I knew it would be bad since the whole premise of this article is to be a freak-for-a-day in order to give the mainstream an opportunity to ogle us and be glad they are normal, but I couldn't stop reading it the way you can't stop yourself from looking at a car accident.

A few of points:

1) this article fails to discuss the fact that drag king performance is often a critical commentary on masculinity (it's ironic)

2) this author describes her transgender friend as "a lesbian who identifies as male but isn't going to do anything about it" which is just plain offensive because obviously her friend does not identify as a lesbian, he identifies as a transgender guy. what a totally ignorant statement to make. why do i have the feeling these two aren't actually very close "friends"?

3) this statement just about sums up the whole tone of the article: "Surveying my drag colleagues' final results, I realized that though real bearded ladies are sad and pitiable, women with fake beards make attractive men—some more convincing than others."

Wow. Real bearded ladies are sad and pitiable. People who don't conform to her expectations of gender normative appearance are to be pitied. And she mentions her husband a hell of a lot...just to let us know she's really a straight woman. Interesting that her daughter was upset, but her response was to refer her to Rudy Giuliani??? How about telling her not only that she is just playing at being a drag king, but talking to her daughter about how she feels and why it is disturbing to her, maybe even telling her that TRANSGENDER PEOPLE EXIST, not as freaks to be pitied, socially marginalized, and discriminated against, but as PEOPLE WHO DESERVE RESPECT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!

Oh, lighten up already.

I 100% agree with bekki23. I usually just laugh off peoples' ignorance about transfolk and cross-dressing, but this article goes too far.

"I was robbing her of her safe assumptions about who her mother was." So your daughter's never seen you in a costume before? And she doesn't understand the meaning of the word "pretend?"

"I knew if my experiment went on any longer, someone in my family would need hospitalization." This was a performance for fun, for God's sake. People have actually changed sex with less drama. Maybe therapy for your family isn't such a bad idea.

I have been a entertainter for manny years and I can not believe this mom trying to calm her daughter down in this manner, with out explaining what she is doing and her husband is not helping the situation either. Not wonder kids grow up with such a negative attitude towards different life styles. I belong to a ogranization and I am the reigning Emperor a female and I have raised my son to accept different life styles and to be open to different ways of life. He comes to my shows and brings has friends he is very proud of me and proud of who I am and what I do for the community. If you don't teach your children about reaching for the stars and being who they want to be no matter the obsticles they will never LOVE them self or be proud of who or what they have pretended to be.

For the record (& if you want the entire title) I identify as a masculine presenting non-op female-bodied genderqueer boi/girl. Most people just call me Tate or Herbie.

I have to agree with you, Crooked. I think Ms. Yoffe channeled her inner drama queen before she wrote this article. Seriously, it's not that deep. A twelve-year-old girl losing it because her mother didn't look like herself? Puh-leeze. Let's hope she never has to see her post-chemotherapy or banged up from a car accident. The child's delicate sensibilities would surely put her over the edge.

What bothered me the most was that this advice columnist who reports having a "buddy" who is genderqueer felt a need to "PROTECT" her daughter from the gender community.

I don't think anything says more about a person's real views than how they raise their children. And Emily has made it very clear that to her we are "disgusting" and "appalling" and she needs to "PROTECT"(I can't get over this word) her daughter from us.

It seems many of you think his article ought to have been an in-depth and balanced account of the trans-gendered and the issues they face. If that's the article you were hoping to read, then I can understand why you were disappointed.

Perhaps you should read the previous Human Guinea Pig pieces. The articles aren't really about the new cage in which Ms Yoffe has been placed, nor are they about the other Guinea Pigs she meets on the giant plastic wheel. Instead they describe our Human Guinea Pig's own personal experiences of being placed in an unfamiliar situation.

Being concerned about how her child might feel seeing her dressed as a man is in no way being disrespectful to the drag kings she met while researching the piece.

Instead of looking for things to be offended about, perhaps you might be better served appreciating Emily's honesty and her largely positive depiction of the Drag Kings she met.

Largely positive depiction? Beginning the article explaining how kinging is something well adjusted people wouldn't do.... totally botching the description of how her "buddy" identifies... refering to the Kings as a bunch of nice "girls" ....."I came off the stage, and the other kings, like the girls they were, patted my back, gave me thumbs up..." Giving congratulations and support is feminine? Wow. My high school football coach was a total chick! The references to social services and needing hospitalization were also a little offensive.

I've read many HGP's. I might point out to you that her daughter didn't just react to her mom she also found Rudy appalling. My girlfriends daughter is also 12 and also recently learned about the gender community and while she had alot of questions she didn't find a need to be disgusted or appalled.

Emily is also not just the HGP here she's the advice columnist and this attitude she raised her daughter with is going to color the advice she gives other parents. Just what I always wanted, an advice columnist that recommends PROTECTING kids that are almost teenagers from knowledge about the gender community. At the same time you "PROTECT" one child you risk "protecting" that one of that child's peers with his or her own questions about them self from an accepting environment.

I saw the video first and got a good laugh out of it then read the article. Sorry to disappoint you but I wasn't looking for something to be offended at nor was I looking for fair and balanced. I was looking for a laugh and instead found prejudice.

I too saw the video and thought she did a good job--and looked great without her 'girl face.' Reading the article, however, I was disappointed for the reasons enumerated above. I've seen other reporters allow themselves to go into the experience with a more open mind--and ultimately learn how performative both male and female gender really is. But I guess she's bound by her generation's beliefs. Hope her daughter grows up with her mom's gumption and a more progressive attitude.

As much as I've enjoyed some of the other HGP articles, I have to give Ms. Yoffe the Bronx cheer--loud and long--for this one. I did not expect an in-depth look at the trans-gender thing; as a matter of fact, I was looking forward to laugh-out-loud moments on par with the birthday party entertainer recap. But between the melodramatic daughter and Ms. Yoffe's patronizing, some-of-my-best-friends-are-bl­ack comments, this HGP blows.

NikkiW:

Sorry to disappoint you but I wasn't looking for something to be offended at nor was I looking for fair and balanced. I was looking for a laugh and instead found prejudice.

Yes exactly. Even if Emily did find her experience unsettling there were far more tactfull wasy to describe that.

You just found out Emily's a joke. Welcome.

You will achieve full acceptance by society when you learn to laugh at yourself.

I'm a pretty liberal dude. Gay marriage? Sure, why not? Live and let live. It's a free country.

Are you a dude trapped in a woman's body? That's gotta be tough to deal with, depending on your circumstances, of course. Society isn't going to make it easy on you, for sure.

But if we can poke fun at society's conventions, we sure as hell ought to be able to laugh at what lies on the margins. I guess you guys have a tough enough time dealing with discrimination and all that, but I've seen enough fat dudes in dresses and garish make-up, and god help me, I can't help but chuckle.

It's a free country, do as you please...but it's pretty darned hard to take a dude in a dress seriously.