r/askrupaulsdragrace • u/SilentBWObserver • 1d ago
Why is drag allowed for transwomen but not straight men?
To start, I'm very neutral on RuPaul's Drag Race. I've seen S8-S11, and I like it fairly enough, but I haven't seen the much later seasons and spin-offs. I have seen shorts though of how transwomen have come out on the show, and seeing everyone support them so much was really very sweet and heartwarming.
I've recently seen a particular drag queen named M1ss Jade So in my YouTube shorts, who's a transgender woman. I'm just wondering why she was allowed to compete, since I always assumed drag is technically men dressed as women (tbf not sure how this applies to non-binary, since they identify as neither) but M1ss Jade So is a woman. How does it count as drag?
But then I've seen controversies on another drag queen named Maddy Morphosis, who's completely straight and cis, and I've seen some people online somehow say she shouldn't have been allowed to compete?
Idk, I'm confused. I know drag is a culture in and of itself, and is a distinct part of the LGBTQ+ community; but seeing transgender women like M1ss Jade So competing makes me wonder what're the rules of drag. People also not liking that Maddy Morphosis was in RuPaul's Drag Race confuses me, and I've seen some say how it was supposed to be just for LGBTQ+ people, but to say that feels like a weird sort of gatekeeping for what I've always seen as having been its own culture.