Sometimes (okay, all the time) Michael and I will get onto a tangent when discussing films. Many times the tangents don’t make it into the blog posts because they would take up too much space or are so far off topic no one will know what the heck we’re talking about.

We got off on an interesting tangent when talking about the “Bojangles of Harlem” number for the Swing Time blog post. Since the tangent was not directly related to the number or Swing Time, it didn’t make it into the actual blog post, but I wanted to include it somewhere. So I’ve made this separate post for interested parties. (Note it includes references to the films The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. If you haven’t seen those movies, go watch them. They’re fabulous.)

The tangent spun off of our discussion about the history of the minstrel show and white performers in blackface. During a particular time in American history, African American performers were required to put on the blackface make-up and clothing styles and would not be allowed to perform unless they were performing minstrel songs in the derogatory style. Talented African American performers were then conflated with the idea of the minstrel show. Michael and I were talking about how it would make sense that ignorant white performers at the time who appreciated the talent of African Americans would not realize the minstrel songs and sketches were not indicative of their identity.

Jordan: There’s a conflation of two ideas, where people are thinking that black performers and minstrel shows are the same thing. The homage to black performers then isn’t really an homage, it’s a perpetuation of erasure. 

Michael: It’s kind of like when you watch Connie and Carla, and Nina Vardalos is, I’m sure, thinking she’s making this great statement about drag queens. “Why do you dress like this?” “I’m dressing how I feel inside.” No, you’re conflating drag queens and trans women. And you don’t want to criticize people who do that because they are doing something that, in their mind, is a way to help and bring the topic to the forefront and help people understand. What she wouldn’t realize is that she’s making some things worse because she doesn’t understand.

Jordan: It’s like the first time you watch To Wong Foo… and you think, “But…why are they in drag the whole time?” They say they are drag queens, not trans women, but the movie treats the characters as if they are trans women.

Michael: That’s why Priscilla… was a much more accurate representation. Because they were in and out of drag. In To Wong Foo, there is no reason that three drag queens in the mid-90s driving from New York to California would be in high whore drag in a convertible. 

Jordan: Especially when they are going to be driving through more conservative areas of the country. 

Michael: Even if they were just twirling through the gayest parts of Provincetown, unless they’re putting on a show and making a spectacle, they wouldn’t be in drag. You don’t live in drag. Even if you are a trans women, you change from your show look to your day look. 

Jordan: Which is what I always enjoyed about Priscilla versus To Wong Foo because there was a transsexual woman traveling with two drag queens. They all performed in drag, but there was the distinction made between Bernadette and Tick and Adam. To Wong Foo doesn’t ever address that. It never says they are three transsexual women who also perform in drag, and even has that scene where they break down what a drag queen is, and it’s not about being transsexual. It’s about being a drag queen. So there’s that confusion. 

Michael: The person who wrote it might not know what they were saying. 

Jordan: Or it’s because when they were making the movie they were saying we can’t have these men going in and out of drag because then we’re not going to be able to appeal to a larger audience. We have to have them in drag the whole time or out of drag the whole time. 

Michael: The trick of To Wong Foo is there has to be some reason they are all in drag when that car breaks down. In a remake, I’d like to see that they are in drag because they pick up a gig and decide to change before driving there, but the car breaks down on the way. So they’re stuck in Snydersville and realize, “Fuck, now everyone here thinks we’re cis women, and we have to stay in drag the whole time.” Then in the end at the Strawberry Festival, they can come out as men in suits.