Anyhow, the sketch highlights the ambiguity around drag. Does it reinforce or subvert gender norms? Is it mocking or challenging? If mocking, what does it mock? A lot of this debate goes back to Judith Butler's comments on drag and gender performance in Gender Trouble where she was interpreted as emphasizing the transgressive aspects of drag without acknowledging the potentially reactionary side.
So when is drag subversive? When does drag work to undermine the stability of the 'heterosexual matrix' (Butler's term)? And conversely, when does drag fail?
Exhibit A: when drag doesn't work...
If you didn't know that this was a man in drag, don't worry. How could you? He is absolutely stunning. And that is the problem. Andrej Pejic passes and he passes superbly. It would appear that the perfect woman is a man!!! And with all you know about gender, how it works and what it serves are you really surprised?
I've written about Andrej Pejic before and the massive confusion he causes both heterosexual men and women. But what precisely is the cause of that confusion? Well, this man in drag is a walking idealization of everything a woman is supposed to be. So, yes, he does point out the arbitrary nature of "womanly" signs and symbols and features and curves but does he challenge the categorical qualities of woman as such? Or does he simply reiterate gender norms and contours?
If you really can't tell the difference, then there is no difference. A man in drag is a woman. He is a copy of a copy of a copy...And that's a fail! A gloriously beautiful one but a fail none the less!
Exhibit B: when drag works...
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| Source: rosalarian.tumblr |
Aside from the obvious cartoonishness, what is different about this picture compared to the ones of Andrej Pejic above? No, not the dress. Perhaps the projectingly obvious manliness in musculature and pelvic contours...? Here is a man in drag. The drag is not hidden or subtle or alluring. It is out in the open. The gender issues all hang out.
Exhibit C: when drag works...
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| Source: rosalarian.tumblr |
If the point made in the first picture of the man in drag was too subtle, well look above. Is that too nuanced for ya?
Exhibit D: when drag works...
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| Source: rosalarian.tumblr |
And, as if the point needed to be made again, well here it is anyway. And in quadruplicate!
So why do these images of superheroes in drag work? Well, ask Megan Rosalarian Gedris, the graphic artist who drew them...
She was tired of hearing 'Men are idealized in comics, too' as a response to her complaints about the idealization of cartoon women, so she drew these pictures to show just how ridiculous and off-base that remark was: "Because while the men are impossibly muscular and the women are impossibly skinny/boobular, the men aren’t being sexualized out the wazoo." The idealization of the different genders is clearly not comparable: male strength is exagerrated while female sexiness is taken to absurd extremes.
Gedris' pictures emphasize just how ludicrous the appearance of female characters actually is: "It’s not the characters’ bodies themselves that are the biggest problem, but how they are dressed and posed. Tits out, ass out, lips pouty, legs spread, hips cocked, eyelids at half mast. Outfits that make Wonder Woman’s star spangled panties look fit for a Mormon picnic. Short skirts, cutouts, stilettos, fishnets, thigh-highs." Even while fighting evil, women can't stop being 'woman as sex' whose real purpose is to display her form for the pleasure of the men ogling her.
The idealization of men in comic books has nothing to do with sexiness: ' You don’t see male heroes wearing these costumes or posing like this...their costumes tend to have full coverage, and when they pose, it’s to inspire fear, not boners.' Man is strength and virility. Woman is sexiness. That's the essential truth you need to know.
The representation of women in comic books is beyond absurd and sexist. It is misogynist and oppressive. A woman looks and sees in the cartoon mirror the reflection of the male mutilation of the female body. And men wonder why women don't read comics? As Gedris says,
'Dudes, I want you to imagine a world where most of the portrayals of your gender in comics look like the above. Are you going to think “Well, I really like the stories so I’ll just suck it up and read this anyway”? Or are you going to be alienated from reading most comics? Be honest. Are you willing to stare at that much thrusting crotch just to find out if Spiderman is gonna win?
Lots of people in the comics business look at their demographic breakdown and think women don’t like superheroes. The creator of DC Women Kicking Ass made a very apt point when she said, “Let me put it this way, if you keep keeping putting food on a kid’s plate and they don’t eat do you assume they don’t like to eat or they don’t like the food? Right.”'
Fantasies matter. They are more real than reality because they are the visions that form reality. And they are social acts because we do not create our fantasies from nothing. We develop them in conjunction with other people, our upbringing, the media, etc. Fantasies represent the subterranean economy of social desire: what our society really really wants. Sexual fantasies represent the spectre of the true relations between the sexes: men should be and do such to be real men and women should be and do such to be real women. Sexual fantasies are about what haunts us...
The idealization of men and women in our society and its artifacts are a social stamp that brands and burns and mutilates the bodies of men and women. This idealization tells us what we really want to be. This idealization tells us what we really want...
If Gedris is right and women don't read comics because of the idealization of women found there then maybe this form of gender oppression can be overcome. If women don't want this and men still want women, then maybe men will need to learn to want something different. Something more equal. Something more free. Something more fun. Something more ideal than 'reality.'
Something else, my dark comrades!
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