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Ah, Sharron Davies. Always on the cusp of everyone’s lips – typically followed by a torrent of vitriol or the swinging of jaws in disbelief. It’s hard not to dislike our Shazza. She’s always putting her foot in it. One might even say she does it intentionally like a certain Haty Kopkins.
Yesterday she likened drag to ‘black face’ and faced fantastic rejoinders from drag queens, women, people of colour and the queen of daytime TV, Lorraine Kelly herself.
Am I the only person fed up of drag shows? A parody of what a real woman is, like black face. Woman are juggling kids, rushing out a wholesome dinner, doing the laundry & cleaning, holding down a job all with period pains & leaky boobs if breast feeding. Enough of the stereotypes
— Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) December 21, 2019
Twitter users were quick to point out the regressive image of women presented by Sharron.
Hmmm who is stereotyping womanhood here? A drag queen painting on killer brows and getting down to some disco or the one who sees us as downtrodden milk maids slaving away for men and children.
Also juggling kids sounds dangerous, but possibly an excellent drag act.
— Hatpin Drill (@PippinDrill) December 21, 2019
With some women questioning if they were really ‘drag queens’ by Sharron’s standards.
Thankyou!!! As a childless person, if we go through Sharons checklist for identifying as a woman I only get doing laundry and period pains as my official identifier. Maybe I’m only 10% woman an 90% drag queen.
— Leah (@leah_c86) December 21, 2019
Sharron has essentially said here ‘how dare drag queens stereotype women as glamourous, fiesty fun divas, when everyone knows we are just leaking bags of fluid in servitude to the patriarchy.’
— Hatpin Drill (@PippinDrill) December 21, 2019
One woman who is also a drag queen, pointed out the silliness of such a sweeping statement.
Hi, I'm a woman and a drag entertainer. I have no kids, I don't cook, I don't clean, and I don't define my womanhood by how "leaky" I am at any given time. There's no one way to be a "real woman" and drag is a beautiful artform that expresses exactly that.
— VENUS ENVY (@VenusEnvyDrag) December 21, 2019
Venus Envy pointed out that women’s experiences are vastly different and aren’t defined by one thing.
Nah. There's one way to be a woman and that's to identify as a woman. Roughly half the world's population is women – Everyone's experiences are unique and there's no way to generalize such a large and diverse population.
— VENUS ENVY (@VenusEnvyDrag) December 21, 2019
Sharron even made men question whether they were drag queens or women, based on Sharron’s description.
I’m a house husband, I do the shopping, cook the food, do the washing ironing etc. I clean the car and the home and drive my wife to and back from the theatre every week while looking after a new puppy. Does that make me a drag queen.
— chris hulme (@chrisahulme) December 21, 2019
And then Lorraine Kelly – who herself recently got dragged up by Manchester drag house, the Family Gorgeous – waded in to point out how drag could be freeing for many people. ‘It can literally save lives,’ she said.
Oh Sharon. You can’t underestimate the power of drag and how it empowers people who often feel like outsiders – they can find their family, grow in confidence, learn to love themselves and be who they really are. It can literally save lives. And it’s such a lot of FUN! https://t.co/y5LgIcndv9
— Lorraine (@reallorraine) December 21, 2019
Doesnt she look good as Morning Gloria?
And here’s a video of Lorraine as Morning Gloria:
Meanwhile, some users pointed out Sharron’s comparison is also potentially problematic…
this is the WORST take. Proximity to blackness doesn’t absolve one from correction when it comes to racially charged language.
— Olaolu (@Oadeboye) December 21, 2019
As is her defence that she has mixed race kids.
https://mobile.twitter.com/judeinlondon2/status/1208330425459978245
This wasn’t really a success, was it, Sharron?
