Why I Don't Hate Drag. Much.
Every time I criticise drag queens some gay friends claim I'm being unfair so I decided to try to find something positive to say about this alleged "art form". It was hard.
In a world in which we’ve been forced to recognise the existence of horrors like “sissy porn” and predatory autogynephiles it’s tempting to dismiss any cross dressing by men as fetishistic and malign. There are good reasons to be on our guard.
When I explored the origins of Drag Queen Story Hour I discovered the trans lobby really had set out to use drag to “queer the classroom”.
It’s no surprise then the main organisation in the UK that promotes Drag Story Hour recommends a reading list of books full of regressive stereotypes, like 10,000 Dresses which suggests a boy who wants to get glittery is really a girl.
That’s why when a couple of days ago there was a spat online between gay defenders of drag and feminists I found myself instinctively taking the side of …the wimmin. The argument began when a local Women’s Rights Network group complained about a school putting on the play, ‘Everyone’s Talking About Jamie’, about an English boy who follows his dream of becoming ….a drag queen.
The women’s group pointed out the thirteen year old boy chosen to play ‘Jamie’ had been posting images on the school’s social media accounts, “unboxing his red high heels”.
For good measure they argued, “drag reduces womanhood to a hyper-feminised caricature, promoting mockery rather than celebration. reinforcing sexism rather than challenging it.”
To which I found myself, uttering the words, “preach sister!”
Was I being too hasty though? The success of woke identity politics has depended on otherwise sensible people taking unthinking positions based on tribal loyalty. Was I now doing the same? Going along with the opinions of people who I agree with on other subjects without really drilling down on this one. Whisper it gently but might there be a case for drag? Sometimes?
I decided to find out and to try to be as honest and fair as I could be. The story of drag it turns out is more complex and fascinating than I had realised. And it may not always have been as misogynistic as its critics claim. Yet my research has only made my opposition to drag in schools such as ‘Everyone’s Talking About Jamie’ all the firmer.
That’s not because of an inherent problem in drag itself but the psychology of a very particular group of predatory men who have for too long been ignored. Men who have played, I believe, an outsize role in the advance of trans ideology.
One of them is a French writer I’ve been meaning to discuss for some time. No, it’s not that nasty chap Jean Genet again. This one makes Genet seem like quite a nice guy.
