Catholic World News (CWN)

same old drag

Posted by: Diogenes - May. 03, 2007 = 3:02 PM=20 ET USA

Santa Clara's university in the Jesuit = tradition=20 is seeking new ways to implement Ex Corde Ecclesiae = and=20 expand the horizons of its students.=20

May GASPED and GALA have your attention, ladies = and=20 gentlemen -- or ladies dressed as gentlemen -- or = gentlemen=20 dressed as ladies? The 6th annual Santa Clara Drag Show = will be=20 breaking down gender stereotypes left and right, say = participants=20 and organizers, tomorrow, May 4, at 8 p.m. in the = California=20 Mission Room. ...

You want to shatter Uncle Di's gender stereotypes of = California=20 students, boys and girls? Try this. Men: get up and go to = 6:00 Mass.=20 Women: make it to confession twice a week.=20

Representatives from Gay & Straight People = for the=20 Education of Diversity and Gay and Lesbian Alliance, as = well as=20 from Santa Clara Community Action Program, say they have = worked=20 hard to ensure that this year's show incorporates more = elements of=20 education about the lesbian, gay, bisexual,=20 transgender/transsexual/two-spirited and queer/questioning = communities. This year, skits and interviews about the = history of=20 transgender prejudice that will be incorporated into the = show.=20

That's to say, heels and feather boas are giving way to = feather=20 boas and heels. Feel the creativity. We've grown.=20

Max Voltage, who is responsible for starting the = Drag=20 Show at Santa Clara, said to performers, "Take risks, push = boundaries, challenge your audience. But also, find that = line to=20 walk, between risky art and oppressive crap," in an essay = written=20 for The Third National Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender = &=20 Ally Conference for Jesuit Colleges.

Lost me here, Max. In this context, what qualifies as = "risky"=20 art? What could a progressive student at a Jesuit college=20 conceivably put at risk, however he spoke, whatever he did? = Where in=20 the soap bubble of undergraduate life would he encounter a = person=20 with the will, much less the authority, to deprive him of = any=20 liberty, or privilege, or satisfaction? To find an adult = with a=20 coherent view of human dignity that excluded the = transgender,=20 transsexual, two-spirited, and queer/questioning project, = he'd have=20 to make his way off-campus to a mosque or a pentecostal = church. Not=20 impossible, but hardly a live risk.=20

The conference, which was hosted at Santa Clara = last=20 summer, is held for Jesuit universities to facilitate = discussion=20 and action within the LGBTQ communities. According to = Voltage, if=20 performers, or "stars," as they are referred to in = planning=20 meetings, are successful, they will empower both men and = women=20 without demeaning either gender with sexist or oppressive=20 stereotypes.

A dead limb doesn't twitch when the doctor pricks it, and = some=20 ideologues have a wooden humorlessness that no irony can = goad back=20 to life. The rebellion against sexist/oppressive stereotypes = is=20 itself so stereotyped as to collapse onto itself with a = thud. That=20 was your horizon that got expanded yesterday evening, = wasn't=20 it, Mister Voltage?=20

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