dragqueens

Drag Queens

Watching the "Felicia" show on E TV in August, in which she had drag queens in the studio, forced me to confront my feelings towards this sub-section of gay society.

Although the number of drag queens is a small percentage of actual gay men, why is it that they receive such disproportionate coverage in the media? At Gay pride, the TV cameras and newspaper photographers zoom in on the most hideous drag queens like a dog homes in on a bitch on heat. Every time I see gays discussed on TV, it is men in frocks who are presented as representative of gay society. Where are the real gays? The gay doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professionals? Why is it always the lowest rungs of the gay social ladder who are foisted on us as our representatives?

Maybe it is because of their sensation and shock value that these aberrations are given more coverage than the ‘normal’ gay men of South Africa, the Mr-Next-Door types who don’t feel the necessity to draw attention to their sexual orientation by presenting themselves to the world as freaks. Maybe it is because this is a clique of sad little men who will do anything to draw attention to themselves while the better-adjusted gays don’t feel the necessity to ‘go public’ and make themselves the objects of derision. Maybe it is because normal gays just aren’t newsworthy. I don’t know. But I am getting heartily sick of seeing pathetic pseudo women like Stephen Cohen and his ilk constantly being shown as representative of gay society.

Watching the "Felicia" show, I was overcome by a wave of nausea, which quickly changed to sadness. It seems to me that there are two types of drag queens. Firstly there are those moffies who think that if they simply don a frock, slap on a kilo of make-up with a putty knife and lip-sync to a Donna Summers record, they are magically transformed into a ‘cabaret artiste’. Puleeze! Anyone can do that! It takes no special talent! If they performed live, like real female impersonators, sang in their own voices and interacted with the audience on a verbal level, then sure, we could evaluate them as artistes. But wearing a tacky dress, plastering one’s face in garish make-up and pretending to sing is pathetic. The only thing which comes across is a grotesque parody of real women. The irony inherent in this is that while trying to pass themselves off as women, (and according to the guests on "Felicia", many of them think of themselves as women) they are really being misogynistic. If you want to be a performer, for God’s sake get some talent, some training and some new material! We are sick of Miss No-Talents standing on a stage and miming to someone else’s songs! Let’s have something original, for God’s sake!

And gay audiences who accept this drek? I thought that as gays we were supposed to be the purveyors of good taste? Why is it then that while we pride ourselves on our inherent "good taste", our "gay gene", we are so accepting of tacky clubs and fifth rate "entertainment"? Anyone who has walked down Castro Street in San Francisco or Oxford Street in Sydney knows how tasteless the gay scene really is. The ‘fabulousness’ of gay existence is really a celebration of mediocrity.

The second type of drag queen is the pathetic little queer in the middle of an identity crisis who thinks that by putting on an awful dress (usually bought from a Toc H second hand shop), a layer of make-up, ridiculous false eye-lashes and an uncombed, cheap wig is going to solve his problem. I looked at the audience on the "Felicia" show. God, what a sad bunch of losers! If you are having a problem with your sexuality, for Heaven’s sake, go and get some professional help! You are not going to solve the problem yourself. And a sex change is not the answer in the majority of cases. Two words came to my mind when I watched this particular audience: common and coarse. I cannot identify with these "gay" people. Can you?