Daniel Scheinert: Dressing in drag “is a threat to nobody”
It was a subtle comment, but it had strong implications. When “the Daniels” won Best Director, Scheinert made a statement.
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert won Best Director for “Everything Everywhere All at Once”. When they got on the stage to accept the award, Scheinert thanked his parents for giving him the space to be creative, even when it meant making “disturbing horror films” and “preverted comedies”. And his last comment was, “and dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody”.
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Why was Scheinert’s drag comment political?
In the United States, there have been a concerning slew of bans on drag shows throughout the country. In Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, 32 bills have been passed that ban drag performances.
Most of these bills define drag as performing while in dress and makeup and using actions which are different from “normal behaviors” associated with a person’s assigned gender at birth. Tennessee was the first state to ban “adult cabaret performances” on public property or in places where children might see.
The implications of these bills is that drag is somehow a threat to children. The driving force behind them is a fear of the kind of expression that goes against conventional gender norms and thus they silence and oppress a large portion of the community.
Scheinert not only made his point clear that he never harmed anyone by dressing in drag as a child. He also made it clear that it was a significant part of his development as an artist and creative mind. Had he not had the freedom to express himself or felt he had to hide some part of his creative expression, he may not have ended up where he is today - an Oscar-winning director.
His comment may have seemed a subtle one, but the implications were of a strong political statement - that this anti-drag legislation limits artistic expression and is actually harmful, to children and adults alike.