Both: Do you think drag is offensive or problematic?

submitted by worried19 from self.GCdebatesQT

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[–]worried19[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Of course it's something imposed on women. If declining to participate in femininity comes with social punishment, that is in no way a free choice.

It's really offensive to pretend that girls have any choice about being trained to participate in femininity. The vast majority of little girls have zero say in how they're dressed or how their parents keep their hair. How many little girls are given the choice to have buzzcuts? How many little girls are allowed to shop in the boys' section? How many little girls are forced to wear dresses to church and for holidays? They are trained from the earliest age possible to consider that femininity and only femininity is appropriate for them, and the very few of us who deny femininity are subjected to harsh social punishment if we continue to deny it into adulthood.

[–]theory_of_thisan actual straight crossdresser 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

But something can be socially pressured to conform to and it can be natural.

Sexuality is like that. Heterosexuality is socially pressured to different degrees in different places. Yet homosexuality remains, without or without social pressure.

[–]worried19[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

We have zero data on that. The only way to tell if it's natural would be to raise children in a society in which there was absolutely no pressure to engage in femininity if female and masculinity if male. On the contrary, our society deliberately trains children (starting at birth) to conform to gender stereotypes.

Regardless, there is no sharp division in the youngest of children. That's why parents freak out when their toddlers and preschoolers, especially their precious sons, show signs of deviating from the script.

I still think it's very offensive to look at what society puts women through in terms of training them to participate in femininity and then to say "oh, it's natural" as if that excuses it. Women are not born with hatred for their body hair or their natural faces. They are trained to believe their natural bodies are defective, shameful, and taboo.