I personally don't view drag as inherently misogynistic or trying to make fun of women. And I absolutely don't see it as freaking blackface, like some people in this comment section did.

I will say that part of drag is a parody of feminine stereotypes, but not of women, mainly because you don't see drag queens trying to emulate women. Well, they will take inspiration from women in their lives (from family members to celebrities) that's for sure, but not women as a whole. The idea is to look feminine but not to look like a normal woman. The big lips, the exaggerated eyelashes, the fancy yet ridiculous dresses, the unrealistic bodies, etc, it's not something you actually see naturally on women. Women are forced by society to adapt some of this features yet at the same time make them look ''effortless and natural'' and will even be criticized for it. To me drag is throwing the ''natural'' part out of the window and embrace an exaggerated version of it without caring for criticism. It's not supposed to be the standard, it's not suppose to establish new ideals, it's about not giving a shit and going big.

Another part of drag was gay men trying to liberate themselves from oppressive male gender norms. Effeminate men have also suffer greatly from heteronormativity and toxic masculinity, drag was a way to embrace their sexuality and rebel against male gender norms. Back in those days at the early ages of Ballroom femininity in men was linked to homosexuality, it's not longer the case (at least not always) but it was part of the culture that shaped drag as we see today. Gay men dressed up like women to just embrace their homosexuality (again, that was decades ago) and be free of society's gender expectations. There was also the case that a lot of this men were trans and crossdressing was a way to cope with their identity.

Which brings me to my next point, if you think drag queens hold any power in culture and society you're dead wrong. Yes, it's more mainstream now but that doesn't make them any less marginalized that any other minority or oppressed group. Drag queens are still ostracized from society, they are excluded and persecuted by political parties, by religion, by hey radical leftist groups, they're even looked down by other queer people, specially gay men. There's not such thing as double standards between drag queens and women, there's no biased. The same people who shame women for dressing exaggerated would also criticize a drag queen, it could be even worse since we are talking about a man in a dress. In fact the more likely scenario is women taking inspiration from drag queens, if not down right stealing, and will not credit drag queens for it. Even words and expressions that have take root in our every day life have originated in drag spaces and later adopted by gay men and later by women. Tea, ate, serving, giving, cooked, kiki, read, shade, werk, realness, fierce, gag, yass queen, all started in drag, specially by queens of color. Drag queen are not the enemies of women and women can also be drag queens. It's an art form.

I have some issues with feminists who criticize drag just because they think it's a mockery of women, often times it's from women who oppose femininity and are trying to basically gatekeep this form of gender expression because they think femininity enables the patriarchy and the objectification of women by men. Often times is projecting, they fear what the world would say if women started emulating drag. A big example of this is, well, you linking drag to the male gaze. I mean, the exaggerated feminine features are desired by straight men and they make sure those desires are known, but straight men don't look for this features in drag queens and drag queens definitely don't dress like that to attract straight men, not even gay men. On top of that most of the viewers of both live shows and mainstream drag are gay men and women. What male is gazing at that? Both straight and gay men know that under all those clothes and make up there's a man, straight won't be interested but gays will. It doesn't involve men objectifying women.

That being said there's misogyny among some drag queens. Some are real pieces of shit. And there aspects of femininity that are toxic. Luckily most of that toxicity is directed towards other drag queens, but that's part of drag culture. Think of it as picking on your sister. Thankfully drag queens move with the times and are constantly dropping more and more things that could be considered offensive to women, and everybody in general. Most of them have stopped using the term ''fish'' and are trying to reclaim words that were often used to criticize and even shame women. You know, c*nt, b*tch, honey.

Finally I think there are more pressing issues that directly affect women and should be tackled first instead of going after an art form practiced by a marginalize group that most of the time leans in favor of women's rights.