Mary Cheney: Why can't we have blackface?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/30/15 at 8:00pm

I mean...drag is the same thing, right?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/30/15 at 8:04pm

Can't we get a constitutional amendment exempting ALL the Cheneys from First Amendment rights?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:10am

If she really wants to so bad, she should do it! And maybe she'll tell us why she wants to do it in the first place.

Daddy's tales of Bohemian Grove?

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 01:10 AM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:25am

It's not the first time I've heard someone suggest this, but while I think that it's off the mark as a criticism, it's difficult for me to articulate exactly why I think that.

There's the fact that gay men aren't known to have kept women in slavery for hundreds of years, I suppose. Not to mention the history of men performing in women's roles in theatre. Does Mary Cheney think that what Charles Busch does is an example of blackface? Edna in Hairspray? At this point, is drag even supposed to be in any way an accurate representation of women?

I don't watch Drag Race, but I'm going to give Mary Cheney the benefit of the doubt and assume she realizes that these are not the only men in the worldmeh have dressed up as women for as performance? Is it telling that she thinks the only thing drag represents our negative qualities such as bitchiness, sluttiness,cattiness etc. maybe that's a reflection of the person under the wig and make up and bias confirmation as to what some stupid heifer thinks drag represents. I've seen plenty of perfectly lovely drag queens.

tl;dr Mary Cheney is a-hole





Updated On: 1/31/15 at 01:25 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:55am

I can't possibly imagine that Mary Cheney thinks she's the first person to question drag. Can I? Does she think she's had an original idea?

The problem is, she's connecting drag and blackface as if they are equivalent.

I say let her don blackface and answer why it's just as socially acceptable as drag while doing so.

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 8:59am

I'll wait for RuPaul's Blackface Race.

Then I will know they are equal in the eyes of God.

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 08:59 AM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 9:23am

I used to hear feminists and lesbians make this argument, back in the 1970s and 1980s. I even made the mistake of bringing my lesbian cousin (who loves many drag queens) and her then-new girlfriend to one of Lypsinka's early shows.

I mistakenly believed they would see Lypsinka's work as a critique of the male-dominated world and the roles women were forced into: housewife/mother, whore/innocent, bitch/good girl, crazy woman.

My cousin enjoyed Lypsinka's artistry, but her girlfriend got more and more furious as the show went on, and was sputtering mad at the end.

We ended up having an interesting talk about the idea, and decades later, my cousin and her girlfriend are now wife and wife.

The subject seemed to have gone away for a while, but the recent dust-up with the word tranny brought it back. And Drag Race does sometimes seem to have untalented queens who are simply trading on negative stereotypes of women. But it also has artists like Bianca Del Rio, who are too talented and original to be tarred with that old brush.

But any negative stereotyping done by drag queens is completely overwhelmed by the negative stereotyping done by the biological women on the Real Housewives series. They're far more damaging, given that they are devoid of talent, intelligence, creativity or empathy for other human beings.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 10:53am

Personally speaking, I'd love to see Mary Cheney in "Smiling Through Tears: The Jimmy 'J.J' Walker Story," allowing her to prove or disprove both of her sociological points and finally make her family name a reason to smile instead of protest.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 11:08am

^^ I'd On Demand that. She could get Shirley Q. Liquor to host.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 11:23am

Co-host: Murray Hill, who seems to be Mary's fashion spirit animal.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 12:45pm

Good to see that another Cheney knows nothing about history or how it plays a part in the present.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 12:53pm

Some anonymous woman just commented on a thread about this. She said that those of us who disagree are fickle and just want to demonize this woman who, "has been a HUGE advocate for the gay community." Um. What? I only remember her toeing the family line during her father's time in office and keeping absolutely mum up until a couple of years ago. I certainly wouldn't call her a HUGE advocate for anything. She has worked within the Republican Party to make it more attractive to the Log Cabin Republicans. That's about all I have seen. Did I miss something major?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:02pm

To quote Shel Silverstien:

Some kind of help
Is the kind of help
We all could do without (guitar zing!)

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:34pm

I will say this, though: While I do not think Mary Cheney is right and do love drag to a ridiculous level, I do find it offensive when a queen who looks very feminine is referred to as fish or fishy. I just think it's gross and it IS making fun of women. Other than that, I on board.

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 01:34 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 3:37pm

RuPaul responds:

http://youtu.be/5G4-oatHs3A

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 3:52pm

It was great to see that picture from PARIS IS BURNING and my Godfather in "The Life" - Willi Ninja.

Damn I miss him so much.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 3:58pm

Wait. Carlos. You performed in the Ball scene?

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 4:21pm

She's an idiot making an idiotic point, but it isn't untrue that there are drag queens who do questionable work at best. Not that drag as a mode of performance is questionable, but there's definitely a way of doing it that amounts to nothing more than a mockery of women. Still, while that's something that should be discussed (and I'm with JerseyGirl when it comes to fishy, as well as a few other terms), it doesn't change the fact that Mary Cheney is irrelevant and only cares about gay issues because they affect her. She's not needed in this conversation.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 5:03pm

@HorseTears: No I didn't. I wasn't part of the House of Ninja per se. I was a very close friend of Willi's and his family and he took me under his wing when I came out.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 6:37pm

YOU'RE ROYALTY!

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 7:46pm

JerseyGirl, I'd be happy if we drop all the "fish" jokes and their derivatives. Whether the comic is male or female, straight or gay or drag, such references always make me cringe.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 7:51pm

Who is stopping her from putting on blackface? Put on your blackface, Mary. Sell a video. It couldn't do worse than your book!

Jerseygirl, when people of the homosexualist persuasion asked her if she were conflicted about supporting McCain/Palin given their outspoken anti-gay sentiments, our Mare said she "can't afford to be a single issue person."

Which is weird because she can afford that more than most.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 8:16pm

Ms. Cheney said, infamously, of Bush. "He's a good man."

That in the grade creep climate of 2015 constitutes "advocate for the gay community" (or advocate for goodness; see Sniper, American) in what sense exactly? Because we all know that George W. Bush -- who once took to the networks, interrupting THE VIEW to denounce gay marriage (Google it) -- will himself go down in history for such advocacy.

Updated On: 1/31/15 at 08:16 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 8:45pm

I believe she also said "it must be nice" to be able to be single issue people IN A WORLD WITH TERRORISM!

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 2/1/15 at 4:28am

I am glad that I didn't miss something. This stranger I was arguing with just ended with, "Fine! Just burn the lesbian!" So, because she is a woman married to a woman, we are apparently supposed to bow before her. I missed the memo. I think it came with my toaster.