Man in a Dress

[Mike]

There's been a long time comedy trope that putting a male into women's clothes is just inherently funny. You don't need any other joke, because the humor IS the man in the dress. It's funny because we're a sexist society, and putting a man into a dress emasculates him and thus we laugh at his embarrassment (or laugh because we know he should be embarrassed). Very rarely in mainstream media do we see a male dress up as a female as a form of empowerment, although examples of women dressing/acting like men to empower them are common.

So today my son sent me a clip from Lip Sync Battle:



I think it's glorious. That's Tom Holland... the new Spiderman... and he's holding nothing back. He's 100% sincere, and I think it's a powerful piece. It's an empowering drag performance on a mainstream TV show that isn't played for laughs at all. You can watch LL Cool J's body language and see that he's still not 100% comfortable with this whole drag thing, but he's way better about it now than on earlier episodes.

[DMDarcs]

But hey, if you're in a comedy movie, putting a man in a dress almost certainly guarantees an Oscar nomination and a certain affection from the Academy.

Tootsie
Some Like It Hot
Mrs. Doubtfire

[Mike]

All of them shameful. Ha Ha! It's funny because that guy doesn't know he's hitting on a man! So gay!

[DMDarcs]

[El Jefe]

Also, this Tom H has now knocked the other Tom H (of MCU, Thor-ish, fame) off the sexy perch. Fellow was legitimately smoking, and may very well have had the best actual dance performance outside of Channing Tatum's wife, whose name I'm blanking on right now. He's also apparently one lean muscle form head to toe, which is downright scary.

Jim Nash (of Community fame) and Clarke Gregg (of Agents of Shield) probably offer up the only other two empowering drag performances on the show to date. Though LL and Chrissy are still generally shitty about it.

[Cazmonster]

Now I need me some Tee Hiddy in drag.

[Phoebe]

Is this Dancing with the Stars? Tom Hiddleston killed his hotness factor, and probably ruined any hopes he had of being Bond, by traipsing around with Taylor Swift. Now it's Idris Elba or bust. Also happens that Ron and I are rewatching The Wire. Because why not?