Dr Grace Barnes argue that drag, at its core, humiliates women through demeaning parodies of femininity, while Katharine Rogers finds it fascinating but thinks it may be best kept out of schools and libraries
May I suggest to Max Wallis that next time he watches his “visual Valium” Drag Race, he takes a moment to consider how women feel about being parodied and openly disrespected on primetime television (Drag is under attack across the world: RuPaul’s Drag Race shows why we need it more than ever, 31 March).
Drag queens take the trappings of femininity and exaggerate these to create a grotesque caricature which, at its core, humiliates women. Wallis notes that one of the drag queens was derided for her looks and labelled the Baroness of Basic, yet the pressure on women, particularly young women, to conform to an idealised body image and be attractive to men has been shown to lead to intense social anxiety, eating disorders and body dysmorphia.
