JJ Vincent is not sure why this was so controversial, but this parade performance has got a lot of people talking.
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The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is the highlight of many a Thanksgiving morning. Giant inflatable cartoon characters and corporate mascots, marching bands from tiny towns and big cities, cheerleaders and celebrities, Broadway show numbers, the arrival of Santa…all of these pieces are carefully calibrated to mix commercialism and culture
So what happened this year that’s got everyone talking? A performance from the 6-time Tony Award-winning Musical, Kinky Boots. Tiny synopsis: British shoe factory in trouble finds new life making “kinky boots” for drag queens, cross-dressers, and other niche markets. Lessons of love and acceptance free with every pair.
So what’s the controversy? I’m not quite sure, because it’s being attacked from so many angles. Gay=bad. Drag queens=bad. Men in dressed=bad. Men in heels=bad. Song about excepting these people=bad. Play including all of these people=bad. All of this in a parade=superextrabad. All of this in a parade where kids might see them=even worse.
I did find one very astute comment:
E.A.: So when Tyler Perry or Eddie Murphy cross dress in a movie trailer that commericals it’s no problem,but when it’s in a parade, it’s suddenly about the “children” ok what ever!
Maybe the problem is not with the clothes, or the venue. Maybe it’s because of the assumption that these men in these boots are gay, whether it’s the characters or the actors. Maybe it’s the earnestness with which they perform, and the music, which encourages the listener to accept and love themselves and others, help those in need, and work together, even if getting to that point means dancing a number in their mini-skirts and thigh-high stiletto boots.
Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy are straight. When they are cross-dressed, they are playing women. They play their roles for comedy. If there’s a message, it’s snuck in by the social stereotypes and boob-and-fart jokers that are (Tyler Perry)Madea and Murphy-characters. There are no blurry gender lines, no is-he-or-isn’t-he, no role-switches in a film. The actors may play multiple characters, but Madea is always Madea, not Madea/Michael. And their characters are also not dressed in “sexy” clothes or shoes.
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And maybe that’s at the core of people’s discomfort with this Kinky Boots performance. In the midst of a G-rated parade, they are confronted with an outside-the-norm presentation of gender and sexuality. Whether or not it was appropriate will be endlessly debated. But the vitriol expressed at the characters, the performance, the themes, and the parade organizers reveal the depth of our collective discomfort with those who fall outside of gender norms.
had the malcontents been alive 80yrs ago they would have similarly thundered about the ‘mannish’ marlene dietrich, and about western english speaking men once again wearing perfume(aftershave and deodourant).
now they growl disapprovingly about that performance – while wearing the perfume if male, and trousers/ other male garb if female
I first saw Kinky Boots (the movie) a few years ago when my husband was in the middle of an indie film marathon. The word “kinky” made me wonder just exactly what he was watching, so I stopped what I was doing to check it out. Within moments I was hooked on the story, which, btw, is based on a true story of a shoemaker who saved his factory and workers’ jobs by making “fetish” shoeware. It is a wonderful story of acceptance, perseverance, and a love of people. I can’t see how any of that story, whether it features… Read more »