A man dancing flamboyantly, caked in makeup, and wearing gaudy jewelry and a brightly-colored dress is called a drag queen. She tends to have an overwrought stage name like Pandora Danger and an individualized persona. And she, like all drag queens, holds a beloved place in LGBTQ culture in this nation because of her joyous vibe and the playful challenge she poses to Western culture’s oppressive gender binary.
As anyone familiar with LGBTQ culture understands, drag queens seek to be goofy and outrageous, not offensive. Andrew Sullivan rightly described them as clowns. In their over-the-top silliness, drag queens poke fun at the gender binary in the gentlest, most playful way. While sometimes sexy and always provocative, drag queens also clearly and unambiguously pose no threat to anyone’s safety–only the sanctity of gender norms that constrain everyone’s humanity.
But most Republican voters know none of this. Insular and provincial, social conservatives have for the most part no connection to LGBTQ culture, and surveys find that evangelicals fear the visibility of LGBT people like almost none of their many cultural bete noirs. Republican politicians know their own voters’ prejudices and anxieties all to well. And with a forceful cynicism, GOP elected officials across the country are singling out drag queens as the gateway victims in a campaign to invalidate trans people’s hard-won right to visibility and respect.
Drag queens simultaneously express LGBTQ joy and represent the best-known iteration of gender bending in our country. For this reason, Republicans in states such as Nebraska and Tennessee have passed legislation to prohibit drag shows within their borders. The Nebraska bill went so far as to ban anyone from presenting themselves as a member of a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth. By targeting drag queens, Republicans are attempting to “build a wall” around the gender binary and expel trans people from public life.
Republicans clearly regard transgender repression as a golden base mobilization tactic. The evangelicals who compose a large plurality of the Republican base cherish the inherited norms and binaries that most of us grew up with. But the arrow of history points in the opposite direction, and joyous demonstrations of dissent such as drag shows are merely one example of the opening we’re experiencing towards alternative identities and personal freedom. This is a social advance that Republicans want their base to believe they’ll stop at nothing to reverse.
Drag queens are the first targets in a growing effort to eradicate public–and even medical–expressions of transgender identity. The attack on drag queens comes in tandem with bans on gender-affirming care that extend, in the instance of the endlessly reactionary Mississippi, into the adult years of transgender Americans. Conservatives are not only trying to criminalize as much of transgender identity as they can. Starting with drag queens, they’re trying to destroy the right that trans people have fought to attain as human beings allowed to be human.
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
Its really kind of simple. Children should not be exposed to Sexual perversion and weird fetishes,
Tough guy Ron DeFascist can bully trans kids and drag queens all day long. If he had to face an actual threat like Putin, he’d roll into the fetal position and beg Vald not to hurt him.
So now, according to all the ‘progressive sages’ who have opined in here about the happiness and gleeful innocence of men in drag, we s’posed to simply go along with the entire charade, and never—not EVER—protest the moral corruption that it signifies. Do I have that right?
Well, up to a point, that’s all well and good for you, I guess. But—yaaknoww?? –it could just be that by endorsing all of that silliness and morally degrading behavior, you are ALSO making an absolute MOCKERY of ACTUAL, biological women! Gee, who woulda thought of THAT!
For example: we see in last week’s news that Hershey Chocolates has chosen a MAN (transgendered, of course) to put on their candy bar in honor of International Women’s Day. HMMmmm…am I missing something here…?
OH! And who can forget the esteemed Dr. Jill Biden, who just honored a trans man with the Women of Courage award last Wednesday?? Yessir! Nothing says ‘courage’ like giving a mixed-up nutjob an award that is actually designed to represent biological women! But, of course—we now know that Democrats are functionally incapable of even defining what a ‘biological women’ really is! Pathetically, this ‘woman’ is Alba Rueda, who currently serves as Argentina’s Special Envoy for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship. Good. Grief.
All of this reminds me that—back in October—the cosmetics brand Ultra hosted a podcast where the two hosts—two trans men—discussed the ‘intersectional nuances’ (whatever that is) of feminine beauty. Yep! Nobody knows the nuances of feminine makeup and beauty like….two guys playing dress-up in women’s clothing and heels. Whewww….but wait—there’s more!
Lest we forget–even TAMPON is onboard with the idea that MEN can have periods, too, and hired two trans MEN to promote—menstrual products! (TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, and ‘genderfluid’ Latinx celebrity hairstylist David Lopez)
So, despite the great strides of feminist advocates who have legislated for decades for equal representation for women in all areas of life, instead, we get fake men—emotionally unbalanced men parading around as women–usurping the achievements of ACTUAL women, and the so-called ‘progressive Leftists’ in the Democrat Party are beside themselves with smug, self-righteous pride. Democrats don’t have ANY legitimacy criticizing Republicans regarding dysphoric transgender confusion. At least we’re smart enough to know that whatever genitalia resides inside our pants defines who we are biologically and sexually, and no amount of mutilating ‘sex reassignment surgery’ will change that. If you want to parade around in dresses, go ahead. But don’t subject children to it.
There it is! Exhibit C.
Liberals, progressives, Marxist/socialists–whatever word you want to use to describe yourself–you continue to astonish normal people with your complete lack of comprehension for what defines ‘normal’. In the Democrat world of North Carolina, the extremists in your narrow world seem to think all conservatives are really just toothless, illiterate morons from the movie ‘Deliverance’, complete with banjos in the background. However, the functional illiteracy of Leftist-led communities and schools around the country is imminently provable with a simple Google search into the statistics of those schools and communities.
Also quite provably, it is the extremist radicals in YOUR party who scream obscenities, set fires, loot businesses, and utterly trash everything while attacking police, conservative university speakers, or just average people conducting their lives in public spaces. Conservatives don’t do that.
It is the Democrat Party which endlessly bores us with their platitudes about ‘tolerance’, and yet, also engages in bizarre, uncontrollable rioting when confronted by contrary viewpoints that challenges their ultra-liberal ideology. Confronted by one red ball cap in a crowd, and Democrat activists uncontrollably scream their hatred and anger. Conservatives don’t do that; Democrats do, and the video proof is out there to confirm it.
The various writers and commentators on this website can pontificate and blather all they want about the (so-called) virtues and wisdom of the Democrat Party, but the proof being played out on a daily basis demonstrates very clearly that there is NO leadership, nor any real comprehension of what reasonable governance and leadership actually is, coming from the Biden-led White House. Every single one of Biden’s anointed flunkies is either a clueless sycophant, a ‘token’ appointee designed to demonstrate how ‘woke’ the Biden regime is, or they are simply idiots promoted beyond their level of actual competence. (aka ‘The Peter Principle’–look it up)
The ideology driving the Democrat Party is defective to the core. The legacy that Biden will leave behind (besides a trail of utter destruction) will prove to be the benchmark for corruption against which all other similar regimes will historically be compared. There is simply no more rational explanation for this administration’s behavior than to conclude that Democrats are intellectually stunted, quite in contrast to their vaunted claims of superior intelligence or higher moral insight.
Call it all ‘Exhibit D’, folks–and, please–try to absorb the message without dissolving into a quivering mass of blubbering tears cuz you don’t like the message. Democrats do that. Conservatives don’t.
As you wish; Exhibit D. Next time you have a thought, you really should just let it go.
While I can’t speak for the rest, I have been convinced of and am a true believer in your proclivity to insidious drivel and the ability to drone on about it like someone really gives a damn what you think.
But you rock on in Wayne’s World, party of one. Enjoy your delusions of superiority.
Ignore the ignorant redneck, and like most internet trolls he will find another site to play with his word processing program!
Wayne,
I don’t see conservatives complaining about women in the army wearing the same uniform as the men. When I was in the Navy back in the 60s and 70s the women wore a different uniform than the men. You could tell the difference easily. But it is not ok for men to wear women’s clothing! Is that right ? What hypocrisy!
Once upon a time, people with common sense referred to men who dressed like women as cross-dressers—transvestites—and, ultimately, as mentally ill perverts.
Nowadays, however, we see that the enlightened looney-toons on the liberal Left refer to such individuals as ‘beloved’, and possessed of a ‘joyous vibe’, and a ‘challenge’ to ‘Western culture’s oppressive gender binary.’ We see their bizarre behavior characterized as ‘over-the-top silliness’…’gentle’….’playful’…sometimes even ‘provocative’, and expressive of ‘LGBTQ joy’…
An unthinking person that is not at all familiar with drag shows, or with men flamboyantly attired as something that they most clearly are not, would perhaps be deluded into thinking these individuals are merely ‘clowns’…’goofy and outrageous, not offensive’…but sadly (for them, and for YOU) these sorts of individuals are, quite clearly and beyond dispute mentally ill.
As with ALL the garbage that Leftists vomit, Democrats hysterically subscribe to the notion that cross-dressing perverts parading as women is somehow not only happily acceptable, but a great family venue, too–especially for children, and—of course—they use that absurd belief to legitimize yet-another pathetic excuse to attack Republicans. Democrats assert that, by resisting a mental illness paraded in front of children as though it is merely happy fun for the children—it is actually an evil Republican plot to take away certain personal or civil rights—to ban these perverts from participating in public life—and even to destroy the pervert’s right to life! O, the sheer horror of it all!
Look, morons—first of all, remove your head from your anal repository and wake up. Men gaudily dressed as women, thrusting their genitalia in front of children’s faces (and in the faces of parents who ought to know better!), and sashaying and bumping and grinding in front of them in an unquestionably sexual display of disgraceful debauchery, is not acceptable. Not to children of any age, and in any venue. Not to parents, either, unless the parent happens to be of a certain persuasion that likes to frequent gay clubs or bars.
But the notion that anyone who opposes this sort of degrading behavior is somehow taking someone else’s civil rights away is preposterous! The notion that Republicans are waging an all-out attack on the LGBTQ community is flat-out wrong, and is an outright lie. Democrats feverishly gin that notion up, simply in order to concoct a useful means and method thru the media that is meant to portray Democrats as ‘enlightened’…’all wise’…’more compassionate’ than (so Dems say) those red-necked, gun-toting, Bible-waving despicables on the Republican side. Democrats are entitled to all the perversions and ‘alternative identities’ that they want—but they are not entitled to groom kids, nor to peddle their perversions as a more enlightened version of Western civilization. Moral, right-thinking, normal people—be they male or female—will oppose you at every turn. Better pull up your big-boy panties and put on your lipstick, cupcakes…you’re in for a fight!
Pretty sure the science and medical fields researched and concluded that homosexuality and gender disphoria is not a mental illness so stop spouting made up rubbish to justify your hatred and bigotry. ..or moreso your FEAR (which is your primary mental behavioral state operating here that you are reacting to) of anyone who isnt like you. What a weakling you are! It might be you who needs to see a shrink to unravel why you’re so afraid of the gays…I’m probably willing to bet that deep down you’re genuinely afraid of death which likely explains why you cling so hard to an organized religion’s narrative that pretends it’s gonna save your soul or whatever
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Exhibit A.
Wayne’s obsession with such matters makes one wonder if he is not over compensating for latent compulsions !
Republicans have lost on gay marriage so now they’ve moved on to attacking transgender children/adults and drag queens to rile up their base. Makes you wonder who’s next…
Who’s next? Anybody who isn’t rich and white.