Does anyone have conflicting feelings about drag culture?

Yes. While I understand that it's an art and all of that (and I appreciate the skill that they show with makeup application), I feel like RuPaul's Drag Race specifically (and the fan culture cultivated around it) has kind of highlighted the worst aspects of drag culture and how it kind of derives itself from negative stereotypes.

My biggest issue with it, by far, is the big emphasis on cattiness. Like it feels like this big show of dressing up as an emphasized, ugly (imo, I think that the application skill is good, but drag makeup is aesthetically displeasing for me personally to look at) version of a cis/gender-conforming woman, and then putting on this big catty show where they talk down to one another and do nothing but fight, like it's some soap opera, like Dynasty or something. Also, there's a lot of focus on the term "pussy", generally coming from men/people who don't have vaginas and are co-opting the term "pussy" to seem edgy or cute, and it just feels kind of...I dunno, opportunist? Like you (probably) don't have a vagina and if you don't have one, the term pussy in relation to genitalia was never meant for you, but quite a few of the people who do drag publicly spend a lot of their non-drag time presenting as cis men but taking about "their pussies". Now, far be it from me to assume what everyone has in their pants, but like I said, quite a lot of these people who do drag present as cis gay men and not trans/nonbinary/agender/gender non-conforming.

Like for me, it all kinda loops around to this problem that cis gay guys have with misogyny and thinking they can't be misogynist or sexist because they're gay. Being gay/doing drag does not exclude you from perpetuating misogynistic and sexist ideas, and I feel like drag queens get away with it because people excuse they bc they "dress like [cis/femme] women" as a job.

Tl;dr: I have absolutely no problem with drag as an art or gay men. My issues lie in Drag Race culture and the culture of cattiness and latent misogyny that this specific offshoot of popular drag culture has brought to light, as well as the co-opting of language that doesn't belong to them. If I'm wrong on anything here or overstepping my bounds as a cis woman, please feel free to educate/correct me.

/r/AskWomen Thread