A principal in an Oklahoma City elementary school was recently forced out of his job because he performs Drag in his spare time. After Libs of Tik-Tok posted the story, Shane Murnan, who uses the stage name Shantel Mandalay, was asked to resign. Murnan claims he has been a female impersonator “for as long as he has been an educator, and his two careers had never been a concern for an employer before last year,” according to the Washington Post. The controversy has “created an environment of fear among teachers at school,” Murnan told the Post.
Imagine the outrage and fear if Murnan instead of performing in a manner meant to mock females, had performed in Blackface.
“Drag, comedic performances of “femaleness” by men in exaggerated costumes and make-up, cannot be separated fully from the gender derision and stereotyping at its core. By distorting the features and culture of women — including their looks, language, dance, deportment, and character — males [are] able to codify femininity across class and geopolitical lines as its antithesis.”
The above statement is from the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African American History and Culture’s (NMAAHC) website article, Blackface: The Birth of an American Stereotype. I have replaced the terms ‘blackface’ with ‘drag’, ‘race’ with ‘gender’, and ‘white’ with ‘male’. The altered definition perfectly illustrates why drag is insulting and offensive to women and deserves to join blackface/minstrelsy in the dustbin of history.
The use of blackface in minstrel shows began in the 1830s and remained popular for about one hundred years until it gradually fell out of favor as attitudes toward race began to change and the practice became increasingly considered bigoted and racist. Over the last several decades, Americans have developed a zero tolerance for even the so-called ‘youthful indiscretion’ excuse of former Brooklyn ADA Justin Marrus (2012) and Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (2019), both of whom had college photos of them in blackface become public. In 2018, Megyn Kelly apologized for saying on her CNN show that whites dressing as blacks for Halloween when she was young “was OK, as long as you were dressing up as, like, a character.” Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Ted Danson have been criticized for donning blackface with obvious comedic and satirical intent.
Yet, here we are today, two hundred years after the advent of minstrelsy, having learned little from labeling insulting characterizations of one group of people as ‘entertainment.’ Drag, the artistic genre that is everywhere, is pushed on audiences of all ages, it is no less demeaning than its racial cousin. The prevalence and promotion of Drag is part of the ongoing debate over what it means to ‘be a woman’. But Drag answers that so-called question by exaggerating for comic effect the worst stereotypes of femininity. Just as minstrelsy “characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice,” according to the NMAAHC, Drag characterizes females as hypersexual, garish, outlandish, voluptuous, and immodest. In truth, women come in all shapes and sizes, like to dress in all manner of clothing and make-up, and are competent, equal members of society.
Drag is a performance style that mocks women and for what effect? It is not inspiring or uplifting for any child — male or female — to see women characterized in this manner and it sends a message that females are primarily sexual beings, not intelligent, ambitious, thoughtful individuals. Adults who find humor in such base stereotypes should think more seriously about the underlying message of Drag. As David J. Leonard, Professor in the School of Languages, Cultures and Race at Washington State University, Pullman, wrote in 2012 about Blackface but can be accurately applied to Drag, “It’s not a joke; it isn’t funny. No claims about humor or creative license can ever make it okay. [It] is part of a history of dehumanization. [It] is never a neutral form of entertainment, but an incredibly loaded site for the production of damaging stereotypes…”
Ryan Walters, the superintendent of Oklahoma public schools, is pushing for a regulation that will allow educators to be fired for “acts that excessively promote sexuality” even if engaged outside the school walls. Surely, if teachers were performing in Minstrel shows, even in the evening at adult-only ticketed events, as Murnan claims his Drag shows are, school boards and parents would be justified in demanding their removal. Just as we decry the now verboten “art form” of Blackface, we must teach our sons and daughters that Drag is a demeaning form of sexual discrimination. Drag is not a “gender identity”, nor a sexual orientation — it is the highly sexualized mockery of femininity. There is no civil right to perform in Blackface or Drag. It is time we recognize the reality of Drag — it is nothing more than gender blackface that is insulting to women everywhere.
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Kris Ullman is the president of Eagle Forum. Kris served as Executive Director of Eagle Forum’s D.C. office from 1995-1998. She has served on the Eagle Forum Board of Directors since 2017.
