Why is it socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for men to put on dresses, make up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) — but it is not socially acceptable — as a form of entertainment — for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans?”
— Mary Cheney, out and married daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a note posted to Facebook and questioned by CNN, after she caught an ad for RuPaul’s Drag Race
DCFarmboi
First time I ever agreed with her. She’s right.
Dakotahgeo
Maybe… JUST MAYBE… there really IS one Cheney worth redeeming!!!
drjasonpatton
The answer to this one is, perhaps, complex. Drag is a distinct culture, with its own language, norms, and a rich history that spans many, many generations. It serves as a source of resiliency and cultural identity for many in the LGBT community, not just those who do drag or are on the gender continuum. A drag persona or performance is by no means always “stereotypical,” as many a gracious queen has blessed us with their own personalities and style. Misogyny does exist in the drag world, as it does for those who want to be assimilated into straight society. Perhaps the media should be faulted to some degree, but drag, itself, is no more to blame than patriarchy, traditional gender norms, and society at large. Mary Cheny is no expert on drag culture; simply because she is a woman and a lesbian makes her no more an expert on the topic than her sister or father.
Dr Jason Patton
Harley
Is this hideous person still relevant? I thought she crawled back into the Cheney clan caves in Wyoming. Mary, honey. Please go away. Nobody cares what you think.
DarkZephyr
Just lost the very last shred of respect that I had for this woman.
hyhybt
Maybe because the history is totally different?
McShane
Wow, coming from a woman that looks like a young Bob Costas in drag.
QJ201
bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.
She is calling out gay men for stereotypes that are promoted BY HETEROSEXUALS EVERY DAY IN THE MEDIA
F*ck off b*tch, go watch a Bud commercial
NoCagada
Gee…I thought she lives her life in drag…bad drag, but drag, nonetheless.
Honey, go make nice nice with sissy…
barkomatic
I don’t think of drag as impersonating the average woman, nor do I think most people take it that way. Most good Drag Queens are funny not because they mock women, but because they are so over the top confident, assertive and quick witted. They generally evoke power over the audience and freely make fun of them in a public setting.
I
KiraNerysRules
I’m glad she made this comment. Good for her! I’m so sick of gay men who dress up as women and make them into stereotypes. And I’m thrilled she equated it to blackface because it’s identical. You have gay men who have tortured, enslaved, disenfranchised, beaten, talked down to, held back and lynched women for centuries. Gay men hate women so much that they even segregate gay bar bathrooms. There are separate bathrooms for gay men and women! How do they dare, as oppressors of women, perform show tunes, pop hits and disco classics for hoards of gay men and, coincidentally, women, in bars, clubs and on stages and television? Thank you for giving a voice to this travesty.
ppp111
@drjasonpatton:
True, true. I think most drag is meant for over-the-top performance. Besides, have you ever seen the crowds for drag shows? Just as many women as men. If anything, I imagine the group that would be most offended by drag queens would be closeted gay men. I often hear from these guys that effeminate men and drag queens make them uncomfortable. Sad.
VampDC
But women also dress up in drag as entertainment too…
Does she not realize that?
Lady Gaga was in full drag at the VMAs in 2010.
lauraspencer
Besides Lady Gaga, what about Lea DeLaria, JD Samson, Murray Hill etc?
The everyday woman has co-opted male fashion/style. With Cheney’s logic then why should women be able to wear pants? Sport coats? Neck ties? Baseball caps? Should Mary be able to wear her hair so short? Should she have to wear makeup?
Cheney might be a bit jealous because so many drag queens look better than her.
Polyboy
Drag and blackface have absolutely no intersectionality and are completely different social phenomena.
And white people do not need makeup to serve drag-level commentary about blacks. Just look at Marky Mark and Iggy Azaelia.
Desert Boy
Fuck you, Mary Cheney. Female impersonators can be traced all the way back to Greece.
Bob LaBlah
Thank you Queerty. Were it not for this article I am sure I would have never thought about this born with a silver spoon in her mouth humanoid again for the rest of my life.
One of the most funniest comments that came from the mouth of this ghoulish looking family was when the sister was running for the senate and talked about how “hard” her family worked to get what they got without help from the government and how they came out in the 1870’s to Wyoming. She forgot to mention the Homestead Act which GAVE them the land that laid the foundation of their wealth. All anyone (except blacks, of course) had to do was go out and stake a claim anywhere in the west and off the Indians would be thrown so it could now be “legally” theirs.
Wilberforce
Drag is not mockery. It’s a way of playing with gender roles, and way of not taking them so seriously.
Besides which, there’s no comparison between women and black folk in America. When women stop using their sexual power to control men, then they can compare themselves with a race that experienced brutal slavery.
NiceNCool1
She’s right.
Captain Obvious
Why are rac.ist morons dragging black people into everything that comes out of their faces? Is it really that hard to make a point without a comparison to black people?
And the way the idiot worded her dumb opinion it’s like she’s saying since there’s drag then black face should be ok. Because you know black people have something to do with drag right?
She and every hooded freak like her should be thrown in a pit and buried alive. They won’t be missed.
onthemark
It’s a stereotype that lesbians have no sense of humor. Maybe you don’t want to reinforce that one.
jason smeds
This idea that gay men should be into watching drag queens is ridiculous. I’m a man who likes men, and therefore I prefer to look at men, not men dressed as women. If I really wanted to look at a woman, I’d rather look at a real one than a fake one.
Nonetheless, you will have your hard-core group of gay guys jumping up and down and screaming “I like drag queens, I like drag queens…how dare you attack drag queens”. To these guys I say this: you are mentally ill.
Desert Boy
@jason smeds: I think most people would agree that you are mentally ill.
SonOfKings
She is an idiot. Drag is a respected art form, with loads of female fans. Blackface is meant to degrade and belittle Blacks. Drag is a tribute to the strength, diversity, and resilience of women.
GeoffreyBridgman
I think the only reasonable response to this is that some people shouldn’t have so many ideas in their heads
GeoffreyBridgman
@jason smeds: you’re probably also pretty dumb
charlie_jackpot
@jason smeds: Oh Jason, poor poor Jason.
martinbakman
@jason smeds: Then you must be smitten with Mary Cheney’s man hands.
jwtraveler
Question for Mary Cheney: How is it that the U.S. claims to be a defender of freedom, democracy and human rights, but your father, a war criminal, has never been prosecuted for his crimes?
scotshot
@KiraNerysRules: @KiraNerysRules: Best snark I’ve seen this week. Thank you!
samwise343
@jason smeds: @jason, do men like you?
tham
I thought drag was guys in dresses acting like bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty gay men in dresses…or acting like Betty Davis (Darling…What a dump).
People wearing black face was because they didn’t want to hire black people…
Drag wasn’t because guts didn’t want women around, drag was men wanting to be women (for a night).
Mary needs more gay friends
Kangol
No surprise, the woman is a gay homophobe.
Mary Cheney actively worked for her father while he was pushing anti-gay laws (WTF???), yet as soon as gay people had fought for and won the right to marry, this self-loathing opportunist rushed out to marry her female partner.
Disgusting hypocrite.
Atomicrob
Drag is a celebration. Mary Cheney is a fool.
Zodinsbrother
So I take it she is anti Lesbian Drag Kings too then.
Cross gender acting has been a part of the entertainment world for hundreds of years.
In Elizabethan England young lads would play the female roles on the stage and then meet up with rich men for sex who had watched them perform.
This woman needs to learn her history.
rcblue73
To let you all know, back in the day, dear Mary was seen by the right wing as the Great Lesbian Hope (not to knock the many decent lesbians out there) to counter the threat of the evil commie homo Harvey Milk, when Milk helped organize the Coors boycott. I have heard rumors that she has been instrumental in helping the political right in reining in the gays and pushing assimilation in places like Colorado. I tend to believe that there may be some basis to those rumors. From personal knowledge I also know that the Cheney family has extensive personal associations with some very wealthy ultra right wing (and very anti-gay)individuals, families and organizations. To those who would accuse me of being a “drag queen lover”, well, I’ve never been a big fan of drag, I just view them as performers and some are indeed quite witty and talented. I’ve had a lot of contact with fundamentalist Christians (gawd, have I ever) and yes, they view drag queens (just as Mary Cheney does) as a mockery and insult to women. However, they also view gay men as an insult to women because gay men do not fulfill their God intended role as good husbands and providers. Regarding the black face concept, I saw a number of young straights at this past year’s local pride parade, dressed up in rainbow regalia, drunk and acting out in stereotyped ways they thought gay people were supposed to behave. Would that be considered black face or would that be considered embracing straight allies? If you don’t care for drag queens, don’t let them in when they come pounding on your door. Oh, they don’t come pounding on your door. Problem solved.
A little bit of warning. From personal experience, I do know that right wing owned companies send their staff and management to seminars to teach them about subjects like keeping out unions, how to hire the ‘correct’ type of people, how to manage employees so they develop corporate think, and how to control their employees while downsizing, among other things. The right wing is a sophisticated foe. It’s not impossible that they are, in the same manner, teaching ‘their side’ how to deal with who they consider to be their enemies (gays). There’s a thing called ‘segmentation’ which basically means attack your enemy subtly by attacking and destroying segments of him, until he is completely destroyed. It’s an old concept that was even used by the Nazis. Today, let’s get everyone to hate on the drag queens. Then tomorrow demand that that gay clubs be shut down. Then get people to hate on another segment or two until we’ve achieved cultural erasure of the homos. Beware. History does repeat.
jason smeds
Drag is a celebration? Of what, exactly? Of the worst qualities of women? Of course it is.
Face it – many gay men love watching women being humiliated. You’ve rejected women sexually and you see them as a threat to your ability to seduce the same men that they are attempting to seduce. Women are gay men’s competition, basically.
I’m not saying that gay men don’t have a legitimate grievance against women on some issues but let’s be honest here. Drag IS a form of humiliation of women.
Don’t deny it in the same way you deny that the gay scene is all about promiscuity.
IvanPH
Drag is not a celebration. It is a mockery perpetuating gender stereotypes. I agree with ms. Cheney.
Ladbrook
@jason smeds:
“You?ve rejected women sexually” … smeds, I think you just showed us your cards. A gay man, even a gay man who doesn’t enjoy or appreciate drag, would never say “You’ve.”
Kieran
If you’re wondering what happened to all the testosterone in those drag queens on LOGO……I think Mary Cheney got it. What a pair of balls to give an opinion like that.
Ladbrook
Look, all you haters, the roots of drag and the roots of blackface are decidedly different, so you simply cannot compare the two in an intellectually honest way.
Blackface has always been a way for white entertainers to mock black culture, black history, and black intellect. It’s original purpose was meant to degrade African Americans as they fought for equality in a post-slavery environment… in short, to de-humanize them.
Drag, on the other hand, is rooted in the theatrical tradition of using men (usually teens) to play female characters on stage (see Shakespeare, William). Obviously, the tradition has evolved, but at no point have any of its participants ever approached it as a way of de-humanizing women. On the contrary, some drag queens go out their way to honor some of the gay community’s favorite female icons by portraying them on stage. Hence the many many performers who present themselves as Cher, Streisand, Dolly, Madonna, Miss Ross, Judy, Liza, and Aretha. No drag queen presents herself as Cher because he hates Cher… He does it because he loves her.
If you doubt me, try this little experiment. Ask Cher and Diana what they think of the drag queens who impersonate them, and then ask ANY black performer what he/she thinks of a traveling blackface show.
NoCagada
@jason smeds: “TOP IT, TOOPIT!!!” “I’M NOT ONE OF THOSE GAYS!!!”
Son, get some help.
NoCagada
And when is she going to stop wearing that 60’s lesbian Aqua-Net hair?
dhmonarch89
you can be str8 or gay, but all Republicans are idiots!
SteveDenver
Why is it socially acceptable for Mary Cheney to stump for Republicans and jump on the backs of Democrats who have worked for marriage equality so she can marry her lesbian partner?
Please issue more statements like this, we need more drag queens and their fans to vote against Republicans.
Bad Ass Biker
Who gives a rat’s ass what this pampered and sheltered dyke from one of the workd’s most evil and dysfunctional families has to say?
DCFarmboi
@Zodinsbrother: “Cross gender acting has been a part of the entertainment world for hundreds of years”
So has blackface. Look at the recent Dutch Xmas celebrations. The two are very related.
aliengod
She’s an absolute idiot. There’s nothing even remotely similar in the two.
tdx3fan
@KiraNerysRules: Honey, we do not hate all women, we just hate the stupid ones. For your information, the reason that there are segregated bathrooms in gay bars is because in most jurisdictions you cannot get a liquor license unless you have separate bathroom facilities for females and males. That is because of a runaway feminist agenda… much like Miss Cheney has.
For the record, drag queens do not emulate women… we emulate celebrities. Some of us are even transgendered and would never find work otherwise that would be as substantial.
Miss Cheney is much more of an example of black face because she emulates a lesbian woman while being against anything most lesbians stand for.
mickie1
THE APPLE DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE !!! MARY JUST LIKE YOUR DARK VADED FATHER — YOUR ONE CRAZY ASS**** !!!
onthemark
Maybe we’re all misinterpreting Mary’s statement. Maybe she really, really wants to do blackface and is just trying to make a case for it?
@tdx3fan: Oh – I thought the ladies’ rooms in gay bars were for doing drugs in. (And in Chicago, for having sex in.)
KiraNerysRules
@tdx3fan
HAHAHAHAHA! It never crossed my mind someone would take my comment literally! I’m dying right now! Wow.
Cam
So says the woman who worked her ass off to elect an administration that supported changing the U.S. constitution to prohibit gay rights and gay marriage?
She has ALWAYS supported anti-gay politicians. Even that last situation where she pretended to speak out against her sister being an anti-gay politician was most likely a set up.
Her sister was running for Senate, and the other side accused her of being soft on gays. RIGHT AFTER THAT Mary came out and attacked her sister for being anti-gay.
Her entire life has been working for and supporting anti-gay politicians. She is rich and well connected, why should she care if she damages the rest of the LGBT community?
Creamsicle
Her quote makes it sound like she’s mad that her blackface show didn’t go so well. I’m sorry, Mary. Why don’t you ask RNC to let you introduce the next GOP presidential candidate while in your best minstrel show regalia? I’m sure it would go over real well with the people who are still hanging on to your dying party.
BigWoody
Transgender, transsexual, crossdresser, drag king, drag queen = identifiers that all have a linear correlation.
Versus black face? Not so much.
Mary, I’m sure that you are a role model for upper-income, Republican Wyoming lesbians… let’s leave it at that, mmmKay?
AtticusBennett
she’s wrong. but she’s wrong about a lot. how about comparing her continued political support of anti-gay politicians with those who opposed integration?
DistingueTraces
Because gender is always a performance that we’re all always involved in. Everything you wear is drag.
Of course there’s a strong thread of misogyny in drag — the same misogyny that also pervades the conventional gender performance of “normal” society. But drag with its context of self-aware parody throws the artificiality of gender into relief, and so undermines the stereotypes even as enacts them.
jwtraveler
A woman can cut her hair short, wear a 3-piece suit and tie and oxford shoes and it’s considered a fashion choice. A man puts on a pink shirt and people start questioning his sexuality and gender identity. That’s the social context in which drag exists.
jar
Ah, the humorlessness of the johnny come latelys is the cross we unfortunately have to bear. Drag is a send-up of gender roles, as defined by a straight male patriarchy. The same gender roles that gay men have had to fight against. It historically reflected a solidarity with women and the constrictions they faced and tacitly fought against (see the tough “broads emulated- Bankhead, Davis, West, etc.). It was also its own form of challenge by the men who performed in drag. Drag is a celebration of expression, not a mockery of women. Minstrelsy was a cooption of black performance (put in the best light), a space that was denied to black performers. It both mocked and excluded black expression. Ultimately, minstrelsy yielded to real black face- the hiring of black actors to play the buffoon, coward, clown. The only mainstream options made available for black performers in the early 20th century. (As Hattie McDaniel famously said, I’d rather play the maid than be the maid.) Drag has never excluded women from artistic expression. In fact, it commented on the constraints of that expression by the patriarchy. There is no comparison between the two.
Of course, some drag is nothing more than preening (there is tedium in all art forms), but at its best it is a witty subversive commentary on gender roles (camp). The Divine Miss M (per another post) was a drag performer herself.
I would bet the majority of nay-sayers here do not have a political problem with drag vis-a-vis women, but really express their personal anxiety about its defiance of gender roles. They’re often the same lot who had scores of excuses for not being out during the 70’s, 80’s, and even the 90’s. It’s one thing to “not get it,” it’s quite another to rail against it as bad or improper.
Maude
In My Opinion, Drag sucks. No Pun Intended.
But I’ll fight the good fight to defend all Gay people who want to wear drag.
Just as I would fight for the right of men to wear thongs……Yummy!
Bellamy
Really, Ms Chenney?
Well, I’d have to say that I’m pretty fed up with women having commandeer virtually everything that men wear – pants, t-shirts, pants, polo shirts, pants, tank tops, pants, sneakers, pants, dress shirts, pants, suits, pants, neck ties, pants, short haircuts… oh, and did I mention PANTS? So shove your Black Face comparison.
Ms Urethra Johnson
It’s only offensive to butch lesbians who HATE anything penis related… They hate sex too… They try to ruin anything gay party & pride parade related also… Become a nun maybe? Maybe she should hook-up with Parker Molloy… they can share shaving tips…
Ms Urethra Johnson
It’s interesting to mention that 75% of the customers who come to watch RPDR at my bar are straight women. They just LOVE it… so there, munch on that…
Jack-wrench
Oddly, I thought of it as a thought-provoking question. I don’t suppose I know enough about either to really comment, although I think Drag would be more analogous to white guys rapping and wearing droopy pants, than to black-face.
Men in drag often wish to be women, but no black-face actor would have ever admitted to any admiration for his subject. When black face was popular, black men weren’t allowed to perform,(*statement based on inference) whereas a woman can now do her own version of any performance and could very well own the stage he’s working on. If a black man hired a white man to do black face… might it not be different?
Also, I think you might could do black face if you also did white face, although you’d probably be labeled ‘avant garde’ or ‘experimental’ and lots of people would hate you. But people hate everything that comes out, if it’s worth anything that is…
Also lots of people hate Drag performances, it’s just that they’re usually considered bigots, so we don’t afford them the same respect. I think that’s an important note. It’s about what we think of the people who invented a format. Are they raging bigots or are they just out for harmless fun?
Again, just thinking out loud, I don’t know anything…
Clark35
There is some truth to this. Both drag queens and Trans-women can be highly misogynistic, and drag kings and Trans-men can be highly misandrist. Both blackface and drag queens are equally offensive. Time for us to move on and be ourselves and stop parroting the tired old stereotypes like starving lemmings.
tsbeast
A Drag Queen responds to Mary Cheney
https://www.facebook.com/mona.lott.5891/posts/10202605615382063
mcflyer54
Maybe Mary’s there’s a little jealousy here. After all most drag queens are far better looking and have much better personalities than Mary. And honestly, if Mary is concerned about stereotypes she needs look no further than her own mirror.
LadyL
@drjasonpatton: @rcblue73: @Ladbrook: Very well said, each of you. Thanks for the illumination.
LadyL
@AtticusBennett: Excellent point.
topshelf
Compared to drag queens, women are not the disadvantaged group. Women are not threatened by drag queens. There is no risk of a woman being lynched by a drag queen. The motivation for being a drag queen is completely different. I’ve always considered drag queens to be a man’s escapism. A sort of fun ridiculousness that invites admiration and applause that the man wouldn’t otherwise receive. I have always been a little bothered by the caricature nature of drag queens. But they are always a fund night out.
SFHandyman
About time someone stood up for the poor starving Minstrals. You go on Miss Mary.
stvrsnbrgr
As the great Republican President Abraham Lincoln cautioned, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Jimmy
She dresses in drag herself. Butch little lesbian.
rcblue73
Just to add a couple more briquets to the embers. It occurred to that I’ve taken a number of photos at pride of women with little kids running up to roaming drag performers so they and their kiddies can have their photos taken with them. The kids seem to regard it as a fun moment perceiving the drag performers as clowns. Indeed, a lot of the outlandish costumes and face makeup of über high drag is much more clown like than anything else. With that in mind, I’ve watched a number of videos of the popular performer, “Puddles, The Sad Clown With The Golden Voice”. Would his full makeup and and costume also be considered offensive? I remember a comment about him by a woman who wrote that she expected a man with a nice voice to look like an attractive man and not dress up like some freak. So I’m sure somebody somewhere must be rocking and shaking in their chair being so totally offended by him.
Baba Booey Fafa Fooey
GLAAD needs to create a female version of the Roy Cohn Award and call it the Mary Cheney Award for homophobic women.
tsbeast
Dear Ms. Cheney, your question equating drag to black face and to why one is acceptable and the other is not left me flabbergasted with the amount of education that you so desperately need. Your first mistake is in claiming that men dress in drag to “…act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.)” Well Mary, and may I call you Mary? I don’t believe my intention was to ever act out the offensive stereotypes of woman, quite the opposite. See these stereotypes are the same ones associated with gay men. When I’m in drag and being bitchy, catty, dumb or slutty I’m responding to those limitations that gay hating misogynistic men and in your case woman have labeled gay men and myself with for generations. You see when I’m in drag, I’m in charge and I’m winning regardless of how bitchy, catty, dumb or slutty you or your misogynistic men friends think I’m acting. Because while I may be all of those things in drag I’m also beautiful, creative, funny, strong, admired and applauded for having the courage to face the criticisms head on and with heels on that have been thrown at me and my kind for hundreds of years.
As a gay boy still too young to have knowledge of homosexual definitions and cultural stereotypes but very capable of “throwing like a girl” or “crying like a girl” or “acting like a sissy” I began building the armor that I would so desperately need when I became old enough to proudly declare my own homosexuality while still trying to be SASA or “straight acting straight appearing” just to be accepted in the daylight or at work or at school. So when I “put a little more mascara on” it’s not to degenerate women but to declare my own independence and self acceptance in declaring that I can very much act like a girl, as in my boyhood while at the same time being more man than many of the cowardice men who have attacked and killed gays for being sissies in places like Wyoming, Uganda and Russia.
Your father while teaching you the science of water boarding or the sociology of lying to the masses or the math of the trickle down theory may of forgotten to teach you the history of homosexuality. See there was a time when it was not just looked down upon but illegal and has at times, like now in some places, been punishable by death. So gay men being coy as we are also sometimes labeled and smart as we are sometimes taken for granted for, began to speak of our boy friends as “girl friends” and called our lovers “she” and “her” so that those not in the know wouldn’t catch on to our “sick perversity.” So when a gay man was taking his “girl friend” on a date and planning on dancing with “her” it became somewhat necessary for “her” to also look like a she. Which is why after repeated raids at gay bars and repeated arrests of gay men, one warm June night in 1969 a little bar called Stonewall was full of gay men and drag queens mourning the loss of their beloved and idolized Judy Garland (a woman). It was those gay men and mostly drag queens that fought back against the police and defended that little bar and their identity as gay and started what later became known as “the gay revolution.” A revolution that led to those laws being overturned in America and to the legalization of gay marriage in places all over the world and to a wider and more accepted view of gays and lesbians. A view that I’m sure, you as a proud gay woman take great refuge in. So frankly, gays and lesbians owe a great deal to drag queens for their role in that little riot back in 1969.
I think then that your caparison of drag to black face begins to lose quite a bit of significance. Being white, I don’t feel that I can speak for the hateful and hurtful intentions behind black face other than point out it’s historical differences to drag. Those white folks who began performing in black face during the minstrel show period where not disenfranchised or socially unacceptable victims of hate as were the gay men doing drag. Instead they were the purveyors of hate using burnt cork to further degenerate and dehumanize a race of people that they had already done unspeakable horrors to. Black people were not allowed on stage in the beginning and when they were allowed on stage it was only if they themselves were wearing this same burnt cork and black face that had already been used to mock them and the terrible misfortune that blacks had already endured.
So Mary, it comes down to my own experience as a drag queen and performer. I’ve been doing this for some twenty years. In my act I tell jokes that make fun of my appearance, my sexuality and the hate I’ve faced because of it. I refer to my fans, women and men alike as bitches. Not because they are the equivalent of a female dog, but because I want to take the power of the word back and to desensitize it so it can’t be used as a hateful term towards women anymore. My bitches are strong, intelligent, powerful, confident and not afraid to embrace all aspects of themselves weather it be gay, lesbian, straight, transgendered, bisexual, asexual, gender neutral or whatever else they feel embraced by. See I love women Mary, like my mother and my two sisters and Cher, Elaine Stritch, Kathy Griffin, Cyndi Lauper, Liza Minnelli, Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, Melissa McCarthy, Kathy Bates, Joan Rivers and a list of others far too long to include here. My favorite women come to my shows, applaud me when I’m done, take pictures with me afterwards and then include me in their everyday lives on Facebook and in phone calls and texts received late at night when they sometimes need a hand. Look at intention Mary as it is so much more revealing. Do you really think gay men dressed in drag, have the intention of hurting women? Or was it merely your intention to draw more hate towards those courageous enough to live their lives honestly other than behind the backs of conservative, misogynistic, intolerant, hate filled people who would rather you yourself not be gay?
Now Mary, you have effectively been read. Schools out and the library is closed!
Mona Lott
ChgoReason
Uhm…. It has to deal with issues of power Cheney. Not everything is black and white, dude.
transiteer
But she’s a dyke. What else would she say?
John
Wow! From the responses I can see gays who complain about bullying can do a good job of bullying/name calling themselves if someone spouts an opinion thatdoesn’t agree with their own. I can also see many don’t read Queerty’s comment policy about personal atracks. Whether you like her or not or her opinion.she is entitled to it.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Dear Mary, Drag Queens are in many cases some of the cleverest, witty, and thoroughly entertaining performers one can find on a stage. They take stereotypes and make a hilarious mockery of them………
Your rant however does give credence to one particular stereotype, that of a nasty,mean spirited nasty crunt……….
Cam
@John: said…. “Wow! From the responses I can see gays who complain about bullying can do a good job of bullying/name calling themselves if someone spouts an opinion thatdoesn’t agree with their own.”
____________________
Can somebody please tell the newer Log Cabin trolls that trying to protect people like Mary Cheney, or Anti-gay republicans, is not done by trying the tired worn out tactic of pretending that disagreeing with her is akin to “Bullying” her. No, sorry, bullying and attacks are what the administration that she campaigned for did when they attempted to pass a constitutional amendment against gay rights and appoint anti-gay judges.
She may have the right to her opinion, but others have the right to disagree with her and point out what they think is wrong with it.
And you trying to STOP people from excising that right to disagree is an attack on THEIR free speech.
So that was really my long winded way of saying, your tactic is old, it’s never worked, and if that’s the best you can do it’s probably better to just not bother to try.
Atldeuce
Women aren’t demeaned by drag queens. The drag queen is without fail the smartest, wittiest or most glamorous person in the room. Mary Cheney demeans lesbians however, every day with her homophobic, silver spoon, blather that is meant to represent all lesbians. Hardly. Many lesbians are without healthcare and often marginalized by straight men who only want the to ” find the right man “. How insulting. I guess Mart figures if she can’t get elected by the popular vote, she’ll chose the unpopular route instead.
Maude
Hi Cam,
Still trying to impress us with your nonsensical blather I see. not very amusing.but at least it’s telling. My what a big mouth you have grandma,
what else ya got?!
onthemark
Besides, it’s not even a stereotype that women in general are “slutty.” It’s a stereotype that women in general don’t like sex and would rather go shopping. In pop culture the only exception I can think of is the trashy ’80s sitcom “Married With Children” where Peg liked sex and Al didn’t. (But, Peg still liked shopping!)
NoCagada
@John: Yep…but it doesn’t mean she’s immune to criticism based on free-speech nor is she entitled to spew her putrid hypocrisy at the expense of others.
Cam
@Maude: Hi “Maude” one thing that you and your other screenames never seem to be able to get straight is that if you are going to try to claim that what somebody is nonsensical, or blather, then it’s a good idea to point out what they said that was wrong.
You couldn’t do that. But it is nice to see it when one of BJ’s other screenames forgets that they aren’t signed in as BJ and still rabidly defends any anti-gay bigot that who is in the GOP.
My comment was accurate and stands.
::::::Clapping:::::: but well done you.
talk_talk
drag lampoons maleness just as much as it lampoons womanhood… it is a lampoon of the gender binary itself, as it takes at its fundamental level a person assigned to one side of the binary and dresses them as the other. Men in drag don’t just act out perfect womanhood, they act out ideas of what happens when men adopt tropes of womanhood; and they lampoon the idea that manhood is perverted by femininity.
Clark35
Drag stopped being relevant decades ago in the very early 70s.
TomOH
Because gay men get disregarded as being effeminate, and therefore somehow inferior because of it. That mind state, in and of itself is misogynistic and insulting to women because it presumes them to be inferior, which they are not. And it is also homophobic because it rejects that a homosexual man is a “real man”.
Since when have you ever seen a drag queen dressing up like Mary Cheney?…
darcee76
Mary Cheney should speak only for lesbians.
Most of the characters or personas that drag queens develop are either straight female characters or imitations of straight female celebrities and I have never met a straight female, ever, who finds draw in any way offensive.
Most straight women I know love drag queens and have a lot of fun with the Drag Race show and their live performances.
Drag queens are entertainers and if there was no demand for the performances they offer RuPaul would not have her/own show (and would not be so beloved).
Drag queens are simply expressing and extension of themselves, or a feminine alter ego, one that they can either draw strength from or use to express their feminine side. A lot of performers do that. And not all of the characters are bitch, catty, dumb or slutty.
I remember reading about the Stonewall Riots. When Hay was trying organize gays in the aftermath it was the lesbian feminists who complained that the drag queens were “demeaning to women” and the meeting ended with the queens and lesbians leaving in disgust.
Again, I have not met a single het woman who is offended by drag. These complaints are always coming from lesbians.
Ms. Cheney stop with the inappropriate “black face” comparisons and please explain to us what it is about drag queens that REALLY bother lesbians.
Wait, don’t bother. As so many have pointed out here no one really cares what the self-loathing daughter of Darth Vader thinks or what she puts on her little Facebook page (hey – is true that your old man either was not invited or chose not to come to your wedding?).
kathyhiya
She just doesn’t get it. Plain and simple. She just saw one ad and made a ridiculous sweeping assumption.
PS, to all the people making ‘humourless dyke’ comments – I’m a lesbian who loves drag race. I think Mary Cheney is an idiot. Please don’t tar us all with the same brush.
Cam
@kathyhiya:
It’s a shame you have to state the obvious.
Mr C
@Captain Obvious: co sign!