Letters to the Editor
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is there anything we can do to make them stop?
this is not a racist screed. this is a plea to make humor something more than obvious men dressed as women. it isn't funny anymore, if it ever was. can humor not be elevated just a little be higher than a man (poorly) dressed as a woman?
victor/victoria notwithstanding, the vast majority of men dressed as women entertainment vehicles are anything but entertaining.
stop. please.
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Regarding Shirley Q. Liquor (sp?)....
Dear Mr. Hannaham,
I just read "What's more, an act like Thompson's, whose insult to black women is sanctioned by his blackness, may embolden white performers like Charles Knipp, who tours gay clubs in the South in both drag and blackface as the outrageous, mush-mouthed Shirley Q. Liquor. Talk about old school.. Wilson, by contrast, redeemed his garishly clad soul-sister Geraldine by making sure she always came out on top, especially in opposition to the church and in subverting machismo -- "
Ummmm?...Given that about 1/2 of the shirley Q monologues "subvert machismo" and/or concern her rather marked problems with her church-ladies (and yes, shirley ALWAYS comes out "on top"), I hope you'll take the time to distinguish between the work of Flip Wilson and Chick Knipp.
I hope you'll fetch up with a more convincing argument than "It's sorta-okay for a black man to play a black woman, and it's perfectly FINE if a black woman plays a black woman...but it's NOT okay for a white man to play a black woman, despite the fact that there are black men and women who have imitated white men and women."
also...Chuck, rather obviously, doesn't appear/work only in "the south". Go to his website and see his bookings. I remain surprised by the regularity with which Salon's writers make their little comments about and references to "the south", and I'll once again remind you that Anacostia, Cabrini Green, and Watts are not exactly in Birmingham.
all that done and said?...I have to say what I've said before....whichis that you have a lot of time on your hands if, in your work-for-a-better-society, you find yourself with the time and inclination to start policing drag-queens.
Even I recognize there's more important work to be done than that......
quite sincerely,
David Terry
www.davidterryart.com
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Gender issues? Discomfort? Huh?
It doesn't make me or anyone I know uncomfortable, it's just predictable. Like a sight gag in an old movie that is set up too long and you see it coming, and you see it coming and oh, there it is, oh gee, this is the part where the audience is supposed to laugh.
Hackneyed to the point of insult, but it doesn't seem to hurt them at the box office!
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An Ancient Theatrical Tradition . . .
Is it sexist? Racist? Sure. But the minstrel tradition long predates Shakespeare (whose female roles, remember, were all played by beloved male actors, since women weren't allowed onstage). The minstrel is originally a medieval term for an entertainer.
The minstrel tradition is everything Hannaham depicts. So is he correct about the evolution of minstrel shows into characters like Amos 'n' Andy, Geraldine and Madea: correct about the underlying racism, sexism and homophobia.
Hannaham neglects one thing: these traditions are also HUGELY entertaining. There's a reason black and white audiences have (and will) flock to them.
The touring circuit of black theatrical shows ("Mama, I Want to Sing!" "Be Careful What You Pray For!", et al.) are direct descendants of this tradition. They generally feature the same themes and characters: a gospel singer raised in the church who wants to sing "secular" (The Devil's) music (so all these shows feature lots of both kinds of music within the dramatic arc); a powerful matriarch; The Fool (usually, but not always, an effeminate gay man who dresses in drag and is played for laughs). And so on.
What Hannaham misses is that ALL these theatrical traditions are attempts at the level of pop entertainment to deal with profoundly harrowing and uncomfortable subtexts: the rise from slavery, racism, exploitation by whites, secular versus religious, homosexuality, sexism and the exploitation of women, etc.
Even Sophie Tucker started out at a 'coon singer in blackface because she was told she was an unattractive fat Jew who'd never make it otherwise. Until her makeup went missing one night and she had to go on as herself. Both Tucker and Mae West befriended, hired and studied with black artists all their lives and incorporated what they learned into their acts.
I'm often the only white in audiences of 3,500 at these black touring road shows. Why? Because black friends 30 years ago introduced me to them and black friends today still invite me to join them. I love them (both my black friends and these shows). Am I uncomfortable? Never. Why would I be?
If the themes underlying such entertainments make one uncomfortable, maybe one needs to reexamine ongoing issues of racism, sexism, homophobia, religionism, etc., in one's own life.
THAT'S what these pop entertainments address and expose and attempt to defuse with their melange of rapid-fire drama, comedy and music.
Perhaps even more successfully than "serious" works like "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" or "A Raisin in the Sun" or "Fences."
I'll take "Be Careful What You Pray For" over "Angels in America" any day, for sheer entertainment value.
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Virginiaca Goes Shopping . . .
. . . but not with Natalie Portman. Unless Virginiaca has gone to Baby Gap with multiple SNL hostesses as her stepdaughter, the skit Hannaham references features Ellen Page, of Juno fame, in that "scary attempt to act 'hood."
Portman, while not donning blackface, actually did an extremely funny "SNL Short" as a violent, drug-abusing Ivy League gangsta rapper ("all the kids who look up to me can suck my dick!")
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Gender issues more than race issues?
I was hoping that this article would delve deeper into the issues that the African-American community has with homosexuality. It came close with Dave Chappelle's ridiculous jokes about Brokeback Mountain, but then shies away. Tyler Perry's comments were taken at face value and not analyzed for what his denials mean.
And of course, the irony of Eddie Murphy who does drag and picks up tranny hookers was not mentioned at all.