Nobody expects CBS Sunday Morning, the 90-minute news program that your grandparents probably watch, to be on the cutting edge of the gender revolution. But it’s still a tad surprising that during a segment on RuPaul that aired on Sunday, Drag Race is described as a competition with “all men.”
“Contestants — yes, they’re all men — compete for prizes and the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar,” the narrator says.
This is an objectively false statement.
Over its nine-season history Drag Race has featured many trans queens, most notably season 9 finalist Peppermint, who was open about how she identifies during filming.
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The CBS misgendering, while not an Earth-shattering offense, comes at an interesting moment, one week after RuPaul sparked heated debate about drag and gender.
It’s a truly incredible thing that Drag Race and RuPaul are reaching the CBS Sunday Morning crowd in such a positive light, but the opportunity to expand minds in new and challenging ways doesn’t stop when you reach the mainstream.
Related: Peppermint’s powerful response to RuPaul’s gender comments
Early in the segment, the program gives this herstory of drag:
“Since the ancient Greeks, men have been dressing in women’s clothing on stage. Men portrayed women in the plays of William Shakespeare, and many of us grew up watching Flip Wilson and Milton Beryle on TV, or Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon in the movie Some Like It Hot…
Drag — wearing clothing of the opposite sex — has come a long way.”
Drag helps to break down the binary by playing with our learned expectations of gender, not reinforce it by insisting the person behind the makeup is the “opposite sex.”
Today, some female-identifying drag queens are on the front lines of melting our minds in the best possible ways.
Let’s keep listening, learning and gagging.
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PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
“This is an objectively false statement.”
LOL nope.
These drag queens are ALL female IMPERSONATORS by definition.
How long before raising the topic of tucking becomes “problematic”?
Chris
Agreed.
Matt
Drag was pioneered by trans women. It has never been as simplistic as men impersonating women. There is literally a picture of one of the women who has competed on Drag Race in the article. Why can’t people do the most basic of research before commenting?
Polaro
Matt, care to provide some proof? I call BS.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
^Either it’s a “real” woman or a male professional female impersonater. Make up your SJW-addled mind
Ummmm Yeah
Even CBS knows it’s a show for men dressed as women. Why don’t all the contestants? They are all men dressed as women.
Chris
Making something out of nothing… being offended because you want to be offended. Are you taking your cues from the Christian Right? The subject was Rupaul, not his show. There was a brief mention of the show and how he’s brought drag into the mainstream. I watched the episode and didn’t for a second think what they said was “wrong.” Let’s stick to outrage for things that deserve it and let the pettiness go.
LABrad
First of all, “misgender” is not even a word. How come nobody cares when somebody “misgenders” boys and men? That is a form of gay bashing and it victimizes a lot more people than calling a “trans woman” a man. We actually have a precedent in California because of the Richard Simmons case that says it’s not defamation to accuse someone of being transgender even if they’re not. If it’s not defamatory to say someone is transgender, how can it be defamatory to say someone is not transgender?
Brian
A Toyota is a car. A car isn’t necessarily a Toyota. That kind of logic isn’t actually logic.
I think the term “transgender” has gotten ridiculously loose, I think it takes more than just saying “I’m a woman!” and wearing eye makeup and calling it a day, as seems to be the case with a lot of people these days. But if someone has had sexual reassignment surgery, yes, they are transgender. If someone is genuinely living their life as the opposite gender, even if they are never able to surgically transition, yes, they are transgender. And I think it’s certainly disrespectful to not politely honor their choice, even if I don’t necessarily understand or agree with it.
Someone like Alexis Arquette who apparently went back and forth? Fvck them. I don’t think the community are doing themselves any favors by making it such a blanket term. But I guess it creates the opportunity to call more people homophobes, which seems to be the most important thing these days.
And calling men boys is not gay bashing. That’s just absurd.
LABrad
I never said calling men boys is gay bashing. Calling men and boys girls or women is gay bashing. If you don’t know that, congratulations, you’ve had a charmed life.
And your Toyota thing was also unrelated to my point. If calling someone transgender is not derogatory, it cannot be derogatory to call someone not transgender.
Alexis Arquette had bottom surgery, so by definition he was transsexual. In his later years, he recognized that it did not make him a woman. His friends and family went back to using he/ him pronouns. I can’t think of any “trans pioneer” who did not end up rejecting or condemning the program. In addition to Alexis, Holly Boswell, Kate Bornstein, Sylvia Rivera, and Marsha Johnson all came to the conclusion that they were not women.
Unless you’re savvy enough to work the system and turn it into a 7 figure salary like Laverne Cox, Amanda Lepore, or Gigi Gorgeous, I don’t think the label “transgender” or the label “woman” really helps your life at all.
inbama
According to OED, “drag” has been defined as “feminine attire worn by a man” since 1870.
We are repeatedly told “Transwomen are REAL women.
Simple then – only men should be allowed to compete on “Next Drag Superstar.”
tricky ricky
drag is men dressing up as women. PERIOD.
tricky ricky
“Today, some female-identifying drag queens are on the front lines of melting our minds in the best possible ways.” yeah, they’re DOING PORN, pretending to have sex with straight men (you can identify almost all the american men from gay and bi porn, same with the european & south american men) amazingly they look like drag queens with real tits (if the implant scar isn’t horrendous).
Polaro
Glad to see the QWEERTY commentors understand that drag is done by men. Did one or two transitioning women participate in Drag Race? Clearly, yes, but they withheld that information until late in the show, didn’t they? Why was that?
Should fully transitioned women participate in drag shows? No.
I love trans people, but some of them seem to think they own the world and can re-write history and bully the rest of us. Not having it.
jess_lopez
The essence of drag is cross-dressing and breaking gender norms. A woman (trans or cis) wearing make-up and wearing clothes usually worn by women is NOT cross-dressing nor is it breaking gender norms. It’s NOT drag.