Drag superstar Trixie Mattel just called out the real reason conservatives are so up in arms about drag queens. Spoiler alert: it’s not drag itself, she says — just good ol’ fashioned homophobia.
While chatting with host Josh Scherer on the web series Last Meals by Mythical Kitchen, Trixie pointed out some straight folks’ hypocritical attitude toward drag.
“When people have problems with drag, “When people have problems with drag, you notice these people don’t have problems with Madea, Dana Carvey, White Chicks, Tootsie,” she pointed out. “They have a problem with gay people cross-dressing. They don’t have a problem with, on Saturday Night Live, someone putting on a wig and playing a woman that week. They don’t care about that.”
“Cross-dressing goes back so far, and they always have a problem with it when it’s the gay people,” Trixie continued. “Those of you who might be watching this who might have a problem with the way I look, don’t worry, I’m never gonna come down to the Applebee’s and surprise you with a performance. You’ll be fine.”
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The clip quickly went viral when posted to TikTok, where commenters threw out more examples of straight men in drag that are embraced by straight audiences, including John Travolta in Hairspray and Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire.
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Later in the episode, Trixie again sounded off on conservative attitudes toward drag artists, including how much time and energy the government is wasting thinking about drag.
“I like to poke the bear. I like the idea that someone will see me in this and be like, ‘Ugh,’” she said, gesturing to her turquoise, sequin showgirl outfit. “I like that. Like, if the world got so progressive that drag wasn’t even interesting, there’d be no gas in the tank for me.”
“Even drag queens sometimes sit around in dressing rooms and go like, ‘We are not even that interesting. We are not worth taxpayer dollars legislating against,’” Trixie went on. “I just kind of feel like, ‘Are you b*tches for real? Don’t you have potholes to fill?’ Like, base-level things!
“I don’t want to read to kids at the library. I don’t. I never have and I never will,” she added. “But I don’t think that no one should. Conservatives think that drag queens go home at night and they unroll a map like Risk and they go, ‘We’re gonna take Illinois next!’ Like, that’s not happening.”
Check out Trixie’s full episode of Last Meals below.
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