This is one of those posts where I assume 99% of the people who'd come to this blog will agree with my position. If you don't, you might be happier reading some other blog. My position is that the current move to restrict drag shows and people dressed unlike the norm for their gender — whatever that is these days — is ridiculous.
I grew up loving comedians and, at one time or another, I think I saw just about every male one in a dress…and a few of the ladies passing for men. A man dressed as a woman is usually funnier than a woman dressed like a man.
A guy on TV the other night was touting a proposed drag ban by saying, "We've got to protect our children," a line that ought to always make you suspicious. It is, after all, the exact thing Professor Harold Hill said when he was trying to bilk the parents of River City out of money for band instruments. The scam started by panicking them into thinking their kids were in terrible, terrible Trouble — with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for "Pool." The sales pitch started like this…
Protecting the kids is a noble cause but there oughta be even a smidgen of evidence that they're in any way threatened by what the seller is selling.
And here's another problem that Kaleigh Rogers points out: How do you define "drag?" Think of all the movies and TV shows and Bugs Bunny cartoons that might have to be restricted under some definitions.
Chaplin. Laurel and Hardy. Milton Berle. Corporal Klinger, Mrs. Doubtfire. Milton Berle. Some Like It Hot. Dame Edna. Tootsie. Milton Berle. Johnny Carson. Jonathan Winters. Buster Keaton. Charley's Aunt. Flip Wilson. Jack Benny. Bob Hope. Rudy Giuliani. Milton Berle. Milton Berle. Milton Berle. You can keep the list going just as well as I can. Even Miss Piggy is a female played by a male.
Need I go on? Of course not. No one who's even vaguely rational thinks that, after centuries of tradition, a man in a dress has suddenly become an actual problem in need of a solution. There are just some people out there who think it has some political value for them. Maybe some of them think it's a way of taking a swipe at trans people who aren't hurting anyone in any way by course-correcting their lives.
Still, the folks who like to spread fear are out there, reaping whatever benefits they can with this scam. They're telling parents that their kids are in terrible, terrible Trouble — with a capital "T" and that rhymes with "D" and that stands for "Drag."