Diversity Event Write Up :)

>>>On Friday, April 17th at nine am one lone male strode onto the RIC Campus. By noon there were three of them, and by two pm there were seven of them. By eleven-thirty pm seven fabulous females walked off the grounds. No, we did not perform seven sex change operations, and these characters did not change from men to women, however they did change their gender identity. These men are always very feminine, and they wear their femininity proudly whether they act as male or female. But at least once a week they are heavily makeup-d, overly feminized, skirt-wearing, provocatively-dancing females. Why? You may ask, well, one because of the love of the performance, the freedom of expression, and the need for the spotlight, but under the love of the show there is a underlying message, and that is the political statement. They are not dressing as female and performing everything over the top for nothing, they are making the statement that “this is what society expects females to be”. It is a smack in the face of traditional gender, especially because its biological men that perform them. In most shows, there are also biological women that are acting as men. They over masclinize themselves, gabbing their crotches, emphasizing muscles and facial hair, strutting around being “protective” and “all-knowing”.
>>>It connects to many of our course texts, but the three most prominent may be Parker, Carlson, and Christiansen.
>>>Parker says on page one, “The first thing you do is to forget that I’m Black, Second, you must never forget that I’m Black.” This is one of the main underlying points of the act of drag. The first thing you do is forget that they are men, and hence accept them as being overly- feminine women, and the second thing you do is never forget that they are men, that this is an act of performance, and that they are performing the act in order to show you just how ridiculous gender roles actually are. The context is so in your face that you sometimes forget that they are actually bio men.
>>>Carlson says on page 234, “…space is provided for identity groups to form their own communities of interest based on a common, public culture that is continuously being constructed and reconstructed through dialogue across difference.” The context through which drag is usually preformed is within the gay community, by the gay community, for the gay community, be it at prides, at bars, or youth drop in centers. This is a community created within a community that, Carlson argues, makes it so that people outside the gay community do not get the benefit of the breaking of invisibility when these internal groups are created. However, me belief is that you have to start somewhere, and by starting in the context of the gay community and breaking that dominant gender ideology there, it is a good place to start and branch out. The RIC Rainbow Alliance on purpose did not make the function an event that was closed off to the non-gay audience. Whether they were successful with this objective is yet to be discovered, but the event has been occurring annually for the last seven years, and the hope is to continue it for as long as there is a Rainbow Alliance on Campus.
>>>Christiansen says on page 127,“ As Tatum's research suggests, the stereotypes and world view embedded in the stories become accepted knowledge. ” She talks about how the Disney movies portray roles and these are what are adopted, along with the rest of dominant ideology, to shape what we view as “acceptable” female and male roles and stereotypes. The point of Drag is to be outrageous, and throw people off their “happy, unchallenged, stereotype” ideology. Yes, they follow traditional stereotypes, but do so in the opposite gender identity, and do so so over-the-top that they are trying to prove how ridiculous the notions are to begin with.
>>>It’s not only in the course texts but gender, gender play, and gender stereotypes are all around us, and so the outside examples are limitless, but I will try to limit them to three. The outside sources that I chose are the series “The L Word”, the website “Stuff White People Like”, and the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”.
>>>“The L Word” is a series that has had many criticisms, but it is a perfect representation of a challenge to dominant ideology. The notion that all lesbians are butch is one that is upheld by the dominant culture, and ALL of the lesbians in the L Word are femme. They lead “normal” lives, being married, dating, going through the same drama and daily experiences that non-gay people do. In the same way the drag queens at the show want to challenge your preconceived notions, the L Word seeks to challenge the view of “what a lesbian looks like, how she acts, and the type of life she leads”.
>>>The second piece I would like to focus on is the website “Stuff White People Like”. It was created to show the dominant stereotypes about white people. You always hear the stereotypes about those outside the culture of power, so it’s about time someone worked on the dominant. It includes such things as Facebook, Hummus, Halloween, and the Ivy League. In much the same way that the drag show is meant to over-do gender to throw in people’s faces how much gender is ingrained in us, this website goes to over-do things that are “white” and write them in ridiculous, parody form that serves to poke fun at white people. While it pokes fun, though, it breaks down the stereotype and challenges the ideologies that are currently in place.
>>>The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a group of gay men, originally from the Castro District of San Francisco, who dress in nun’s habits, put on over-the-top makeup, and do promotional events like “Butt Plug Bingo” to raise money for local charities. Beyond raising money, their “mission” is to raise awareness, and get people to open their views about people’s freedom, diversity, and difference. Exactly in the way that the drag show does, they want to challenge your views, not by scaring it into you or threatening you (*cough* like the roman catholic church *cough*), but by education you. If nothing else, to confuse your sense of “acceptable”, and open the door for conversation and discussion of this difference.
>>>The common theme here is that challenge to dominant ideology, that our society tells us what we are supposed to look like, how we should act and interact, and what is acceptable, based on our gender, sexuality, sex, race, nationality, age, ability, disability, religion, et cetera. The point that the RIC Rainbow Alliance is trying to provide for the college community by bringing the Drag Show participants “out” every year, is to throw this dominant ideology out the window. They want to open the community up to be challenged in a way that is entertaining and enticing, much in the same way that Disney does in every movie.