Republican conservative Mary Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s openly gay daughter, has posed the question as to why men dressing in drag is socially acceptable, but a white person dressing in blackface isn’t.
Mary’s question apparently arose after she watched a preview from the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. She wants to know why perpetuating stereotypes of women, while dressed up as one, isn’t seen as offensive to more people.
In a private Facebook status, obtained by CNN, Mary wrote:
[quote]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?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Shouldn’t both be okay or neither? Why does society treat these activities so differently?[/quote]
Scottish drag legend, Guillotina Munter has opposing viewpoints, commenting that “Because drag is parodying the external elements seen to ‘make’ a woman, which in fact do not. It’s a commentary on the social construct of gender roles, not actual women. It’s nothing to do with having a uterus or XX chromosome.”
What do you think? Does Mary have a point? Let us know your full thoughts in the comments below or by voting in our poll.
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Perl Urgurl
because race and gender aren’t the same thing. Blackface is white people (the oppresser) dress up as black folks (oppressed) to ridicule them among many other things that are gross and combines with other forms of white supremacy to create a hostile environment that kills and incarcerates black folk and other POC, it is straight up racist. Drag is something born out of the survival of trans women and the liberation of queers to take back femme for themselves in a place that won’t shame and murder them. sissy gay boys who have had to fight their way through life, finding all the things that make them appear femmy and locking them all in a box forever, then drag comes along and let’s him show it ofg and be completely loved and adored for it, it’s healing to say the least. Cis women don’t own femininity and for any other gender to express it isn’t an attack on your womanhood.