be patient.

YES! I've always felt they DO definitely demean women. As they take the most stereotypical personifications of womanhood and then camp them up to the max. I guess I can understand it among gay men as a form of entertainment.. even though I don't really condone it. But when I see hetero men camping it up as women I really do a slow burn. I think it's significant to note that women don't do the reverse and make a butch spectacle of women camping up stereotypes of men. I think we're above that. (I hope)

Hmm... less popular, maybe, Mars, but I'm on a few email lists for the lesbian community in Boston and hear about drag king shows all the time - there's this one group called "All the King's Men" that performs at least once a month. So, it's not that women don't do it at all, but maybe that it's not as provocative to imitate the dominant group than vice versa?

I definitely don't think drag demeans the other gender. I think it actually manages to raise some questions about what we think is normal in a way that's comical and entertaining (and unfortunately, sometimes too easy to dismiss). I wrote quite a bit more on my blog

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