Letters to the Editor
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laurel962
Brilliant post.
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And what of black women?
Virginiaca, Big Momma, Rasputia and Madea, to a lesser extent, represent a truckload of tired and hurtful stereotypes about black women trotted out for laughs by a black man. You know-- black women are fat, sassy, ugly, ignorant, hypersexual, uncouth, have "funny" names, and apparently when given the opportunity to "mammy" impressionable young, white women, bad influences (See the Kenan Thompson and Ellen Page skit).
In oh-so-typical fashion, the movie "Norbit" contrasted the hefty, brown, afroed, domineering (read masculine) Rasputia with the more dainty, refined, pale skinned (read feminine) love interest played by Thandie Newton.
I wonder if a cross-dressing black actress popularized a male character that embodied negative mainstream stereotypes about black men, would it be as well-received people--black and white--as these caricatures.
I am a black woman and this sort of minstrelsy isn't funny to me when perpetrated by Charles Knipp OR Eddie Murphy.
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it think laurel is on to something, men like to make fun of unnattracitve women because attractive ones have so much power
men can't have a similar power based on attractiveness alone, so the whole concept doesn't work with men. Adding to the humor in the case of women is that so many women DENY this fact and then ALL women expect to have their asses kissed the way hot women do and claim discrimination and abuse when this doesn't happen.
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Dick Dworkin
You are 100% right on.
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Funny is funny - for those that find it funny
It's pointless to engage in PC hand-wringing over this kind of comedy. Like beauty, funny is in the eye of the beholder. What you find hilarious will make someone else shrug his shoulders in puzzlement. What use is there in saying something is "wrong" or "bad" just because you yourself don't laugh? If somebody is laughing, then obviously it's funny to them.
Some people may think that laughing "at" someone can be trained out of humans, but unfortunately that really isn't possible. Cross-dressing humor strikes people as funny simply because a man in women's clothes crosses the boundary of what is considered "normal" for most people. Weird things will always make some people laugh, no matter how accepted they may be to others. If I died my hair green purple and orange, and stuck a toy monkey in it, people would laugh. Not because there's anything wrong with it, but because it looks strange to them. Laughter is one of the ways we deal with things we find odd, and it's not always meant unkindly. Combine something odd with a genuine comedic talent, like the mimicry that performers like Tyler and Murphy are so good at, and you're guaranteed to get laughter - which is, after all, the business those guys are in. Like the man said, "It's funny. In my business, you don't cut funny."
As for the whole "emasculation" thing, I can only say, oh please. Nobody is after your jewels, guys, so you can let go of them now.
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It won't change
For those of us who have seen a fair number of shows and movies with men in drag, there is a new generation of people who have not. They'll find it just as fresh and titillating as we did when we were, oh, 16 years old. There will always be a market for it and Hollywood markets to the date night crowd (teenaged males). They call it "asses in seats". I say that its "asses" in both meanings of the word.
There's a sad thing where producers seem to believe a male comedian in drag to be more marketable than a female comedian. I'd rather see Whoopi Goldberg being a lunatic than a man in drag being a lunatic. I've seen some heavyset female comedians on Comedy Central in little segments who can be such a hoot and they get almost no air time. Roseanne( a heavyset white woman) was very lucky to get on the air at all. Even then, she went through a total body mod during the run of her program. But, they serve it and we gladly eat it.
Interestingly enough, the Monty Python crowd did drag simply because they were understaffed. They had a couple of women (Carol Cleveland, for example), but did the female roles themselves. They weren't particularly mocking, either. Some of the female drag roles (especially when Palin and Idle did them) were not unattractive at all. However, I kept wishing they could have afforded to hire a few middle aged ladies and suburban housewife types.
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political correctness killed grandma
One reason that black men dress as feisty old ladies is that black women are no longer allowed to play feisty old ladies. Yet those ladies still exist. I see them all around me every day. They're sometimes hilariously mean, brilliantly creative, surprisingly wise. And, yes, they may talk "country," and they are often fat, and their fashion sense can be alarming.
In the 70's, TV was full of black actresses playing these women. Now it's not allowed. Black actresses must play women who are chic, upwardly mobile, well educated, and hot. What's a comedian to do if he wants to write a skit about the grandmother who raised him? He daren't ask a woman to play her. So he plays her himself.
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Your sheltered life, no Milton Berle, Woman-less Weddings, etc.
Not everything is particularly racist or sexist. Some things just exist with the artist. The long theatrical tradition of performers in "drag" belies your overly-narrow focus. It is usually better to research a topic before attempting to comment about it.
Without your article, I would never have considered that the "Woman-less Wedding" I witnessed over 50 years ago had racist overtones.
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White Chicks
So, where does WHITE CHICKS from the Wayans brothers fit into all of this?
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Beware . . .
of young writers who've gotten hold of "an issue."
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weirder than you think
American minstrelsy started as white entertainment’s homage to the "exotic" African influences made to the traditional European forms. Once allowed to partake the African-American performers used it to satire the white community to the delight of both black and white audiences. The divide we now see as racist is actually the early blending of the two cultures, making a uniquely American art form.
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Drag = Blackface
I was really excited by the first half of this article. Somebody gets it! Men camping it up as women on stage are exactly as funny and as tasteful as whites pretending to be black. That is, not funny or tasteful at all.
Reading the extreme justifications for drag in some of these letters just reinforces my belief that there's no justification at all. You wouldn't have to reach so hard to explain it if it were all as natural as you say. These letters also demonstrate how difficult it is for some men to listen to women's voices. No wonder they are more comfortable laughing at fake women than having genuine, thoughtful interactions with real ones.
Drag insults women. Period.