The War on Gender
Image Courtesy: Psycom
For centuries, when it comes to entertainment, humans have had a long history of bending, distorting, and shrouding one’s gender. Whether it be an all-male cast performing a Shakespeare play dressed in frills and forcing their voices two octaves up, or a Disney princess dressing as a man in order to fight a war, the blurring of gender between the sexes has been alive and well in many aspects of our culture.
Suddenly, though, there seems to be a snowball effect of outrage towards this topic; when it comes to gender or gender performance, there is a cultural war being waged against those that choose to present outside of the strict gender norms that heteronormativity allows. Just in the past year, dozens upon dozens of bills attacking basic rights on the basis of gender, specifically the art of drag, have made their way into the legislative session, creating a divisive, non-issue sentiment around the topic.
Image Courtesy: Billboard
Drag, in short, is extremely varying and personal to each person that performs it, but the basic premise of drag consists of accentuating masculine or feminine features to subvert traditional gender roles and celebrate gender expression. Heavily tied to the queer community, drag performers often entertain various events and venues and act as figureheads, even parental figures, in the LGBTQ+ community.
What has changed between the accepted role of playful gender performance then and the inflammatory language used now comes down to one thing: the individual that takes part in playing with their gender. Mrs. Doubtfire, Tyler Perry’s “Madea”, and the Wayans brothers in White Chicks all have the commonality of centering their stories around narratives following men dressed as women. These pieces of media are beloved by many, and as the characters of women are played by straight male actors, society at large turns a blind eye to it being “offensive” as these roles were made to mock femininity and make caricatures of womanhood.
Image Courtesy: IMDB
It is only when queer individuals take part in drag that it becomes an issue. The notion that the queer community is something to be fearful of has a longstanding tradition in American culture, especially augmenting under the presidency of Truman. Under his Federal Employee Loyalty Program of 1947, it was concluded that homosexuals have “psychopathic tendencies which affect the soundness of their judgment, physical cowardice, susceptibility to pressure, and general instability, thus making a pervert vulnerable in many ways,” and that homosexuals have “a definite similarity to other illegal groups such as criminals, smugglers, black-marketeers, dope addicts, and so forth.” From this point on, the view of the LGBTQ+ community has been stained and tainted regarding professionalism and government.
Image Courtesy: ABC News
It is easy, then, to write off queer individuals performing drag as the bad guy. It is easy to create inflamed outrage over these performers because the foundation for queer hatred is ingrained into our governmental system. And for policymakers and politicians, it is easy to get reelected by creating a legislature that targets drag performers because the lack of information and awareness on the true culture of drag allows constituents to truly believe that these laws are stopping a criminal offense.
Strike Out,
Writer: Blake N. Fiadino
Editor: Jayna O
Tallahassee