West Texas A&M University's president cancels student drag show fundraiser, says it degrades women

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

student drag show aimed at raising money for the LGBTQ community was canceled Monday by West Texas A&M University’s president, who called such shows “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny,” drawing backlash from students and free speech advocates.

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

West Texas A&M University President Walter Wendler is drawing ire for canceling a student drag show, arguing that such performances degrade women and are “derisive, divisive and demoralizing misogyny.”

Students and First Amendment lawyers reject those assertions, calling his comments a mischaracterization of the art form. They also argue that the cancellation violates students’ constitutional rights and a state law that broadly protects free speech on college campuses, potentially setting the university up for a lawsuit.

“Not only is this a gross and abhorrent comparison of two completely different topics, but it is also an extremely distorted and incorrect definition of drag as a culture and form of performance art,” students wrote in an online petition condemning Wendler’s letter and urging him to reinstate the show.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/21/west-texas-am-drag-show/

[tanyev]

1. Countdown until pictures of Wendler in drag emerge.....

[RKP5637]

3. Yep!!! Exactly!!! There is usually some hidden gem in these guys backgrounds that make them

absurd moral saints. We see this over and over again.

[LonePirate]

2. Question for DU women. Do you believe drag shows degrade women?

This seems like a new excuse from the right; but I wanted to check in to see if anyone here thought there was a kernel of truth to his opinion. The professional drag queen circuit seems like it pays homage and respect to women from my vantage point but maybe my perspective is wrong. I wonder if he would feel the same if it was exclusively a drag king show.

[RKP5637]

4. K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[crickets]

7. Not at all.

Now, beauty pageants, especially the ones where little girls dress up to try to look and act like women three times their age... ew.

[LakeArenal]

5. I'm a woman. DeSantis and ilk degrade women

Drag celebrates beauty and powerful women.

[Deuxcents]

6. Omg 😱 Where was this concern when Milton Berle did drag in his day?

Flip Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Tony Curtis n on n on. Where they concerned about women then n if so, why not help to pass the ERA? This is 🤬