Drag?

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by 33girl
ok, I'm going to throw something else into the mix!

If you have ever seen "Sayonara" (you should if you haven't - young Brando = YUMMY), Ricardo Montalban plays a Japanese man although he obviously isn't Japanese. He doesn't mock the culture in any way. Hollywood did this type of thing often up through the 1960's. (I am guessing it was as much a cost saving measure as anything, as these were the days when actors were under contract) Would you consider this equivalent to blackface, or is it an homage?

There's something similar going on in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I think it's Mickey Rooney who dresses up as Audrey Hepburn's Asian landlord. It really just ruins the whole movie for me.

As for the drag queens, I do think it's partially intent, but mostly I think it's just historical precedence. If there was a history of men dressing up as women and acting stupid to mock women and their intelligence, drag queens would be a much more sensitive issue than they are. Blackface wouldn't be such a touchy subject right now if there had never been a history of it.