tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683546417186768820.post1543363249059331962..comments2021-02-13T04:51:17.282-05:00Comments on Nth Wave Feminism: Drag vs. MockeryKyriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01488063301300315710noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683546417186768820.post-49653378279626300712011-03-19T10:47:57.815-04:002011-03-19T10:47:57.815-04:00@Scarecrow: I actually think dressing like your wi...@Scarecrow: I actually think dressing like your wife is an excellent way to play with cross-dressing. After all, she's probably the woman you most respect in the world, so it's a route unlikely to lead to vicious mockery.<br /><br />I would also say it's always good to accompany this with some self-examination, since this concept really boils down to intent, not degree-of-passing.Kyriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01488063301300315710noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683546417186768820.post-64566519541080031562011-03-18T14:13:44.226-04:002011-03-18T14:13:44.226-04:00Andrew, I just adore you.
I don't think you w...Andrew, I just adore you.<br /><br />I don't think you were being a sexist ass. I think we could really get into some queer/gender theory here, actually: you and your wife could have been making some kind of statement about your partnership and heteronormativity. Bill and I dressed as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez one Halloween (I was Dylan). He has a beard and didn't shave it, but he was dressed so androgynously that everyone thought he was Jesus. It was as much about my gender-bendy queerness as anything else, I think.<br /><br />I don't think a person's status as friend or foe of the LGBTQs always matters in situations like these, actually. I recently called someone out on saying "you homos" to a bunch of guys he was jokingly threatening. His first defense was, "I hang with the family." Well, I'm IN the family and it bugged me. "The family" is not monolithic, and his having some gay friends doesn't excuse him from using the word "homos" as a slur. [I do think it's possible to use homo/fag in a non-slurring or even empowering way. This wasn't that kind of context.]<br /><br />I should have, perhaps, spent more time on the gray area in this post. There's drag, there's douchey frat boys saying "haha I'm wearing a skirt," and then there's some level of experimentation/whatever you want to call it in the middle. You aren't at all what I'm talking about here.Jesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03275971301824881125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683546417186768820.post-80987475938965517272011-03-18T13:57:12.783-04:002011-03-18T13:57:12.783-04:00One Halloween, I dressed as a woman (and not in th...One Halloween, I dressed as a woman (and not in the drag context). There was, perhaps, a difference in the approach. I was dressed as my wife, and she was dressed as me, and both of us were taking the children trick or treating. <br /><br />Question: Was I still being a sexist ass? (I hope not, and if I was I apologize.) <br /><br />This was in my pre-beard phase, but I made no other attempts to cover any other masculine traits. Conversely, my wife made no attempt to mask her feminine traits when she was dressed as me. Does my status as friend to the LGBT community have any bearing on this? The fact that my own sexuality has been questioned most of my life (as a former thespian with a penchant for writing poetry, high school wasn't easy)? I saw it as a way of declaring comfort with my sexual identity... but perhaps that interpretation was insensitively incorrect?The Scarecrowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07211352680708766090noreply@blogger.com