Black men in dresses
CVK
Darryl James just wrote a great column for EURWeb.com about how angry he is that the image of the black male is “under attack” in America. In some places his commentary comes dangerously close to sounding homophobic, particularly when he’s complaining about how the “diminishing and effeminization of the Black male.”
The Black man in drag is one of the new coons. It’s hip and chic and the stereotype is comfortable for all who may have fear of a strong Black man. For white people, the stereotype presents a non-threatening Black male who won’t stand up to racism or start a revolution. No one has to oppress him, because he’s self-castrated.
The stereotype is also comfortable for women who have had nothing good come from relationships with Black men because a castrated clown won’t tell them what to do, won’t beat them and will sit down with them as nearly one of them. Perhaps they find comfort in this new role of the sensitive male gone too far–so far that he has become the woman. Literally…
And, dig, if you will the release of Martin Lawrence’s drag queen gig “Big Mama’s House, II,” during the same time period.
Even the most popular comedian today, Dave Chappelle recoiled when they came at him with the dress, which he acknowledges is always a part of the plan for Black men in entertainment.
Jamie Foxx wore the dress as Wanda long before Oscar consideration. And Martin Lawrence first played “dress up” on his very own sitcom, playing an ugly, ignorant woman that Black women should have beaten him for.
While I don’t agree 100% with his analysis, I do think that the increasing popularity of having black men dress in drag is something worth examining. Dave Chapelle talked about this phenomenon when he recently appeared on the Oprah show. Why is it that at some point in their careers, every black actor will be asked to put on a dress?, he asked rhetorically. Of course for fear of alienating her core audience of white housewives, Oprah didn’t let him get too deep into discussing how a white-run Hollywood ultimately enjoys casting people of color in certain kinds of demeaning roles (he talked about feeling like “damn, they got me!”), but it’s an interesting issue. When a black man puts on a dress, is it a way of eliminating his oh-so-threatening black male sexuality? (By the way, if you haven’t already, definitely check out Scott Poulson-Bryant’s excellent book on the subject, Hung : A Meditation on the Measure of Black Men in America
Danni wrote:
Am I missing something? Are black men at risk of effeminization?
Posted 07 Mar 2006 at 5:06 pm ¶
Bryce wrote:
This is an interesting post since recently here in the Bay Area (actually, this took place in Arizona) there was a lot of coverage of Barry Bonds dressing in drag as a spoof on American Idol’s Paula Abdul. It purported to be a part of a Giants fundraiser (side note: Rob Schneider was said to have matched fan contributions) and team bonding experience (no pun intended) - but most suspect Barry’s real motivation was to provide footage for his upcoming reality show produced by ESPN’s entertainment division.
Still, if there was such a thing as a comedy textbook I think there should be a section devoted to “Men in Drag = Funny”, mentioning such acts as Monty Python and Kids in the Hall to John Leguizamo. It is absurd and de-sexualizing by nature, that’s what makes it funny. Also, Box Office Mojo is pointing out the emergence of the “fat-suit” comedy sub-genre as being a consistent earner, citing Ms. Doubtfire, Nutty Professor, Shallow Hal…to name but a few not currently occupying the box office top 10. So expect more Big Momma and Madea in the future!
Posted 07 Mar 2006 at 6:51 pm ¶
ML wrote:
I don’t know if you saw Kenan Thompson’s bit on SNL this past Saturday, but it was covering this subject.
Posted 07 Mar 2006 at 7:08 pm ¶
Merq wrote:
This is definitely a deep-seeded trend in Hollywood. At the risk of this coming off as a shameless plug, I touched on it in a web-documentary I made last spring (as always, my screen name’s the link).
So I was overjoyed when I heard Chappelle say this (on a show with as wide an audience as Oprah’s, no less), because it’s something that seldom gets brought up in public.
Still, if anyone’s interested, check the MEDIA section of the documentary (I believe the specific segment is called “Af. Americans in the Media” …you’ll understand when you get there).
I was fortunate enough to sit in on a writing session for a new comedy in development for Spike TV. Though the guys all have TV writing in common, some are also actors, and one’s an entertainment lawyer/screenwriter/bestselling author.
Also commenting on this is Karen Hunter, who’s won a Pulitzer and has written 6 bestsellers in her career as a journalist/writer/talk radio host.
So, yeah, Danni… black men apparently are at risk.
Posted 07 Mar 2006 at 8:38 pm ¶
Ben wrote:
Hold up.
It’s a plausible theory, especially if you want to believe hollywood is racist, but the data just don’t back it up.
James cites a grand total of four (living) actors: one of them is Jamie Foxx, who played a woman on In Living Color 15 years ago; another is Dave Chappelle, who doesn’t seem to have actually ended up actually wearing a dress. That leaves only two relevant to his “trend” argument: Tyler Perry and Martin Lawrence.
I’m open-minded. I’m proud of my black heritage. I’m willing to believe that Hollywood creates stereotypes of people as they want them to be, regardless of who they really are. But James leaps to an inappropriately strong conclusion from scant data, paying mere lip service to a mountain of countervailing evidence.
Then he spends the rest of the column haughtily scolding “blind-minded” black people for enjoying unsophisticated comedy and rap music. Yawn!
Posted 07 Mar 2006 at 8:45 pm ¶
Nina wrote:
Don’t forget Eddie Murphy as that dirty grandma in the Nutty Professor movies.
Posted 08 Mar 2006 at 11:18 am ¶
justin wrote:
This relates to another post. There is a famous Maori cross dresser named Mika in my country. A giant photograph of him is in the public art gallery. He is naked, well hung and his penis is at eye level.
Posted 08 Mar 2006 at 11:42 am ¶
Ben wrote:
Oh yes, Eddie Murphy. And Wesley Snipes. But let’s not forget that Murphy’s gag involved him playing every member of the family, and Snipes co-starred with two other cross dressers in a movie about cross dressing.
I still don’t see any data to support the broad claim that black comedians are asked to be in drag more often than non-black comedians. This claim is even broader in this post (all Black actors) and broader still in the original article (all Black men in entertainment).
Posted 08 Mar 2006 at 1:49 pm ¶
DAB wrote:
Hasn’t every guy on Saturday Night Live done the drag thing? Including the guest hosts? And most of them were white.
Will Ferell did Janet Reno, Adam Sandler did the Gap Girl, Seth Meyers impersonated Nicolette Sheridan, etc.
It’s also interesting to note when Chapelle was talking about this on Oprah, he mentioned Milton Berle and Brokeback Mountain. Well last time I checked those were white people.
I don’t know if there’s a “conspiracy” but getting a guy to do drag is just an easy way to get laughs.
Posted 10 Mar 2006 at 2:02 am ¶