May 17, 2019

It's the Era of That's Not Funny, and you should be ashamed to have fun with something that is serious to somebody else.


Is it then also time to cancel "RuPaul's Drag Race"?

By the way, what's wrong with costumes? Or... oh... is this like the blackface problem?

92 comments:

Henry said...

Wouldn't everyone with a gender have the exact same standing to be not amused?

I picture the headline:

Florida Man Not Amused by Gender-Swap Photo Filter

Hunter said...

Gender is a social construct but I am woman hear me roar but anyone can be a woman but no uterus no opinion but transwomen are women but I demand women's rights but men are women but men are scum but drag queens are beautiful but appropriation is evil

Tommy Duncan said...

Please just tell me what my appropriate thoughts should be. I don't want to commit a think crime.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

My gender is not a costume

Is the issue that your gender is not a costume, or is the issue that your costume isn't fooling anyone?

Swede said...

Yeah, fuck this guy.

AustinRoth said...

We have to stop pandering to the activist wing of a group that in toto represents a fraction of 1% of the population n

And this is from a father whose 33 year old son is in Thailand right now undergoing reassignment surgery. She (I do respect her decision and reference her as female, as she is an adult) at least has not given in to the far-left positions with her new peer group.

That has caused a lot of conflict with them. They even tried to shame her for bringing Chick-fil-A to a meeting. She told them to shut up, it is just a freaking sandwich.

Hunter said...

It really doesn't make sense that SJW types would like drag queens so much. I get it, they're a minority that breaks the rules of traditional society, and traditional society doesn't like them.

But it's also privileged males appropriating an exaggerated female identity for entertainment. Exactly like blackface, but with gender. Makes you wonder how long before the SJWs turn on them. (Or have some already?)

gahrie said...

No this is about an asshole looking for a reason to be outraged in a quest for power.

Lucid-Ideas said...

I often like to play a game called 200 years from now

200 years from now transgenderism and society's push for its normalization will be looked back on in the same way we view lobotomies and bloodletting. It will be regarded as mental health and medical malpractice of the highest order and future descendants will wonder how on earth did people ever allow these barbaric practices or that numerous seemingly normal people went right along with it.

200 years from now it will be viewed as an abomination. These people are gay. They are mentally ill. They will still exist in 200 years, but they are not women. I do not foresee technology becoming advanced enough it can rewire an XY into a truly XX. Period.

200 years from now people will look back on this and they might laugh - oh those crazy ancestors - but it won't be funny, it's not funny what these people are doing to themselves.

CJinPA said...

My friends and I went out on Halloween as girls one year. We had done all the monsters & sports figures we could do and ran out of ideas. Dad was not amused at the sight of his son in heels. I can't blame him. Only a few years earlier I was dressed as Bart Starr. (Which actually sounds like a drag queen name now that I think of it.)

Dads still don't want to see their sons dress as girls, but they are learning to suppress that perfectly rational response.

gilbar said...

Remember!
If I offend Christians, by presenting a Crucifix in a jar of Urine; That is ART, and they are WRONG!
If I offend Muslims, by quoting from their Hadith; That is AN OUTRAGE!, and I am WRONG!
If I offend MEN, in ANY way, and they are Straight (and Cis); That is MY DUTY! MEN ARE PIGS!
If I offend MEN, but, they are Gay (or, are Really women); That is AN OUTRAGE, and I am WRONG!

All people are Equals, and are entitled to dignity and respect....
UNLESS, that person is of one of the specified groups/castes/classes, in which case;
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO HATE them!

It's really quite simple, other than the fact that the rules change daily

Tommy Duncan said...

George Orwell saw the future quite accurately.

wendybar said...

Blackface isn't a problem anymore. Ask Virginia politicians.

Fen said...

Hmmm. The same people who want to force you to deny reality (or be jailed) also want to control your reality.

I've had about enough of these freaks.

I stopped supporting gay rights because they revealed they have no respect for the rights of people other than themselves.

And I'm expected to extend tolerance and love for people that make me want to vomit, in exchange for THIS treatment.

Screw that I'm done. They are mutilated males with a mental illness and a disgusting imitation of feminity. A sick mutation, like a half grown lumpy bag of breast tissue covered in whiskers. Just GROSS. Blech.

I'll deadname you whenever I want and use whatever pronouns I like.

Hunter said...

Here is the counterargument to drag as blackface.

But I'm not sure this writer is necessarily right about the intent of minstrelsy. Thaddeus Russel in "A Renegade History of The United States" had a rather different take. He argued that the performers were admiring and celebrating their subject (as the author here says of drag) -- even if today we find it hard to square that with the content of the performances. It's not clear that in a hundred years people won't also cringe at the ways drag queens impersonate women.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Living among the numerous “cabaret” performers in Palm Springs, certain similarities become more apparent. Almost all the guys who dress up as female “stars” (Cher, Marilyn, or their own unique performance personas) are gay yet get along great with the few straight guys who are transvestite, to use the old fashioned “trans” word that has fallen out of fashion. But they really get their feathers ruffled whenever someone lumps them in with transgender activists, who in turn despise being associated with the “showgirls” who just wanna dress up and have fun. This has the effect of turning the currently avant garde trans-activists into public scolds, humorless party poopers. The result is that the huge gay community is also actively hostile to the trans-activists. They are the media’s current obsession but pretty much unwelcome in the ostensibly gay-friendly oasis. Just another reason I view the LGBT “movement” as a hoax, as the Ls and Gs hate the Bs and Ts and really there isn’t any “coalition” among them.

Lucid-Ideas said...

I recently saw something that indicated the suicide rate for trans is 43%. It approaches 70% for those who go all the way through surgery.

43% and 70% suicide rate. But don't call it mental illness. Think about what that means, having an identity whose physical manifestation is completely dependent on access to pharmaceuticals and/or removing your genitalia surgically.

Just don't call it mental illness.

Fen said...

"(Or have some already?)"

Yah its been brewing. Lesbians especially, and feminists too. They are NOT happy with Tranny complaints off being excluded from issues like improved maternity leave, simply because they are "women without a uterus".

I don't know any Lesbians, but its seems like they would be natural polar opposites. They prefer to be more masculine but remain women, right? Seems like they would have more contempt for these mutilated fairies than Alpha Males would. It's a peversion of masculinity.

The chalky bitch voices always turn my stomach. And it's fake, not their true voice.

Fernandinande said...

According to ABC's international news article, one person didn't like the Snapchat filter, and another person did like it.

That is so confusing.

But nobody doesn't like the face-swap filter- "my pig face is not a costume."

SGT Ted said...

More proof that trans activists are mentally and emotionally unstable people.

Fernandinande said...

"Blurred lines: A pregnant [wo]man’s tragedy tests gender notions"

Fake news, of course; except for the one crazy doctor, it doesn't test any notions at all.

John henry said...

A word we don't gear much any more: "transvestite"

A person, usually a man, who enjoys wearing women's clothes.

Transvestites may be homo or heterosexual. The do not claim to be women, just men who like women's clothes.

I get the impression that the lgbtqetc folks consider them perverts.

I get the impression that the lgbtqetc community thinks they are really closeted transsexuals.

Is RuPaul, for example, transexual?

John Henry

Curious George said...

"My gender is not a costume"

We know bro. We know.

Automatic_Wing said...

"That's a man, baby!" - Austin Powers

Mary Beth said...

Here is the counterargument to drag as blackface.

But I'm not sure this writer is necessarily right about the intent of minstrelsy


I'm not sure he's right about much that he said. He doesn't differentiate between a time when males performed female roles and current drag performers. To him, it's all drag.

tcrosse said...

Some feminists have expressed displeasure that men are muscling into their turf, sort of the way they are muscling into womens' athletics. It usually takes the form of "You didn't grow up as a female, so STFU."

Pianoman said...

You're right, it's not a "costume". It's a mental disorder. Get help.

Fen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Clothes make the man"

Fen said...

Tranny: My gender is not a costume!

Woman: Neither is mine asshole.

Trannies are like Hollywood actors cast as southerners who overplay the role using all the ignorant stereotypes of how they *think* they would have turned out if they had been raised in Atlanta. A shallow caricature.

Anyone ever met a "demur" tranny? Most the ones I've met act submissive sluts, like they assume that women are so infatuated with their own breasts that they play with their tities all day. It's close to blasphemy.

Then again, I get distracted by the nape of a woman's neck. So maybe I've put femininity on a pedastal.

bagoh20 said...

Misery loves company, but only to a point. At first they help your cause, but then they steal it.

hawkeyedjb said...

Tommy Duncan said..."Please just tell me what my appropriate thoughts should be. I don't want to commit a think crime."

Sorry, advance warnings are not given. You'll be notified of your crime after we decide what it is.

bagoh20 said...

A costume is exactly what it is.

buwaya said...

Its a fashionable expression of mental illness.
There are fashions in madness, and this is the modern fad.
In other times mental issues took other forms.

One doesnt hear so much about anorexia anymore for instance.
No doubt its still around. But I wouldnt be surprised to hear that its incidence tracks publicity. This is probably obscured by changes in diagnostic practices, but still.

The extreme variation across countries also is a clue that these things are "social diseases", culturally driven.

J. Farmer said...

The trans argument is self-refuting. If gender is socially constructed and unmoored to any physical reality, then why do trans people take sex hormones, physically alter their bodies, and change the way they dress? To look like a woman? What even is a woman? Anyone who think they're a woman? Sounds kind of circular to me.

Of course, it's perfectly fine in a tolerant society for people to dress however they want, wear whatever makeup they want, take whatever hormones they want, and have whatever surgical procedures they want. They can call themselves "Mary, Queen of the Universe" for all I care. But what they can't do is tell the other 99+% of the population (who experience no significant conflict between their sex and gender) what gender means and how to use language. It's an absurdity. That it is even entertained in our society shows you far down the decadent rabbit hole our civilization has slid.

Danno said...

Blogger Lucid-Ideas said...I recently saw something that indicated the suicide rate for trans is 43%. It approaches 70% for those who go all the way through surgery.

43% and 70% suicide rate. But don't call it mental illness. Think about what that means, having an identity whose physical manifestation is completely dependent on access to pharmaceuticals and/or removing your genitalia surgically.

Wow! Please share link when you run across it.

hawkeyedjb said...

@J. Farmer... exactly. Do whatever you want, just don't ask me to participate. Or worse, tell me I have to participate, under penalty. THAT's what pissed off Jordan Peterson.

buwaya said...

At one time there was a fad for Hindu-ish cults. Hare Krishnas and the like. And other religious cults, Moonies and etc. They are still around, but in far smaller numbers.

These things are fashion-driven, publicity-driven.

Someday we may even find that the incidence of homosexuality itself is in large part culturally determined, a fad, a habit induced by the zeitgeist.

MadisonMan said...

If you can't laugh at yourself you will go through life very unhappily.

Fernandinande said...

Here is the counterargument to drag as blackface.

Women dressing as transvestites?

Sebastian said...

Isn't transgenderism a form of gender appropriation?

Danno said...

Ann, you must have forgot about the brouhaha at Yale a couple of Halloweens ago. Costumes are verboten. Somebody will be offended with just about anything you could think of.

gspencer said...

Well, I'm not ashamed of having fun manipulating the faces of transies. It's hilarious, especially when it riles the left so much.

John Althouse Cohen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
buwaya said...

As a practicioner of what amounts to fleet management, of technical systems, I find it curious that the fleet management of human beings is so lacking.

One would think that changes in failure modes would be better tracked, and root cause analyses undertaken to identify causes for negative trends. This is done consistently in certain areas such as epidemiology, of pathogens, and certain other medical areas, but extremely poorly elsewhere, where human performance and life outcomes are just as impacted, statistically.

It seems a gross management failure.

John Althouse Cohen said...

"My gender." That's a weird use of the possessive, "my." Everyone has a gender, and this app lets anyone change their gender appearance, yet someone decides this app is about "my" gender? You were just quoting the New Yorker article on people who say "I'm going to my bath" or "my nap" (instead of "a bath" or "a nap") but at least that's one person doing their own thing. Now a small number of people are saying the quality they possess is somehow off limits for others.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Rachel Maddow in drag

narayanan said...

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/with-9th-baby-lawmaker-wife-taking-aocs-carbon-footprint-for-ourselves

GO WISCONSIN

Big Mike said...

... you should be ashamed ...

But I’m not. And don’t intend to be. The more seriously you take your foolishness, the more hilarious it appears to me.

Yancey Ward said...

There are a lot of sticks up a lot of asses.

Bob Boyd said...

"My gender." That's a weird use of the possessive, "my."

Societal conflict arising over gender-identity is an inevitable consequence of a system that allows private ownership of the means of reproduction.

PM said...

Hunter precisely explains: "...privileged males appropriating an exaggerated female identity for entertainment. Exactly like blackface, but with gender."

Kevin said...

Tonight on the news we'll tell you

- who was outraged
- why we shouldn't laugh at them, and
- how you can avoid having this outrage directed at you!

Quaestor said...

I do respect her decision and reference her as female, as she is an adult

Not every decision is respectable. Giving respect to foolish decisions encourages greater foolishness.

Laslo Spatula said...

True story.

Years ago a woman in my department claimed she was part wolf -- or to be precise -- a space-wolf'.

It was seen as quirky, and she was capable at her job; she just wore a lot of t-shirts with wolves on them, and told the occasional odd quirky story.

However, over a matter of months, her 'identity' became serious. She insisted upon being called by her 'wolf' name (the first syllable of her name + wolf).

Occasionally she would start talking in her 'wolf' language. Try attempting to explain a work problem to someone who will only respond in gibberish.

One evening she called on her late-shift lunch break and said she was lost and couldn't find her way back to work. Then she said it was okay, she was going to her wolf-planet, anyway.

Never saw her again. (At first we were concerned about suicide, but her final check was cashed afterward, so.)

In the days that followed, as we cleaned up her desk, we found various scribblings of hers in -- what I assume -- was her wolf language and alphabet of triangles and shapes.

Anyway, that is what comes to my mind when I read about the transgender juggernaut.

In today's world I would be in trouble for having been dead-naming her.

I am Laslo.

Kevin said...

Perhaps the real problem is trans people believe they're already the other gender, and the app doesn't validate that by not altering their photo?

CWJ said...

"Women dressing as transvestites?"

Victor Victoria.

Kevin said...

Laslo, you had us at, "True story"....

Bay Area Guy said...

Well, that's the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way for my Lola
La-la-la-la Lola

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola

Well, I left home just a week before
And I'd never ever kissed a woman before
But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
And said "Dear boy, I'm gonna make you a man"


-The Kinks, "Lola" (1970)

Matt said...

Who are they kidding? A costume is EXACTLY what their gender is. You use a costume to be something that you are not, correct?

Ever notice how 'tranny' is only one letter away from 'tyranny'? That's deep, man

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Women dressing as transvestites?”

Peggy Hill!

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Women dressing as transvestites?”

Peggy Hill!

Bay Area Guy said...

Another screwy cultural push by the Left:

They want women to act more like men, and they want men to act more like women.

Methinks, stupid and unnecessary.



chuck said...

In a few more years, nothing we see, hear, or read can be counted as real. It will be a world of dreams, nightmares, and Disney cartoons and no one will know which is what.

Skippy Tisdale said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Skippy Tisdale said...

Look. I identify as gender-neutral/non-binary. But two days ago there was a m-f transvestite standing at the front of the bus and I had this incredible urge to get up from my seat and beat the shit out of them. Why, because their posture, posing and gestures were hyper-exaggeratedly female. Of course I didn't but had I done so, I would have said during the beating, "WTF is wrong with you? You're perpetuating female stereotypes you POS. Knock it the eff off.

BTW, my lesbian sister likely would have gone ahead and beat her up. She too finds behavior like that to be highly offensive.

DanTheMan said...

>>No this is about an asshole looking for a reason to be outraged in a quest for power.

Gahrie is exactly right. Today, being a "victim" means you have more power than other people. Which is the exact opposite of what happens to a *real* victim.

They aren't victims at all. They are wannabe censors.

They have somehow decided that they have the right to tell others what they are allowed to say, not say, think, and not think.

Where does this right come from, I wonder?

Sydney said...

J. Farmer's point that we shouldn't be compelled to participate in someone else's delusions is key. Unfortunately, in Canada, if you are a doctor, you can be forced to provide hormone therapy, even if you think it would be harmful:

The Court goes there, telling doctors who don’t want to euthanize, abort, facilitate sex change, etc., they can always get into hair restoration:

"[In] the following areas of medicine…physicians are unlikely to encounter requests for referrals for MAiD or reproductive health concerns, and which may not require specialty retraining or certification: sleep medicine, hair restoration, sport and exercise medicine, hernia repair, skin disorders for general practitioners, obesity medicine, aviation examinations, travel medicine, and practice as a medical officer of health."

So, an experienced and skilled oncologist who doesn’t want to kill can implant hair plugs instead of curing cancer. Brilliant.

And if they won’t do that, get the hell out of medicine.

"The appellants have no common law, proprietary or constitutional right to practice medicine. As members of a regulated and publicly-funded profession, they are subject to requirements that focus on the public interest, rather than their interests. In fact, the fiduciary nature of the physician-patient relationship requires physicians to act at all times in their patients’ best interests, and to avoid conflicts between their own interests and their patients’ interests."


Here's the thing. We know that hormones are potent little molecules. Giving extra female-specific hormones to biological females is known to cause harm, such as breast cancer, endometrial cancer. It is not a stretch to think that giving male hormones to biological females and female hormones to biological males may be ultimately harmful and cause cancers. We don't have the data to say what will happen after twenty, thirty, fifty years of sex-incongruent hormone therapy, but there's plenty of reason to believe that it may be harmful.
And who will be held liable for the damage when it is discovered? The media pushing this? No. The activists pushing this? No. The governments pushing this? No. It will be the doctors. We should have known better, right? Just like we should have not prescribed opioids when the media, patient's-rights "activists," and government bodies were telling us we were evil for under-treating pain. Whose getting blamed for that little disaster?
Resist!

Lewis Wetzel said...

So the filters are bad because all they really do is change the gender appearance of the user.
There is a lot of irony in that.

gilbar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Narr said...

OK, another ESU tale. Until a few years ago (and I'm not sure what happened behind the scenes to change it) one of the spring semester rituals was "The Tunnel of Oppression." There was also a "Wall of Hate." I don't have to explain probably, what these were like, the centerpieces of "Why Do You Hate Me Week."

Narr
"Well, just listen to yourself!"

gilbar said...

J. Farmer said...
The trans argument is self-refuting. If gender is socially constructed and unmoored to any physical reality, then why do trans people take sex hormones, physically alter their bodies, and change the way they dress? To look like a woman? What even is a woman? Anyone who think they're a woman? Sounds kind of circular to me.


You'd think, that IF you can BE Whatever gender you want; than you'd BE whatever gender you want.
IF a woman (a Cis-woman) thinks her breasts are too small; she has to pay, insurance won't
IF a man (a Cis-man) thinks his penis is too small; he has to pay, insurance won't

SINCE, gender is a construct; and you Are what you Feel you Are...

Why does insurance cover SOME women's breast enhancement surgery?
Because; THOSE Women ARE Not Women?
Why does insurance cover SOME men's penis enlargement surgery?
Because; THOSE Men ARE Not Men?

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/iowa-medicaid-provider-agrees-cover-treatment-gender-dysphoria-transgender-man?redirect=news/iowa-medicaid-provider-agrees-cover-treatment-gender-dysphoria-transgender-man

IF you're a woman, WHY do I have to pay for your plastic surgery?

walter said...

Blackface, Dudeface, Chickface..
You would think the Trans Clan would encourage tech that allows such easy exploration of gender..xender..or whatever term they settle on.
I bet the exposure on one own's terms produces some degree of increased tolerance.And some extremely minute number of folks will likely try the app and take the exploration further.

Skippy Tisdale said...

J. Farmer said:

"If gender is socially constructed and unmoored to any physical reality, then why do trans people take sex hormones, physically alter their bodies, and change the way they dress?"

I agree 100%. Years ago, my sister and I were discussing this very thing. As I said, I'm a NB, but have no desire to physically alter myself because I am not mentally ill. Both she and I feel it's sad that some people feel the need to mutilate themselves via surgery. You know there are people out there withe fully functioning arms and legs who self-identify as amputees and pay surgeons to amputate a limb or two. They too are mentally ill.

stlcdr said...

Blogger J. Farmer said...
...

Of course, it's perfectly fine in a tolerant society for people to dress however they want, wear whatever makeup they want, take whatever hormones they want, and have whatever surgical procedures they want. They can call themselves "Mary, Queen of the Universe" for all I care. But what they can't do is tell the other 99+% of the population (who experience no significant conflict between their sex and gender) what gender means and how to use language. It's an absurdity. That it is even entertained in our society shows you far down the decadent rabbit hole our civilization has slid.

5/17/19, 10:11 AM


Exactly this. Needs repeating.

n.n said...

Transvestites are trans-social. Abortionists are/were trans-social. Gender refers to physical and mental attributes correlated with sex. The transgender spectrum includes individuals that exhibit significant deviation from the male-masculine and female-feminine correlations. Some classes ("colors") of the transgender spectrum are more stable than others.

walter said...

Skippy,
Your Lesbian sister has some issues if she is that easily drawn to violence.
Sure..it's a redickulous scenario. But really?
Does she own a Pitt Bull too?

n.n said...

There is transgender and other oddities. A select few have been normalized (e.g. homosexual orientation), many are tolerated (e.g. transvestite preferences), and a few are rejected (e.g. pedophilia and other underage behaviors). So, now there is cause to review social constructs: normalize, tolerate, or reject?

Lewis Wetzel said...

"My gender is not a costume"
Don't wear it, then.

Lewis Wetzel said...

I do not believe that "mentally ill" is a real thing, these days. Instead the term "mental disorder" is used. Mental disorders should be treated when they cause harm to the self or to others.

n.n said...

I'm in favor of people being aesthetically pleasing (or at least aesthetically neutral) in public.

Dress codes (e.g. pants, dress) are in part social constructs, which are designed to create a favorable juxtaposition of the male and female sexes.

Real American said...

your costume isn't your gender.

Lewis Wetzel said...

The APA webpages describing gender and gender expression are funny, or they would be if people didn't take the APA headshrinkers seriously: https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/transgender
For instance, they try to answer the question "Have transgender people always existed?"
Which is a ridiculous question, like asking "Have Space Aliens always existed?" You are talking about a creation of the human mind, not a physical reality.

n.n said...

"normalize, tolerate, or reject"... "fuck, marry or kill?"

"Marry, fuck, or kill" is the common order.

Fernandinande said...

Peggy Hill!

Ha! Was that the one where she went to McMaderdberry[sic] to buy size 16 shoes while Hank was at the lawnmower races?

Howard said...

More titillation cuck-bate

walter said...

Yer feets too big

walter said...

More drive-by Howie snark

Anonymous said...

In the current Cultural Wars, we are all combatants, whether we like it or not.

n.n said...

In the current Cultural Wars, we are all combatants, whether we like it or not.

That is true. I grew up without diversity (i.e. color judgment) bred adversity and the socially-induced stigmas that it fosters. Around people who respected individual dignity, recognized an intrinsic value of human life, separated logical domains, and did not indulge in the liberated confrontation between men and women, that is so popular in cosmopolitan, urbane societies.

veni vidi vici said...

I tell my young teenager that he can joke around all he wants and say pretty much anything to me but he definitely can't say any of it outside the house because we live in a near-police state mentally now.

I have the good fortune of having friends who were raised behind the Iron Curtain, and I have often related their stories to my kid. The saddest thing is to hear those friends disdain the encroaching "Lives of Others" mentality/conditions, often noting that "they can't believe these idiots can't see what they're creating" because they themselves have seen and lived it before. They tell their kids the same things I do; when I heard that, I knew I was doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, with the high tech surveillance economy we have now and is being perfected by avaricious corporate wealthmongers, we won't have the benefit of past totalitarian regimes' inefficiencies because it won't be people watching us, it'll be unblinking and unmerciful machines.

Just ask the Uighurs; we're all next.

Jamie said...

And here I thought the main issue with those filters is that I look shockingly like my brother when I use the boy one...

It seems to me that though gender fluidity is presented as liberating and liberal, in practice it's a pit of poisoned spikes. There's no safe place to fall - it's impossible to be woke enough - and as to the "mental disorders should be treated if they begin to cause harm to self or others" comment above, oh, I think we're there.

I enjoy Drag Race (and I have wondered how transgender people feel about it). It's entertaining to watch a bunch of men acting like a parody or fantasy of womanhood while still behaving toward the other competitors in largely stereotypically male ways. The artistry of some of the performers is astonishing, the comedic chops of some are of a high order, and I bow down to their ability to do difficult moves in heels.