www.esquire.com: Peppermint appeared like a flash tornado that just dropped out of the sky. In a knitted poncho, long braids, and two (maybe three) garment bags, everything about her seemed to be spinning—no, twirling. Peppermint was fully twirling. Twirling between tables and chairs, and even past a couple of patrons who did not sign up to be sideswiped by garment bags holding gold sequin evening gowns. Once she figured out a way to keep them from wrinkling, she stopped twirling, ignored the waitress, and immediately leaned in for a hug, and pulled back to confirm, “You’re Justin, right? I’m sorry I’m late.”
4 comments:
I’ve always wondered about this particular issue in drag queen culture concerning the transgender community, especially because drag shows are becoming more and more mainstream. One of my favorite aspects of the art of drag is that the lines of gender are blurred and the traditional “right” and “wrong” rules of how to act in terms of certain genders no longer apply. I think it’s important that drag does not only belong to the cisgender male community, especially as it was originally an expressive avenue for transgender people. Having drag become more ingrained in popular culture can also open up a way for there to be more trans representation and awareness in the mainstream. However, as Peppermint herself stated, there can still exist prejudices within the LGBTQ+ community itself even though most people view drag as progressive in and of itself. It’s up to an openly-trans women like Peppermint to change our perception of drag queens, who they are, and who can participate in drag.
I'm so glad that after so many seasons, RuPauls drag race is gaining momentum and starting to speak up more and speak out on issues that are on the forefront of societal peril. One of those issues is drag and trans people, with the inclusion of Peppermint as a queen, they are achieving much more than they thought previously possible on a show that reaches such a broad range of audiences. As far as I'm concerned, drag culture should be the last thing to be a boys club. The idea of the show itself breaks the binary, it creates a middle ground for acceptance and it normalizes a whole new life style, especially with the incredible reviews and immense popularity the show has been receiving. I fully support Peppermints crusade and I believe that if you're accepting enough to watch and support drag race, you should be able to accept Peppermint and more trans people on the show.
Peppermint is really inspiring to me in her ideas about gender and art and the impending revolution. While I truly love watching Drag Race, the show runners, including RuPaul have somehow boiled one of the most important art forms to the LGBT community down to a white, gay Olympic sport. I'm truly not interested in watching cis men do drag anymore. Trans drag performance is so much more poignant because it's saying "I see your gender binary, I refuse to acknowledge it in my own life, AND I am going to make art that makes fun of your binary". Cis gay men so often forget that the heart of the stonewall riots were two trans womxn of color who were socialist drag queens. The LGBT community has such a history of forgetting itself and who we came from. Peppermint being on a show like Drag Race should remind us where drag came from: trans black and Latino womxn who wanted an artistic space to express their femininity.
The quote in this article that resonates with me the most is “That impossibly idealistic notion of inclusion comes from an understanding that Peppermint stands in a lot of cultural intersections: black, transgender, drag queen.” I don’t think only people who come from a lot of intersections should be the only ones fighting for intersectional support. The LGBT community needs to fight the intersectional fight for each other because clearly, the straight community hasn’t been the best at being our advocates as we have issues arising like laws in states allowing for businesses to discriminate against queer people. This article is a fantastic reminder that queers need to support queers.
I agree completely with Joss. Two statements that resonate with me that they have said are “The LGBT community has such a history of forgetting itself and who we came from.” And “While I truly love watching Drag Race, the show runners, including RuPaul have somehow boiled one of the most important art forms to the LGBT community down to a white, gay Olympic sport. I'm truly not interested in watching cis men do drag anymore.” When they said that the LGBT community has a history of forgetting itself, I am reminded of how AIDs is on the rise. The generation of people who experienced the AIDs epidemic is aging and unfortunately passing away. We can’t forget where the queer community has been or history will repeat itself. I also strongly agree with the statement that the gay community can’t just be portrayed as cis men who have the perfect body. I hated when I was growing up in the closet and seeing prominent out gay men who only cared about their appearances. It made me feel inadequate and that I wasn’t gay enough if I didn’t dress and act the part. It’s toxic for queer kids to grow up only seeing one type of gay represented in mass media and pop culture. I hope stars like Peppermint have support in the queer community and don’t have to fight in the queer community to have a voice because the rest of the queer community, especially my fellow white cis males need to understand that we must fully accept one another before we complete the same alienating behaviors of the straight community to the queer community. We must stand united as the queer community in supporting all different types of people.
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