Some of you might have noticed that I’ve changed the tag line for this site to ‘Bucking the Backlash,” replacing the old tag “Misogyny, Tracked and Mocked.” This is both a reflection of what’s been going on with the blog already and where I see it going in the future.
While my primary focus remains misogyny, I’ve been writing about the broader backlash for some time. Now I’m planning on upping my coverage of LGBTQ+ issues, particularly the increasingly scary attacks on trans people — not only from “gender crits” but also, from the entire spectrum of the right, ranging from neo-fascist goons to “mainstream” Republicans.
We’ve seen the Proud Boys disrupting Drag Queen Story Hour (which they consider a trans thing) and scaring the hell out of the kindergartners there to hear stories. We’ve seen a U-Haul full of Patriot Front thugs stopped on their way to attack a Pride parade. We’ve seen a flood of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in red states across the country. We’ve seen an increasing amount of plainly genocidal statements from right-wingers as well as endless attempts to equate trans and LGBTQ+ people with pedophiles and “groomers.” This morning someone apparently set fire to several houses in Baltimore festooned with Pride decorations. It goes on and on.
Trans writers and allies have been beating the drums trying to warn people about this dangerous backlash but too often their warnings have gone unheard.
In a substack essay with the blunt title “The anti-LGBTQ right is going to get people killed” trans writer Parker Malloy rings the alarm:
Things are getting really bad for LGBTQ people out there, and I just don’t see how it’ll get any better. … Republicans and their allies in right-wing media are going on the attack. Their goal is to create reasonable-sounding arguments (“No, you see, I just really care about fairness in women’s sports!”), and then use that to wipe out LGBTQ people. There are already people on the right arguing that being trans should be illegal (not just “you’re not protected by non-discrimination laws,” but flat out, “It should be illegal to be you”) …
And what’s particularly frustrating is how little any of this seems to be sinking in with Democrats and the general public. Democrats … have essentially given Republicans the green light to attack LGBTQ people with impunity. Meanwhile, the average person thinks that things are awesome for LGBTQ people because Time magazine put Laverne Cox on its cover in 2015.
[P]eople need to wake up. I’d say that this seems like it’ll end with people getting killed, but I’d be lying if I said I thought that anti-LGBTQ militia violence will end with just one death. They’re going to marginalize and attack us until we disappear. If we have allies, we really need them to stand up for us in this difficult moment.
AllI can say is that I’ll do my best.
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@Alan Robertshaw, Jenora Feuer: I’ve never heard of panto. Just a personal observation, but it seems, from what I’ve seen, like a good deal of British humor is based on men cross-dressing.
I remember when Mr. Dormousing_it, who comes from a Dutch family who immigrated to the US, told me about the Christmas tradition of Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). I thought it was really bizarre. Also, his family put treats in wooden shoes for Christmas, instead of stockings.
@ jenora, snowberry, & dormousing_it
It’s not just a comedy thing; although obviously there is a lot of cross dressing in Brit humour. But all this stuff about protecting kids from drag is just so bizarre from over here.
Drag has been totally mainstream here for, well, ever. When I was a kid Danny LaRue was probably one of the top five celebrities. He was ubiquitous on TV. But the drag thing wasn’t even a matter of comment. He was just another TV personalty; who happened to wear (rather glam) ladies’ clothing.
But there were so many others. Les Dawson was amazing. He used to do a thing as Sissy and Ada with Roy Barraclough. And their depiction of a certain breed of Northern working class matriarchs was just spot on. Everyone had a gran like that.
There is a whole set of accounts on the manosphere and twitter that have been promoting these coordinated attacks (some of them may be bots is my guess). Before Jan6th they were promoting overthrowing the election and installing a dictator. Before overturning RvW they were promoting stripping women of the right to vote and killing feminists. Now they are promoting trans hate non-stop.
I really fear we are headed into a terrible outcome, considering the UHaul full of neo-nazis pulled over, which these accounts are now all claiming are antifa/fbi plants.
Thanks for all your work on pointing out and bringing this insanity to light.
One of the kindest, funniest, sweetest, most generous people I know is a drag queen of long standing. This kind of mindless cruelty is in direct opposition to the friend that I know and love. Part of me thinks it’s a real shame these creeps don’t have someone like my friend in their life – it would for sure make them better people – but mostly I just hope they stay a million miles away from her.
Is it worth pointing out that Christopher Lee regards this as his finest ever role?
Thank you, David, for formally expanding the focus of WHTM. (Or, for acknowledging that the topics explored here under the umbrella of misogyny always have aimed to tease apart and skewer each of the myriad toxic strands of societal anti-diversity.) I am delighted to be on board for the anti-backlash!
I did!
Anyway, thanks , Glad you folks are on board with the change; it seems pretty much necessary.
Jordan Peterson has just had a screed published in the Telegraph comparing gender-affirming care to child sacrifice. This unhappy black-hole of a human being seems to be hoping he can spark some joy in his bleak existence by spreading hate. That medically-induced coma should have gone on longer.
Seeing as anti-trans feeling is probably also caused by misogyny, it’s not much of a change at all. I’m all for it.
@Snowberry: Yesterday I was reading a mystery novel set in Singapore which reminded me that “bungalow” in that part of the world can refer to quite a large house, even a mansion.
@Alan Robertshaw, Jenora Feuer:
I gather that pre-WWI, pantos were even more interesting—they usually climaxed in a transformation scene where the characters all switched to a kind of commedia dell’arte AU, with the lead becoming Harlequin, etc. Except the British version of Harlequin is quite different from the Italian Arlecchino, i.e. more of a magician or supernatural figure (to the point where Agatha Christie wrote a lesser-known series of supernatural short mysteries in which one of the characters, a Mr. Quin, is clearly Harlequin but also strongly implied to be the god Hermes).
@Alan Robertshaw: Over here (Canada), in the ‘90s the sketch-comedy group The Kids In the Hall was made up of five guys who frequently played female characters, and played them with the same wacky-yet-relatable sensibilities they generally brought to their male characters:
https://youtu.be/yzBVhHoMQ18
Do Monty Python (and their Pepperpot characters) not count in the panto pantheon?
I’ll confess that I’m starting to despair for my future. The good news is getting scarcer and scarcer, and the bad news gets worse. I transitioned because I was tired of wanting to not exist anymore, now half the country seems happy to kill me
@Jenny Wells:
Really? That’s surprising. I always figured there was probably no “gay gene” because it probably would get selected out if there were, so I expected sexual orientation to be a form of imprinting, likely during a critical window in childhood, analogous to language-learning and some other things.
How was this even determined? Sexual orientation is not itself observable until puberty, when someone starts exhibiting sexual attraction to some, all, or none of the people around them. So is there some pretty reliable correlate of it that is, and that seems to be fixed already in neonates? (Such might also then allow distinguishing between “ace” and “late bloomer” in a peri-pubescent individual, for whatever that’s worth. Maybe so ace people can take some sort of medical test that will tell them they can stop waiting to find out who they’ll want to be with and just get on with making plans. On the other hand, a reliable “if it turns lavender, you’re not straight” pee-stick or similar thing would be very bad in the hands of an authoritarian state. Hell, even 1960s America, had it existed then, would have used it to deny certain government jobs to anyone who tested positive. Hobby Lobby would use its so-called “religious freedom” to mandate that prospective hires take this test alongside the existing battery of recreational-drug tests. And so forth. Doing so would of course be tantamount to an admission on their part that orientation isn’t a choice, but it’s a sure bet that they simply wouldn’t care. Bigots gotta discriminate.)
YAY DAVID RESPONDED DIRECTLY TO MY COMMENT!
I feel seen!!! <3 Love this blog.
I believe that part of the acceptance of drag in Britain might stem from the long tradition of exclusive schools with boys-only education for the well-off classes: what are called “Public Schools” in the UK, but which are not what we mean in North America by public school. A lot of these schools had dramatic clubs/groups/classes that put on plays: but with no women to play the characters, there were boys filling the female roles. Therefore, many men who went on into the theatre etc. had at least some experience either playing female characters in drag or acting. And, as they were near the top of the socio-economic ladder with all of the privileges this entails, dressing in drag COULD NOT POSSIBLY be THAT weird.
Other countries don’t have such a long tradition of segregated education I think…certainly not in North America. It exists, but it’s not widespread.
@Surplus, hypocritical indeed, but in no way surprising coming from a libertarian, whose commitment to freedom never seems to extend to things that they don’t like.
I am loving everyone’s comments about panto and the history of drag in Britain.
But to pick up from KatinBoots comments about how cross dressing is considered perfectly normal in the upper echelons of Brit society, I love this exchange from the film Personal Services; which is of course based on a true story.
@Bakunin
I know it’s trite, but hang in there. It’s not actually half the country, it’s just a fraction who are loud and angry.
I also get overwhelmed. Because holy smokes the angry people are flipping awful and can be dangerous.
I couldn’t handle another 20+ years like that, but OH BOY starting to be publicly trans right in the middle of this (November last year) is definitely a trip.
You are not alone.
It’s really hard not to despair for the future. Did y’all see that video of the politician wannabe in SC Mark Burns wanting to bring back HUAC and use it to hunt down LGBTQ+ for treason for “grooming”, and EXECUTE us, in his own words? He lost his primary, but he did come second place.. and with 25% of the vote. Can you even fathom living somewhere where 25% of the populace would happily see you executed over unfounded accusations of being a groomer?
Tbh the whole grooming thing has gone so far and even though it’s not remotely supported by any evidence and everything I’ve seen show that LGBTQ+ have the same or LOWER rate of CSA than straight cis, “centrists” still believe it. And I have no idea how to fight it. I don’t even have a word to describe the amount of tired I am.
But… thanks, David. It’s a small bright spot in a dark, dark chasm.
For a long time I thought pantomime was a type of mime.
Over here the most popular TV programme is a long running soap called Coronation Street. There was a character in that called Hayley. Initially introduced as a one off character she ended up becoming one of the most beloved characters on UK TV; and stayed on Corrie for 15 years. Which I guess shows why representation matters. I didn’t actually watch the programme; but it explained why my Nan and her friends were all so up on gender issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayley_Cropper
This was a pivotal scene.
For people wondering how that turned out, this is a lovely sweet scene.
@Moon Custafer
And thanks to Amazon The Kids are back at it.