Playing Devil’s Advocate: Is This Being Overly PC or is it Still Offensive?
OK – here’s the story. I was reading a newspaper the other day and it reported that a Hartford, Connecticut bar had scheduled Shirley Q. Liquor to perform this month. For those of you who don’t know, Shirley Q. Liquor is a drag queen. Not only that, it’s a southern white man impersonating a poor southern black woman (the actor also plays a white Christian woman and a white male doctor as other characters in his repertoire).
Anyway, I believe it was around 20 various gay/lesbian and African-American groups that are now protesting this performance. In fact, I think the city council is even voting whether to ban the performance (do they have that right or is this merely a symbolic gesture)?
So I guess my question is this (and I’m playing devil’s advocate here); how does this differ than any other type of impersonation that we currently see on TV or in the media. I mean, the PC thing to say is that you shouldn’t mock/impersonate a minority. So that means a white person shouldn’t impersonate a black person. But why is it okay to impersonate other minorities in the name of entertainment and we’re allowed to all love it?
Men dress as women nightly in bars across the country to entertain straight and gay audiences. They also have appeared in movies (Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis in “Some Like it Hot”, Gene Hackman in “The Bird Cage”, Patrick Swayze, John Lequizamo and Wesley Snipes in “Too Wong Foo”, the entire cast of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, Robin Williams in “Mrs. Doubtfire”…and the list goes on and on). Is this offensive to women to have a man play a woman?
Also, straight actors frequently take gay roles in movies and TV (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall in “Brokeback Mountain”, Tom Hanks in “Philadelphia”, Paul Rudd in “Object of my Affection”, Eric McCormack in “Will and Grace”, Hilary Swank in “Boys Don’t Cry”, Cybil Shephard in “The L-Word” …and dozens more). Is this offensive to gay men and women to have straight actors portray them?
The roles I mentioned aren’t stereotyping the gay men, so does that make it OK? What about Bronson Pinchot in “Beverly Hills Cop” or Sean Hayes in “Will and Grace”? In those roles they’re completely stereotyping the effeminite gay male…and gays and straights alike crack up watching it. Why are these impersonations acceptable but not others? Aren’t they just as offensive?
Then there are the Wayan’s Brothers who did the movie “White Chicks” where two black men played white women (essentially the same thing as Shirley Q. Liquor…in reverse). Hell, the straight older Wayan’s Brothers used to also have characters impersonate stereotypical gay men back in the 80’s with their Men on Film segments on “In Living Color” (which I found hilarious, even as a gay man.)
I’m just asking…I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. I’m just wondering why certain impersonations (no matter how much they play into stereotypes) are allowed without question while others aren’t. Thoughts?
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I come down on the “overly PC” side as regards Ms Liquor. You’ve already brought up the Wayans boys playing white women; what about Anna Deavere Smith who, in her multi-character one-woman plays, takes on literally hundreds of characters, many of them white, Asian or other, male as well as female, and is heavily praised for doing so.
She had a show scheduled at Machine here in Boston 5 years or so ago that was pressured by the city to not happen [and it didn’t]. It seems to be a New England phenomena – I don’t get the impression she has the same issues elsewhere in the country. Ignunce.
Over the years I’ve seen videos of her performances [You Tube], and it’s not all the media makes it out to be. She’s not in shoe-polish-blackface eating fried chicken and watermelon, she’s just a drag queen being, well, a drag queen.
While it may be “overly PC,” I think it’s a sad fact that racial humor is still considered highly offensive moreso than impersonations of other minorities. As a related issue, but one still illustrative of the same social construction, notice how it’s still somewhat-OK to say “fag,” whereas “n-g-er” will get you a beat down (although, apparently, this is changing, e.g., the “Isaiah Washington incident”).
See? I couldn’t even bring myself to type out the whole word.
The difference is the history of slavery. That said, these people need to take a pill – it’s a DRAG QUEEN for god’s sake. No harm can come from that. Even Spike Lee & other blacks have gotten heat for doing a “blackface” routine/character/theme. But I think Borat has set the bar now for using true uninhibited parody to reveal truth & ugliness, so now nothing is sacred.
People need to lighten up. It’s a show at a bar. Even if it IS in Connecticut.
I was going to say what Karyn said. People are way too sensitive these days and that offends me! Actually, nothing – NOTHING – offends me. Hell, I can ID my radio station in Spanish, Chinese, Ebonics & way gay, and my money says you’ll laugh your ass off. People really do need to lighten up.
One of the things that sets Ms. Liquor apart from the Wayans brothers in White Chicks is that she is actually funny.
Has she ever done PTown? Nobody tell the lesbians and activists until the show opens. Shhhhh.
I agree with karyn and Steve. People need to lighten up and get a grip. The protestors are probably the same folks that banned red pen in the schools because it depressed the kids.