To Wong Foo

[Guest Deandra]

I just watched this movie the other night. The movie's about three drag queens played by Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo. They get stuck in a rural town called Sniderville or something like that after Swayze accidentally kills a sheriff, but he wasn't really dead. So the sheriff goes looking for them. It's a great movie! Has anyone else seen or heard of it?

Deandra

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

Oh yeah....I've seen it several times.....

I really enjoy that movie and Swayze, Snipe and Leguizamo are a joy in it!

Two thumbs up!!

Donna Jean

[Guest AlyTheGreatAngel]

Thats one of my favorite movies!!, I loveeeeeee that movie:)

[Guest AlyTheGreatAngel]

i cannot believe that only 2 people have seen it!

[Guest ~Brenda~]

I have seen this movie and liked it very much. I especially like the quote towards then end of the movie when a woman says to the character Patrick is playing..."I do not see you as male, I do not see you as female, I see you as an angel"

There are many really lovely lines in this movie

Love

Brenda

[Guest ChloëC]

Yep, I've seen it too, and found it enjoyable. John Leguizamo probably pulled it off the best, in my opinion. And I've seen the movie it was sort of based on - Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (it's a fun movie to watch to see a couple of actors before they were 'stars' - Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and of course Terrance Stamp acting up a storm!)

Just for fun, you might want to watch a few episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race and compare how drag queens are portrayed on that show and in 'To Wong Foo'. There are some obvious differences.

Hugz

Chloë

[Guest Maja78]

I've seen both of them, Great Movies.

[Guest DafneElise]

I love To Wong Foo! It's a great movie. I have to argue that though they call themselves drag queens, they seem to live as women...so i call trans there. I actually prefer the earlier movie, "Priscilla: Queen of the Desert." It's much more risque, but the girls are just great.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Against the grain. These kind of movies made me CERTAIN transitioning was impossible. I did not like them at all. TransAmerica? now that is a wonderful movie.

Lizzie

[Guest SaleneAlexis]

I saw it many times. Very good movie.

Stephanie

[Guest ChloëC]

Lizzie, I can understand that feeling. I had done a lot of reading before I saw either To Wong Foo or Priscilla, so I was fully aware of the 'subtle' (and not so) differences between drag and mtf transitioning. I sometimes think that the media by portraying these cliches the way they do is changing the meaning of drag. When I first read about drag, it was some stories of drag stars of the 60's. And most were very careful to separate their male persona from their drag, onstage persona (like Jim Bailey on prime TV of the 1970's). Those lines seem to be blurring a lot now days. In Priscilla, the three characters did seem to represent almost 3 separate sub-groups - Terrance Stamp's character was saving for a sex change and was linking up with a male partner. Hugo Weaving's character was very much traditional drag having a family somewhere and changing back and forth. Guy Pearce's character seemed more of a transvestite (or possibly she-male) testing the boundaries of cross-dressing and acceptance in a straight world. But the characters in To Wong Foo (which owed much to the success of Priscilla), were all supposedly drag, yet from the time of their appearance in that local event until they arrived in LA, they went 24/7 which is not traditional drag.

To me To Wong Foo probably has caused more misunderstandings than education. RuPaul for example on his shows is careful to appear in male persona some of the time, but being a 'street performer' - albeit a very successful one - appears in drag quite a lot. The performers in his tv show - Drag Race - appear in drag even more so than he does with just a tiny bit of non-drag appearance as they are going through their transformations. Enough to suggest that they are seldom in male persona.

Who knows, maybe a lot more drag people are closet ts, and found sort of an acceptable outlet for their desires. But as attitudes change and acceptance does seem to grow, they are moving towards a 24/7 life. I know one did 'come out' on a re-cap show and has started transition. It would be interesting to know if she is still pursuing it.

Hugz

Chloë

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Chloe

EXACTLY

Very good analysis. I have three Facebook friends here in New Orleans that are DRAG QUEEN performers. Its fun talking with them. The emphatically told me they are men. I had a good time with that, and yet they seem to accept me with good nature. I got to thinking,

We say maybe some drag queens are secretly TS (probably not many). I haven't really found any here in N.O. which is a mecca for drag shows. But a funny thought? They seem to think that I might secretly be a drag queen.

So following that logic, maybe many of the transcommunity - that is including you and me and many people we know - are closet drag queens!

So when you present - hold back on those sequined fake eyelashes you so want to wear!

(Anybody want to buy a pair of 6" heels??? I have some for sale.)

Lizzie

[Guest Karen K]

I did see "To Wong Foo", long before I ever considered transitioning and found it funny and entertaining. Many years later, when I began to think seriously about Transition, I rented "TransAmerica" as it was getting "rave" reviews and it was being touted as the first movie to accurately portary the life of a transsexual..

Talk about a deterent to transition! That movie scared the crap outta me! I didn't want to end up like that, no way. This was one messed up film. Of course I don't have any children, let alone one that wants to get into gay porn. Critics claimed Felicity Huffmans portayal of the trials of transsexuals to be accurate. Well, yes. The voice work, dealing with therapist and the need for the surgery. Disfunctional doesn't begin to describe Ms Huffmans character. I certainly didn't want to wind up like that.

Just my opinion.

Laura Jane

[Guest andy8715]

One of my favorite movies.

[Guest SKing]

I absolutely loved this movie. If nothing else, it was wonderful to see two die hard Hollywood tough guys actually taking on such roles. I wonder these days if any of the tough guys in Hollywood (besides maybe Vin Diesel) would even be caught reading the script, much less actually starring in the movie.

[Guest ladyinwaiting]

Oh my goodness! This movie got me through my childhood years. It was literally some of the only exposure I had to that whole "gray area" of the gender spectrum that to me encompassed gay, genderqueer, trans, everything...because I was like 10 at the time and the internet was still evolving, so resources were extremely limited.

Looking back on it as an adult, I appreciate it as more of a fluffy, feel-good camp-fest, and do question why the three drag queens are always dressed like women without the subject of transition being broached by any of them (except Noxie when she makes her speech about the differences between drag queens, transsexuals and transvestites), but even that was kind of vague in terms of explaining why they did what they did. But whatever, it's still a fave of mine, for letting me know that there are people out there who've felt like I do and have made it work for themselves somehow, even if they were rather stereotypical movie characters.

[Guest Melissa~]

I got a copy when Patrick Swayze passed away. I watched it during it's release in the '90s with a girlfriend at the time. Prescient of her to suggest that movie back then.

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

Yep, I've seen it, too! It was a little cheesy and a little touching but overall a good movie with a good message.