There is Nothing Like a Dame III...

Just this last one then I promise I'll shut up about Maggie Smith. Honest...

Re-reading my previous two posts about Maggie Smith, I notice that I allude in both posts to the fact that she is liked by gay men and that this liking is to be expected. But is this fact; is there any truth in this? Well, if tweets by the gay tweeps are anything to go by, then yes. And of the gay friends I've spoken to, I seem to be the only gayer on the planet who hasn't got Downton mania and missed the series when it was first broadcast.

Let's assume that Dame Maggie does have a sizable gay following. The interesting question for me is, why is that so? What is it about Maggie Smith that a lot of us gay boys like; what has captured our imagination? I think as good a place as any to start looking is in Maggie Smith's own assessment of some of the roles she plays. These are roles such as Lady Hester in Tea with Mussolini, Constance, Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park and Janet Widdington in Ladies in Lavender; roles that Maggie Smith herself refers to as her "gallery of grotesques" - formidable, redoubtable, rather grand, sarcastic and sometimes rude characters.

I think that gay men such as me are drawn to such characters; drag fascinates us with its broad, almost cartoonish and muscular (sometimes vulgar) portrayal of women and how those female characters survive in (what is still) a man's world. Look at Dame Edna, Lily Savage, Divine, RuPaul and Hedwig (from Hedwig and the Angry Inch); all formidable, redoubtable, rather grand, sarcastic and sometimes rude characters. Of course, drag isn't the sole domain of gay men; I think that some women such as Bette Davis, Liza Minelli, Joan Rivers, Bette Midler, Alison Steadman, (even) Dolly Parton and (yes, sometimes) Maggie Smith play that broad, almost cartoonish and muscular (sometimes vulgar) portrayal of women.

What is that fascination about? I think there's an enjoyment in watching a female character have the balls to take men on at their own game and a delight in the elegant and devastating put downs they employ. For me, I think it's about role reversal and flipping the world on its head, where the minority role is given all the best lines. Let's face it, you don't heckle a drag act; not if you want to escape with your dignity intact.