Recommendation: The Rice Rockettes
A reader recommends…
The Rice Rockettes
An all-Asian drag troupe
An all-Asian drag troupe
The Rice Rockettes are an all-Asian drag troupe that I think is super awesome, since we often associate gender play with whiteness. This boing boing article has some thoughtful coverage of one of the members: The Birthing of Estee Longah
Posted by Zory on September 19th, 2010 at 08:00 am
Category: people, recommendations 6 comments »
September 19th, 2010 at 4:25 pm |
Wait, gender play is associated with whiteness? That’s news to me.
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September 19th, 2010 at 8:56 pm |
@Astra, look at the demographics of the photos on this site…
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Astra replied:
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 pm
So? That only shows who accesses this specific site and who makes it clear they are going in drag, which isn’t always safe/possible in some societies/groups.
It’s really depressing and a big reason why you often don’t see a lot of them running around just in public. :<
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September 20th, 2010 at 11:59 pm |
I have to agree with Astra. Gender play is every bit about defining “otherness” as it is about defining whiteness. In most colonial contexts, gender play served to define the colonized (and “eroticized”) other.
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September 24th, 2010 at 3:16 am |
I just thought I’d say that
1-asian pop bands are into gender play in a glam aspect, much like we idolize bowie, gackt and miyavi would be seen as bending gender and shifting paradigms here
2-ladeez-b is a thai band consisting of all transgirls
3-just about the most famous drag queen, the average person can name off the top of their head is ru paul
4-I would say that aboriginal/first nations have embraced genderqueerness as an entire part of their religion as “two spirited”
5-beyonce is seen as somewhat of a beacon to drag, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen drag done to “single ladies”
6-Probably a literal 1/2 of the transguys I know are not white. I don’t know a lot of transgirls, but I would say half are at the very least biracial.
7-America’s next top model, miss jay. enough said…except…
8-Isis, on ANTM also not white.
9-I know its not the same thing but its play not life style, but the entire cast of SNL and Madtv and other skit comedies are not white, and sometimes their characters cause for them to dress up, just sayin’
10-I don’t think that race SHOULD be a factor but I think that often queerness IS associated with “whiteness” but I guess it makes it all the more dramatic and risque in the truest sense of the word when someone goes beyond their own cultures expectations and become an exception, I just think that I can think of some examples of different cultured people on here without even going back that far. I am sure that if you’re going to transition and weren’t white, maybe you’d feel inclined to be stealth and not be on the internet about it? I don’t know. I just am a little offended by “whiteness” it’s my one most hated argument when people defend their orientation “well I can’t change my skin colour, how can I expect to change my orientation, I was born this way” that to me, is beyond apples and oranges. /angst
I would tell all the nonwhite transguys I know to post pictures of them looking EXOTIC but that would mean that I saw them differently than the other men in my life for one reason or another and honey, I don’t roll that way. Also it would take months for the pictures to be put through, so it wouldn’t beef up my argument regardless. UGH. GENDER AND RACE PISS ME OFF.
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September 28th, 2010 at 9:41 pm |
@Astra and co., I never said that the perception of gender play as white was accurate, but, just like the discussion of thinness and androgyny happening elsewhere on this site, it is a thing that needs to be understood and critiqued.
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