RUDE APPALL - A MISOGYNY STAR ON THE WALK OF FAME

Minstrels…they aren’t dead. Instead of Black minstrels there are Vagina Minstrels. In the old days, white men turned up on stage with nappy wigs, burnt-cork faces, and caricature mouths and voices. They were Blacks and they sang and danced and people cheered as if it wasn’t racism. Now? men turn up on stage in insane wigs, garish make-up, act in a parody of womanhood, and people cheer as if this is not misogyny.

The latest issue of "Entertainment Weakly," burbles twice about Ru-Paul, a man in drag. Question:

Would “Entertainment Weakly” cheer about a white actor in brown-face? I mean, what if Al Pacino wanted to play Frederick Douglass in an HBO bio flick? The media wouldn't cover it except to scream "SHAME!" If PBS offered a documentary on Al Jolson, well...they wouldn't because he's a pariah because he made his fame singing "Mammy" in black drag. Regular drag is just fine. Why?

Drag is mostly men who have no sexual interest in women making fun of women. What, they excuse is they want to BE women? An irony is that Jolson, in blackface, wanted to BE black. He sang sympathetic songs like "Old Black Joe," and gave blacks a heart ("Mammy") and emphasized that blacks were not dangerous but joyful ("Swanee, How I love ya, How I love ya!") He's still a pariah now. Because we're enlightened about blackface.

So, drag queens "identify" with real women, just happen to emphasize the "we make them paint their face and dance" aspect that John Lennon criticized in song? They just emphasize that women are all about make-up and wigs and bras and looking like objects?

How about Rachel Dolezal, the white woman who “admired” and “identified” with blacks, and was then outed and fired from her job? How DARE she pretend to be black. Funny, a transvestite can walk around dressed as a woman and even use the ladies room. Rachel Dolezal was banished. Probably isn't allowed in a tanning salon, either. Somehow "diversity" has a black line that can't be crossed, but the pink one can be stomped on with high heels. No ladies in "pussy hats" are upset that drag queens make fun of equality and women being equal to men and not subjected to ridicule?

In the current “Entertainment Weakly” they whoop and hoot and woo-hoo RuPaul getting a STAR on the corrupt “Hollywood Walk of Fame.” Corrupt: a whole bunch of useless TV quiz show hosts are there. All kinds of morons (I am NOT namin’ names) are there. Why? Because TV networks, record labels and high powered agents are willing to pay (bribe) the "Walk of Fame" city council with the $10,000 demanded for "maintenance" of the sidewalk.

If you have any credentials at all, and CAN PAY THE FEE, and guarantee you'll SHOW UP and bring cameras to promote the event, you get your "Walk of Fame" star.

"Entertainment Weakly" quotes Ru Paul as saying "you have to love yourself." Original? THAT? Let's overlook it as an excuse to promote the "diversity" of how wonderful it is for drag queens to caricature women.

An irony here: drag queen icon Julie Newmar (“To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar”) is NOT on the “Hollywood Walk of Fame.” Why? The “Batman” TV show was 50 years ago, when the "Walk of Fame" sneered at TV stars and had limited space for newcomers. At this point 20th Century Fox isn’t gonna pay the $10,000 so promote their DVD set of "Batman" by having Julie Newmar grin and point to her star. So SHE, world famous, a Tony award winner as well, is out. Ru Paul is in, and a moronic hackneyed remark he made is considered quotable.

As with The Three Stooges, it would be up to rabid fans to pony up the money and scream and holler, but Newmar’s fans aren’t quite as, uh, aggressive. Somehow drag queens aren't marching and picketing to get Julie Newmar a star, either.

A few pages later, the magazine offers a page and a half (we’ll settle for one page) chortling and gushing over the latest offensive bunch of fairly grotesque drag queens in full get-up. This is to womanhood what graffiti is to the Mona Lisa. Be honest: if there was a show caricaturing Jews or Muslims the way these guys caricature drag queens...it would be protested. In fact, it would never make it on the air. "Oooh, what a huge nose you have! Let's see how well you bake matzo! Har har!" "Here's our next contestant in a burqa, waving a machine gun and shouting Allah Akbar! Har har!"

Jews and Muslims get offended by stereotypical antics. Blacks are just a TAD upset if they are portrayed as menials or if not enough get nominated for Academy Awards. But...women don't think it's obnoxious for men to dress up in garish caricature DRAG? Any of these look like women you'd see in the workplace, or vote into the Senate?

The editor of Entertainment Weekly is very out about being very gay. He dresses gay, his hair style is gay, and that's fine.

I wonder how he'd feel if a straight, or a panel of straights, all put on little bow ties, talked in italics, wore the stubble, and tried to "pass" as GAY for some kind of CABLE TV SHOW GAME? I also wonder if Mr. Greenblatt would find it amusing if a panel of gentiles all put on Jewish accents, used putty to make their noses huge, and began screaming about how much money they want to make by owning all the movie studios and banks. Oh. Not too amusing? Let's say there's a bit of a difference between Valerie Harper playing a Jewish woman named Rhoda on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," and somebody upping the ante 200% with a roaringly honked accent, constant references to matzo and money, and every other sentence ending in OY.

Now let's make a few points about gender bending. Transsexuals who were once men actually BELIEVE they were always women. Most want nothing more than to fit in and look like ordinary women. The last thing they'd ever want to do is get up on stage and prance around making fun of female sexuality, and watching men in the audience literally BUY into the idea that all it takes to be a woman is make-up, wigs, and lewdness.

As for using drag for laughs...there are ways of doing it properly. Take Kate McKinnon on “Saturday Night Live” doing male characters, and making them even more ridiculous because a woman is imitating them. There’s a kick to your balls, Mr. Sessions. People laugh WITH Kate not AT her. Likewise, “Some LIke it Hot” was funny because the Jack Lemmon was embarrassed about being dressed as a woman and Tony Curtis was in some ways expressing his character's feminine side and it was humorous to see his envy and conflicts. But...an entire show devoted to seeing who can be the most ridiculous, bitchy, disgusting, over-the-top parody of womanhood is something else.

Lastly, the late great Charles Pierce. He never called himself a "DRAG QUEEN." He found that term offensive.