It’s kind of a drag
I’m coming out. As a kid, I watched Uncle Miltie.
Comedian Milton Berle, aka “Mr. Television,” was one of TV’s earliest and biggest stars. It’s been said that when NBC broadcast Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater” from 8 to 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, crime numbers plummeted because 95% of television owners in the U.S. tuned in to the show. This, despite – or maybe because – Berle quite often appeared dressed as a woman.
Performance art had a history of “cross-dressing” – men dressing as women and vice versa – long before Berle milked it for laughs. The earliest references date to ancient Greece, where boys or men played female roles because women were banned from the stage. The practice continued through Shakespeare’s productions; it was illegal for women to act professionally in England until 1661. Even after women became established on the stage in the 19th century, men dressing as women onstage – mostly for comedic effect – continued.
For many years, Berle was perhaps the most famous TV or film actor to appear “in drag” routinely. But the Three Stooges, collectively and individually, cross-dressed as women multiple times in their popular features. These 15-minute comedy shorts became TV staples in the fifties after Pittsburgher Paul Shannon began running them on his afternoon children’s show, “Adventure Time.” I watched the show, as did most of my friends. More important, my mother allowed me to watch, taking the chance that I might all of a sudden adopt her wardrobe after seeing Curly Howard, dressed in drag, perform as “Senorita Cucaracha” in “Micro-Phonies.”
As I aged, I further risked being “groomed” toward cross-dressing by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, who supposedly tempted me by disguising themselves as women in the 1959 comedy, “Some Like It Hot.” Then, in a 1962 episode of “The Flintstones,” Fred attempted to deliver the coup de grâce by dressing in drag to get into a baseball game for free on Ladies Day. I’m tellin’ ya: temptation was unrelenting! And it continued well into my manhood.
In the 1970s, comedian Flip Wilson cross-dressed as Geraldine on TV. Members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus regularly appeared in drag on their British comedy series. Tom Hanks started his rise to stardom by dressing as a woman in the 1980s TV comedy “Bosom Buddies.” Dustin Hoffman dressed as a woman in 1982’s “Tootsie.” In 1993, Robin Williams followed as “Mrs. Doubtfire.” In 1993, male impersonator RuPaul became a television sensation with a show on VH1. In 1993, Nathan Lane wowed ’em as a gay female impersonator in “The Birdcage.”
Yes, we Americans love our cross-dressers.
Yet, as of this writing, bills seeking to stop the performance of drag shows in the presence of children are being considered in no fewer than 11 U.S. states. All were written and sponsored by Republicans. Yes, we Americans loved our cross-dressers. As long as they were funny.
So when, exactly, did cross-dressers become unamusing and a danger to our children?
When Republicans began to see attempts to “groom” children for alternate lifestyles in every book, movie or theme park they didn’t quite feel comfortable with. At least that was their story. But what they really saw was the chance to erect a straw man to attract ultra-conservative voters.
Despite the closeted attempts by Uncle Miltie, Jack and Tony, Moe, Larry and Curly – and even Fred Flintstone – I never once felt the urge to cross-dress. And I doubt seriously that today’s performers can um, “drag” contemporary kids toward it, either.
But by passing restrictive laws against lifestyles that they don’t understand and thus can’t accept, conservative legislators are grooming children to become close-minded, prejudiced, reactionary automatons.
And that’s a real drag.