Letters to the Editor
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AE
That is the whole point, to TWEAK women's humorlessness about themselves.
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Ain't I a Woman?
As Sojourner Truth said over 150 years ago -- "Ain't I a Woman?" (Google it)
Why the double standard on "women" and how women are viewed, and how women are treated? One for standard for blacks, another for whites?
Why, at this time in history, are African-American women being mocked? Why, at the end of the story/movie - the neo-mammy has fixed everyone else's problems -- but no has even asked her if she could use a hand with anything? And that's OK? This is a happy ending?
Don't the comedians, actors and their producers See what kind of stereotypes of black women they are perpetuating with these types of drag acts?
Oh, they do see? It makes money? They never think of black women's feelings, just their own ("I'm not gay or anything.")?
I understand. How sad.
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google it?...
Why would anybody (at least among the sort who read Salon.Com) with half a brain have to google that?
It's not exactly an obscure quotation from a person ignored by the history books.
the quotation is part of the sixth grade curriculum ( I used to figure among those folks who write the tests to insure that no chile's be left behind) in a large number of states and, even more titillatingly, is the title of a Rory Block (that big old misogyinisticalesque and racistical thing) song....
talk about gettin' tired,?...
David Terry
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Can't speak for Tyler and Martin...
I think we all know why Eddie Murphy has a predilection for women's clothing....
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A matriarchal society
What the author does not discuss in his article is the fact that black American society is matriarchal. While black men have their heroes, namely athletes, the occasional politician or community leader, and actors/comedians, we are all too often raised by our mothers and grandmothers. I think this rash of men performing as women has to do with what we recognize as the gender of power and dominance within our lives. While I continually cringe (and occasionally laugh) at these representations, I recognize that it comes from the dynamics of fatherless-ness, and is the manifestation of growing up within a familial structure where males are either absent or a negligible presence. That makes these caricatures more telling than funny, and ultimately a depressing sympton of the times.
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I'm curious
do comedians find dressing in drag to be genuinely funny, or do they just engage in it because the audience seems to get a kick out of it? I would have loved to see some input from comedians on why they think drag is genuinely funny, if they do.
PS. One non-mature african american drag movie is juwanna mann, where a basketball player dresses like a woman to get into the wnba.
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It's Comedy
Milton Berle. Some like it hot.
Come on, Salon. Get a sense of history.
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Oh Yeah?
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.
Tom Cruise will be surprised to hear this.
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@scloyd
I certainly think there are all kinds of totally hot men -- and Tom Cruise, though a well known imbecile, is very attractive. But you seem to be implying that, for the purpose of getting a laugh, women are dressing in drag as if they were Tom Cruise, because that's hilarious? Uh...not really.
Women do occasionally dress in drag -- I could have probably come up with more examples, but Amy Sedaris and Tracey Ullman will do fine. When they do this, they are usually poking a more gentle kind of humor -- a character study -- and not super-cruel ridicule as in the case of Eddie Murphy or Tyler Perry, and they are not continually contrasting "handsome" characters played by actual handsome males with the "drag" character played by a woman as representing everything that is physically disgusting and sexually repugnant in men.
Brightstar, as always, has nailed it in his self-incriminating way: men are intimidated by beautiful women, and resent their power (his archived letters are sad testament to this), so they "get even" by ridiculing women who they see as without power: the old, the heavyset, the homely. Is there anything as sad -- and dead end -- as an overweight, balding, homely guy who proudly celebrates his loneliness and lack of a parter, by lashing out and trying to downgrade any women he feels is "beneath him" (or to quote Brightstar: "not fit to lick his shoes")? Of course, these are all women who, on an attractiveness scale of 1-10, are probably more presentable than the men who are making fun of them.
If our TV and movies and advertising were viewed by some alien beings from another galaxy, they would have no problem at all (contrary to Brightstar, dickdworkin, Parson Jim, et al) figuring out which was the dominant sex on Planet Earth, and who holds all the REAL power....the real power is always in the hands of the people who are doing all the humilating, degrading and boot grinding of the other party.
Oh - and it's even FUNNIER when you can get powerless parties to turn on EACH OTHER, as in the case here of African Americans.
Laugh, aliens, laugh.
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Based on some of the other fools here @ Salon
Like str8face, seemingly this is yet another of the substantive issues this country must face together before we can call ourselves a modern free state.
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MONEY GRANTS STUPIDITY - HOMO*SIN*SUALITY IS 'IN'
Personally, I think Tyler Perry does it because he enjoys it, while Martin and Murphy do it for income.
Remember, since the days of Flip Wilson ("Geraldine") Blackmen have been relegated to unseriousness, by dressing us as females. Today, the Euro-Jewish media puts our athletes, and all kinds of (Black) celebrities and heroes in feministic drag.
The question of conspiracy arises with me when I ask: "Why don't we see the same number of whites and Blackwomen in drag, as we see Blackmen?" I guess the notion and message is, we'd rather have a sodomite Blackman to deal/compete with, than a Heterosexual one.