• Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Clothes are just clothes - they aren’t a determiner of gender

    Except when those clothes make a character/persona. Drag characters/personas are by definition female unless stated otherwise, regardless of the gender identity of the performer.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      That “unless stated otherwise” is doing a lot of heavy lifting to keep your statement technically correct - there are plenty of drag performers that I’m familiar with that prefer masculine or gender neutral pronouns.

      This all comes back to the original comment above that blithely used “she” even though I don’t believe Santos has ever stated how they’d like to be referred when wearing drag.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        there are plenty of drag performers that I’m familiar with that prefer masculine or gender neutral pronouns.

        Plenty but nowhere near enough to be the norm.

        This all comes back to the original comment above that blithely used “she” even though I don’t believe Santos has ever stated how they’d like to be referred when wearing drag.

        Again, the accepted rule in the drag community is that the CHARACTER is to be referred to as female unless otherwise stated.

        Referring to drag characters using male or certain gender neutral pronouns such as “it” is widely considered to be a sign of bigotry unless the performer has specifically said to.

        “George” “Santos” hasn’t, so the correct and non-bigoted pronouns are feminine ones.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          Obviously “it” is trash, but “they” is a perfectly fine gender neutral term. The community is a lot wider than it once was and generalizing all performers to feminine pronouns is just a bad idea. Gender neutral is a good default.

          • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Obviously “it” is trash

            Though much more rare than “they”, some nonbinary people DO self-identify as “it”, so it’s not UNIVERSALLY trash. But yeah, you’re right that it is in the vast majority of cases.

            they" is a perfectly fine gender neutral term.

            Yes, which is why that’s the default in most contexts. In the specific context of drag, though, the characters being female is pretty much the entire starting point, so “she” is the appropriate term unless otherwise stated.

            generalizing all performers to feminine pronouns is just a bad idea. Gender neutral is a good default.

            Seriously, dude, do you even know what drag IS??

            Defining an art form that’s specifically about imitation and celebration of femininity as gender neutral is a REALLY fucking weird hill to die on 🤦😂