The RuPaul Drag T*Word Controversy

[candy_coated_bitch]

Originally Posted by Martina

I didn't use those words, but I did say something like that. I did qualify it by the people *I* have known. I do think there are a lot of drag queens who are pretty uncomplicatedly cis. It's been my experience. I am not sure what's presumptuous about saying that.

I know you didn't exactly say that, which is why I clarified it was just my reaction. I think what *IS* presumptuous is assuming how any drag queen may or may not identify without knowing. And it doesn't seem as though that is what you are saying. But really--just my sense on a larger level is we are all having a discussion about someone's gender identity or lack thereof without full knowledge of how they feel about themselves--and by extension what right they have to use a particular word. That feels icky to me.

[Corkey]

I am Transgender, I do not use the word, nor do I think it is an acceptable word to use. RuPaul's gender aside it is offensive because Transgender people say it is. If one wants to reclaim the word for themselves that is the prerogative of the person who claims Transgender.
I do think it was done to other people, and so far I have not heard an apology from either the network or RuPaul. If said apology has happened and I missed it, well I missed it.

[Martina]

I totally go by what other people tell me they ID as.

People often think about gender in one of two ways. They either see a spectrum with lots of little points along it, and each of these is a gender, almost separate from the others. (I am wildly oversimplifying.) But basically, they understand that once someone has struggled with gender a certain amount, they are probably tg or genderqueer or gender variant or something like that.

OR, people can understand that there may be just a few genders, each rather elastic, each able to manifest in many different forms.

Either approach is liberating, and I respect any individual's conclusions about gender. (Of course.) BUT, I am more in the second camp. I do not love the list-of-qualifiers way of naming gender. I prefer expanding a few categories. I personally find that a lot more liberating than the string of qualifiers approach. I am not sure that the lived reality is much different for most non-trans folk. I know the string of qualifiers works for some, but I groove on subverting the big categories and stretching them till they scream.

So that may pre-dispose me to not assuming TG. It does not pre-dispose me to making normative assumptions.

[Corkey]

I look at the spectrum as a circle, not a line. It suits me.

[imperfect_cupcake]

I have no idea. All I know is the bigendered drag queens I know consider half their gender categories is trans. I also know unigendered straight cis drag queens. I also know uni-gendered lesbian drag queens. I could keep going with this. Drag does not auto connote gender. So I can't state all people who X are X genders and thus can't claim nuthin.

I'm a dyke. I also call myself a lezzo, a carpet muncher, a lezbean and a few other things. Why? Because I don't think there is anything intrinsically wrong with me at all. If someone calls me a lezzo, I honestly don't find it insulting. Cause its not an insult.

Some dykes feel differently. They hate it. That's fine. But they sincerely can't control what I don't find offesive and what I don't find offensive.

I'm going to assume that everyone in every corner of LGTBQ kinda feels the same way. Some people find something offensive and some don't.

[The JD]

Whether or not Ru Paul and the contestants are "entitled" by their own personal identification to use the word (that's how I see much of this discussion), it's taking place on a TV show, not their private lives, which creates another layer of context.

Participants on a game show/reality show tend to be incredibly self-aware of the "brand" they're trying to create, and try to market themselves in ways that will "sell." If you're hearing Ru Paul and the contestants use "tranny" and "she-mail", it's because the show's producers think that will sell ads. That seems to me to be much more problematic.

[Martina]

Real drag shows, especially ones with comedians, tend to be pretty politically incorrect. Saying "tranny" and "she-male" is pretty mild stuff compared to what some of the comedians say. Seriously, as a woman, you can get pretty offended at some of the humor. I usually love it although I have hissed a few (dozen) times.

Maybe they were trying to keep some of the flavor of that. I wonder what the audience demographic is? Largely men or women? Gay or straight?

[DapperButch]

"On Policing RuPaul's Free Speech" The TransAdvocate

http://www.transadvocate.com/on-poli...ch_n_13537.htm

"​I think the freedom of speech and policing arguments that have popped up around RuPaul are entirely disingenuous. Nobody is stopping RuPaul Andre Charles from using these terms as much as he likes in his personal life. RuPaul Andre Charles is a human being; RuPaul is a brand that Logo sells. Logo does not want the brand they’re selling to be associated with terms people use while they kill trans women. Period."


"If the value of your reputation goes down because you are associated with the terms people widely use when they’re killing oppressed people, then that’s the price you’ll pay. Claiming that you’re oppressed because you think you should somehow be exempt from the rules of social currency is a bogus argument."


"Yes, there are very specific contexts in which very specific groups use tranny, shemale and fish. They will continue to do so. All of these terms have a wider context and meaning outside of those very specific in-group usages. It’s a mistake to assume or expect that those terms won’t retain their larger contexts when used outside of those very specific in-groups and a national branded cable TV show is absolutely outside the context of those very specific in-groups. RuPaul is RuPaul precisely because he has social currency outside the context of that very specific in-group and yes, there’s a price one pays for one’s brand reaching that level of popularity and that price, IMHO, is totally fair. We all pay that same price, to one extent or another."