(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . “Goodbye, possums!” Dame Edna Everage dies without grooming a single child [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-23 “Never be afraid to laugh at yourself. After all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century” ― Dame Edna Everage Danny LaRue In the second half of the 20th century, Parents and children in the UK and Australia were glued to TV screens watching as such luminaries as Danny LaRue (born Daniel Patrick Carol) brought their drag acts to the small screen. In the 1960s, LaRue was one of the highest-paid performers on British TV. It was the peak of a career that lasted for 63 years (1944-2007). Danny died in 2009 at the age of 81. There was no thought that somebody on a TV screen would make their children be something they were not. He was not part of an agenda. He was just a funny guy in a dress. This weekend Australian entertainer Barry Humphries joined him in the undiscovered country. This Antipodean legend was sometimes better known to his millions of fans as Sir Les Patterson, an ever-drunk, disheveled, and lecherous Australian cultural attaché, who "continued to bring worldwide discredit upon Australian arts and culture while contributing as much to the Australian vernacular as he has borrowed from it" He was also known, even more famously, as Dame Edna Everage — a gloriously costumed, wisteria-haired, bejeweled, over-the-top snob. Dame Edna started life as the more modestly titled Mrs. Edna Everage, a satirical character who arose out of the straight-laced, post-WWII Australia and laid waste to the closed-minded blandness of 1950s Melbourne. Humphries moved to London in 1959, where he knocked around with such comedy luminaries as Dudley Moore , Peter Cook , Alan Bennett , Jonathan Miller , Spike Milligan , Willie Rushton , and fellow Australian expatriate comedian-actors John Bluthal and Dick Bentley . In the 1960s, he was a regular in the West End, TV, and movies. However, his solo shows made him famous — notably, his turn in the 1976 London production Housewife, Superstar! Sadly, an attempt to take his act to America ended quickly in a cloud of negative reviews. Humphries summed up the premature expiration of Dame Edna in the US: "When the New York Times tells you to close, you close." Men in dresses may not have taken America by storm in the 1970s, but the idea was not unfamiliar to the average citizen. The 1960 movie 'Some Like It Hot' was nominated for six Academy Awards — winning one for Best Costume Design (appropriately). Jack Lemon and Tony Curtis wore dresses and makeup without the Republic tottering. In 1975, the cult classic ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ unleashed the sweet transvestite, Frank-n-Furter, and became a cultural icon. In 1994, ‘Priscilla Queen of the Desert’ also won the Oscar for Best Costume. It was followed in 1995 by ‘To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar’ — featuring alpha male Wesley Snipes glamming it up. Next came The Birdcage (1996), Hedwig and the Angy Inch (2001), Kinky Boots (2005), and Hurricane Bianca (2016), starring Bianca del Rio, aka Roy Haylock, the 2014 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race. This popular drag queen talent show has been on American TV for 15 seasons. Its creator has won 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, a Critics’ Choice TV Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and a Tony. This is hardly an exhaustive list of mainstream drag performances. Men in dresses have entertained generations of American children without causing a wit of psychological damage. No boy, who lacked the desire to wear women’s clothing, looked at these performers and succumbed to a wardrobe makeover. Mary Martin as Peter Pan It works both ways. In ancient Greece, there were no female actors. Before 1600, there were no actresses in English theatre. After that, women often played male roles — the idea of gender swapping was popular. This legacy can be seen in the tradition of women often playing Peter Pan — the eternal boy. Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, Cathy Rigby, and recently Allison Williams have acted the part. The conservative attack on drag performers is typical. These horrible public moralists, who often harbor private perversions, pick on people outside the heteronormative, bi-gender orthodoxy. Why? The usual reasons. They are bigots. Or they do not care but see a cynical opportunity to grasp power or drive a hateful agenda. We should celebrate drag queens. In a world full of duplicity, they are people honest with themselves. They like wearing what they wear, and they spend a lot of time looking the best they can. I wish the rest of us would pay as much attention to our appearance. Let us also note, that while many drag queens are gay, it is not a prerequisite. Barry Humphries may have been loud and proud on stage — but at home, he was four times married with four kids. I will grant you that does not prove he was straight. Yet the odds favor the proposition. One final thought. If I need a babysitter for my children, I am far more likely to call a guy in a dress than a guy in a cassock — although I suppose that could technically be considered a dress. 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