Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:48 pm
As a predilection for allowing drag, something along the lines of a rhetorical statement. Perhaps I was wrong. In any case, I can relate to the tendency to be incredulous about something at first glance. I mean, if you are simply asking, "what would be a reason for not allowing drag". Then perhaps it might be a little like asking "what would be the reason for all Stop signs to be red".
Personally, to me, there is a certain yuk factor about men dressing in ways that are clearly socially stereotypical ways for women to dress. Something is not right. If all men looked like women now do and all women were to look like men once did, then that's fine. I just question the value of men and women appearing identical. Most societies that I'm aware of have a sense of what men should look like and a different sense of what women should look like. My guess is there is a good reason for that. As I say, it seems to me that there is clearly deception, dishonesty, or delusion involved. There doesn't seem to be much practical reason that a man should prefer a cocktail dress over a tuxedo or high heels over loafers. Why would a guy want to fool others into thinking he is a female? What's the point? I can think of a negative being that it might confuse children. I mean, puberty is a pretty rough experience and if one of the kids in the class thinks a drag queen is attractive, then perhaps he might start to question why he is attracted to a man in a woman's dress. Does it mean he's homosexual, pansexual, or bisexual? Does it mean he's heterosexual but got fooled into thinking the guy was a female?
Yuk factor isn't really sufficient. Mushrooms gross me out. I'm sure there are people on here who like to eat mushrooms. I have no desire to get in their way.
Men in drag are not trying to fool people about their sex. That's a myth that can only be borne of ignorance, of a lack of awareness of the culture of drag.
You don't have to have a practical reason to do things. That's not enough reason to make something illegal. None of the things you said are enough reason to make something illegal. So what if it's yukky? So what if it confuses children? So what if you can't think of a practical reason for it? There are things that are yukky, things that confused children, things that you can't find a practical reason for, that you have never even dreamed of suggesting should be illegal.
Confusing children isn't harming children. Algebra confuses children. Walking around in public confuses children. I don't actually think a child is going to be drastically more confused by a man in drag than by any number of slightly unusual things a child is likely to see walking around any city .
In fact, children SHOULD be confused. If children aren't feeling confused regularly, you aren't exposing them to enough real experiences.
Show me real harm, and I may agree that it should be illegal. Without real harm, I don't see the argument that it should be illegal as anything other than fear of something you're not used to. "I'm not used to seeing this, so nobody should do it." That is not a good metric for making something illegal.