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JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

FORD'S F-150 LIGHTNING WEIGHS MORE THAN ALMOST ANY CAR ON Joe Biden had some words of praise for the Ford F-150 Lightning, the brand new electric pickup truck that the president test-drove in Michigan this week: “This sucker’s quick.” The F-150 has

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YOUTUBE SUSPENDS GOP SEN. JOHNSON FOR PROMOTING UNPROVEN YouTube suspended Sen. Ron Johnson’s account for one week after he violated the website’s policy on medical misinformation by posting a video that promoted unproven treatments for

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Advice. Showing 1–20 of 3343. Dear Care and Feeding: My MIL Wastes Her Money on the Most Ridiculous Gifts. Emily Gould. May 31, 2021 5:55

AM.

DEAR PRUDENCE

Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column, where Danny M. Lavery responds to your questions about relationships at home, work, and beyond. WHY IS MERRICK GARLAND DEFENDING DONALD TRUMP? Shortly before Monday’s filing, one commentator questioned “to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration’s abuse of power—with its primary concern RECENTLY IN PAY DIRT Everything on Slate about Pay Dirt. I Struggle to Pay Our Bills. My Husband Just Bought His Dream Car. THE CHIP SHORTAGE: WHY IT'S HAPPENING AND WHEN CAR AND Semiconductors are the chips that manage functions like data storage, graphic rendering, and power consumption in electrical devices. They

are

JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

FORD'S F-150 LIGHTNING WEIGHS MORE THAN ALMOST ANY CAR ON Joe Biden had some words of praise for the Ford F-150 Lightning, the brand new electric pickup truck that the president test-drove in Michigan this week: “This sucker’s quick.” The F-150 has WATCH NBC JOURNALIST ASK PUTIN: “MR. PRESIDENT, ARE YOU ACLICK TO

VIEW

8 hours ago · Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the launching ceremony of the Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant, via a video conference, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on

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ADVICE - SLATE

Advice. Showing 1–20 of 3343. Dear Care and Feeding: My MIL Wastes Her Money on the Most Ridiculous Gifts. Emily Gould. May 31, 2021 5:55

AM.

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Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column, where Danny M. Lavery responds to your questions about relationships at home, work, and beyond. WHY IS MERRICK GARLAND DEFENDING DONALD TRUMP? Shortly before Monday’s filing, one commentator questioned “to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration’s abuse of power—with its primary concern THE CHIP SHORTAGE: WHY IT'S HAPPENING AND WHEN CAR AND Semiconductors are the chips that manage functions like data storage, graphic rendering, and power consumption in electrical devices. They

are

JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

FORD'S F-150 LIGHTNING WEIGHS MORE THAN ALMOST ANY CAR ON Joe Biden had some words of praise for the Ford F-150 Lightning, the brand new electric pickup truck that the president test-drove in Michigan this week: “This sucker’s quick.” The F-150 has

CARE AND FEEDING

Care and Feeding. Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Ask our columnists a question here! To ask a school-related question to our panel of teachers, email askateacher@slate.com.

SLATE MAGAZINE

Online magazine of news, politics, technology, and culture. Combines humor and insight in thoughtful analyses of current events and

political news.

NEWS AND POLITICS

Online magazine of news, politics, technology, and culture. Combines humor and insight in thoughtful analyses of current events and

political news.

ADVICE - SLATE

Advice. Showing 1–20 of 3343. Dear Care and Feeding: My MIL Wastes Her Money on the Most Ridiculous Gifts. Emily Gould. May 31, 2021 5:55

AM.

RECENTLY IN PAY DIRT Everything on Slate about Pay Dirt. I Struggle to Pay Our Bills. My Husband Just Bought His Dream Car.

DEAR PRUDENCE

Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column, where Danny M. Lavery responds to your questions about relationships at home, work, and beyond. WHY IS MERRICK GARLAND DEFENDING DONALD TRUMP? Shortly before Monday’s filing, one commentator questioned “to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration’s abuse of power—with its primary concern THE CHIP SHORTAGE: WHY IT'S HAPPENING AND WHEN CAR AND Semiconductors are the chips that manage functions like data storage, graphic rendering, and power consumption in electrical devices. They

are

JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

FORD'S F-150 LIGHTNING WEIGHS MORE THAN ALMOST ANY CAR ON Joe Biden had some words of praise for the Ford F-150 Lightning, the brand new electric pickup truck that the president test-drove in Michigan this week: “This sucker’s quick.” The F-150 has

CARE AND FEEDING

Care and Feeding. Care and Feeding is Slate's parenting advice column. Ask our columnists a question here! To ask a school-related question to our panel of teachers, email askateacher@slate.com. WATCH NBC JOURNALIST ASK PUTIN: “MR. PRESIDENT, ARE YOU ACLICK TO

VIEW

4 hours ago · Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the launching ceremony of the Gazprom’s Amur Gas Processing Plant, via a video conference, at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on

June

SLATE MONEY TALKS BILLIONAIRE TAXES, UBER, AND BITCOIN. 8 hours ago · Slate Plus members get ad-free versions of all Slate podcasts, plus extra segments, bonus episodes, and more. Try it today for just $1. This week, Felix Salmon, Emily Peck, and IT’S TIME TO TREAT VOTING RIGHTS LIKE CLIMATE CHANGE. 8 hours ago · In the United States, political polarization has checked efforts to enact even modest federal climate change legislation for decades. Out of frustration, one might even say

desperation, some

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Online magazine of news, politics, technology, and culture. Combines humor and insight in thoughtful analyses of current events and

political news.

SUPPORT SLATE'S JOURNALISM. SUBSCRIBE TO SLATE PLUS. Support Slate's journalism with a Slate Plus subscription and receive a suite of benefits, including unlimited articles and ad-free

podcasts.

JUDGE ROGER BENITEZ PROMOTES COVID LIES IN ASSAULT WEAPONS On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush nominee, held that California’s long-standing ban on assault weapons

violates

HOW TO THINK ABOUT AND HANDLE THIS SIDE EFFECT. Ashley Z. Ritter, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the chief clinical officer of Dear Pandemic, says that this is a common side effect—from any vaccine. Injecting the COVID VACCINE SIDE EFFECTS: MY WEEK OF HORROR AND JOY The woman injecting my second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine quickly bandaged my arm as the shot started wiring and inspiring my immune system. I was directed to the 30-minute observation area BIDEN’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS WALKING INTO A TRAP SET BY Given his deep ties to the legal campaign against independent agencies, Mitchell is the perfect candidate for an assault on Humphrey’s using ACUS

HOW TO DO IT

How to Do It. Showing 1–20 of 441. I Told My Ex the Truth About Our Sex Life—and He’s Livid. Stoya. May 06, 2021 4:45 PM. I Just Left My Religion and Am Ready for Sex—but I Already Have a

SLATE MAGAZINE

Online magazine of news, politics, technology, and culture. Combines humor and insight in thoughtful analyses of current events and

political news.

WHY IS MERRICK GARLAND DEFENDING DONALD TRUMP? Shortly before Monday’s filing, one commentator questioned “to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration’s abuse of power—with its primary concern

ADVICE - SLATE

Advice. Showing 1–20 of 3343. Dear Care and Feeding: My MIL Wastes Her Money on the Most Ridiculous Gifts. Emily Gould. May 31, 2021 5:55

AM.

DEAR PRUDENCE

Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column, where Danny M. Lavery responds to your questions about relationships at home, work, and beyond. RECENTLY IN PAY DIRT Everything on Slate about Pay Dirt. I Struggle to Pay Our Bills. My Husband Just Bought His Dream Car. THE CHIP SHORTAGE: WHY IT'S HAPPENING AND WHEN CAR AND Semiconductors are the chips that manage functions like data storage, graphic rendering, and power consumption in electrical devices. They

are

COVID VACCINE SIDE EFFECTS: MY WEEK OF HORROR AND JOY The woman injecting my second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine quickly bandaged my arm as the shot started wiring and inspiring my immune system. I was directed to the 30-minute observation area JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

HOW TO THINK ABOUT AND HANDLE THIS SIDE EFFECT. Ashley Z. Ritter, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the chief clinical officer of Dear Pandemic, says that this is a common side effect—from any vaccine. Injecting the COULD MICHAEL FLYNN BE COURT-MARTIALED FOR ADVOCATING A COUP? Advertisement. At the Texas conference, Flynn clearly expressed a desire for a coup (“the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority”), but he did nothing to create “revolt, violence

SLATE MAGAZINE

Online magazine of news, politics, technology, and culture. Combines humor and insight in thoughtful analyses of current events and

political news.

WHY IS MERRICK GARLAND DEFENDING DONALD TRUMP? Shortly before Monday’s filing, one commentator questioned “to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration’s abuse of power—with its primary concern

ADVICE - SLATE

Advice. Showing 1–20 of 3343. Dear Care and Feeding: My MIL Wastes Her Money on the Most Ridiculous Gifts. Emily Gould. May 31, 2021 5:55

AM.

DEAR PRUDENCE

Dear Prudence is Slate's advice column, where Danny M. Lavery responds to your questions about relationships at home, work, and beyond. RECENTLY IN PAY DIRT Everything on Slate about Pay Dirt. I Struggle to Pay Our Bills. My Husband Just Bought His Dream Car. THE CHIP SHORTAGE: WHY IT'S HAPPENING AND WHEN CAR AND Semiconductors are the chips that manage functions like data storage, graphic rendering, and power consumption in electrical devices. They

are

COVID VACCINE SIDE EFFECTS: MY WEEK OF HORROR AND JOY The woman injecting my second dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine quickly bandaged my arm as the shot started wiring and inspiring my immune system. I was directed to the 30-minute observation area JOE BIDEN 100 DAYS SCANDALS, RANKED. Friday is the 100 th day of Joe Biden’s term. Traditionally, this period of a presidency involves media discussion of honeymoons,

mandates, and

HOW TO THINK ABOUT AND HANDLE THIS SIDE EFFECT. Ashley Z. Ritter, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the chief clinical officer of Dear Pandemic, says that this is a common side effect—from any vaccine. Injecting the COULD MICHAEL FLYNN BE COURT-MARTIALED FOR ADVOCATING A COUP? Advertisement. At the Texas conference, Flynn clearly expressed a desire for a coup (“the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority”), but he did nothing to create “revolt, violence

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INFLATION AND CPI: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT 6 hours ago · To understand what’s happening with inflation at the moment, you have to dig a tiny bit. For the past two months, the cost of living has been rising quickly. In May, the Consumer Price Index COULD THE NEW YORK TIMES HAVE PREVENTED 9/11? 4 hours ago · This article is adapted from “Judy,” the seventh episode of Slow Burn’s fifth season. In 2001, Stephen Engelberg was the investigations editor for the New York Times. One of his reporters DID THE KARDASHIANS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH BLACKNESS IMPROVE 6 hours ago · On this week’s episode of the Waves, Robin Boylorn and Allegra Frank talk about the end of an era, the series finale of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. The reality show airs its final

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Music

IS TAYLOR SWIFT ANY GOOD AT PLAYING A MAN? A DRAG KING PROVIDES HIS EXPERT ANALYSIS.

By Daniel Schroeder

Feb 27, 20207:09 PM

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Taylor Swift (center) in the video for “The Man.”

Screengrab

Taylor Swift released a new music video on Thursday for “The Man

,” the _Lover_

song on which she imagines how she might be perceived differently if she were a dude. In it, she dons a suit, a beard, and a heap of prosthetics to engage in such traditionally male activities as partying on a yacht surrounded by models, manspreading on the subway, and being showered in praise for doing only a tiny fraction of the

parenting.

But how does Swift herself fare as a male impersonator? To find out, we called up an expert in the field, Pretty Rik E, a drag king based in Washington, DC. We asked Rik E whether Swift makes a good bro, what might have made her performance better, and whether the video counts as drag. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. AS A DRAG KING YOURSELF, WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU SAW THE

VIDEO?

So, full disclosure: I don’t like Taylor Swift. I think she’s incredibly performative about her allyship and I don’t think that makes it true allyship. Not that I don’t like some of her songs. “ Trouble” comes on the radio, I’m turning it up and singing it at the top of my lungs. So let me just start off by saying that. From a completely creative perspective, I thought it was an OK music video. I think it did what it wanted to accomplish, which was to illustrate the way that men are treated by society as opposed to women. I don’t think there’s anything revolutionary about the message—she won’t be the last female pop singer to make a commentary on that—but she probably is the first that I’ve seen do, at least in a music video, prosthetics to look like a man. DO YOU THINK IT WAS A GOOD DRAG PERFORMANCE? I don’t think it was drag. I watched the video and I talked with my wife, who is my co-producer, and we both came to the same conclusion: It was drag if we were going to just define _drag_ as someone dressing up as another gender, but I don’t think what she did was being a drag king by any means. I think what she did was more acting than it was being in drag. And I think there are subtle differences between

the two.

Drag is about creating an alter ego and that alter ego is making social commentary and often doing performative masculinity. When Lady Gaga is being Jo Calderone, we know that it is a drag persona. I don’t think anybody on the street would see Jo Calderone and say, “That is a cis man.” And I think that’s the difference, that Taylor Swift was impersonating a cis man, whereas drag kings are doing performative masculinity as more of a commentary on men but not actually trying to be a man.

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The best analogy is _Tootsie_. Dustin Hoffman wasn’t supposed to be a drag queen in that movie. He was a man in drag with the intention of being seen as a cis woman. Taylor Swift wanted to be seen as a cis man, which is not what drag kings are doing. No one in the audience is saying, “That’s a man on stage.”

RIGHT.

I think if we went to Stefani right now and said, “Jo Calderone is a drag king,” I believe that Lady Gaga would say yes. I think if you went to Taylor Swift and said, “What you did, would you say that that was being a drag king?“ She would say, “What’s that?“ WHAT COULD HAVE MADE THIS PERFORMANCE CLOSER TO KINGING? Lady Gaga performed as Jo Calderone, so we’ve seen Jo as an actual persona. If Taylor Swift was to take what she did in this video and then perform as this character, that makes it more like drag kinging, because now she’s reusing this character. She’s developing an alter ego that has a life of its own. I don’t think that was the point of the video, that this character necessarily had a life of its own outside of the context of this music video. SHE SEEMS ALMOST TOO PERFECT. Right, exactly. The video would have been different if it started off with us seeing Taylor Swift get into this costume and watching her go through the world dressed up as a man and how she’s treated

differently.

WHAT ABOUT HER PERFORMANCE STRUCK YOU AS A GOOD CRITICISM OF THE MALE PERSPECTIVE, EVEN THOUGH SHE MAY NOT BE KINGING? One of the things that I found incredibly funny and a great point to make was when he was in the park with his kid and showed even just a modicum of interest in him, suddenly he’s the world’s greatest dad. Something we don’t talk about enough about is this lowered bar for men, when women as mothers go above and beyond all the time.

WAS SHE A GOOD BRO?

Absolutely. Obviously not every man behaves this way. Not every fifth man behaves this way. But it is far too common of a behavior that we see, especially with white men in prestigious positions. She was portraying a very particular type of male character, which is the rich white cis man who doesn’t have to do a whole lot to get the claps

that he gets.

“She 100-percent passed as a dudebro. A’s across the board

for that.”

And I think she did a phenomenal job. Whoever she worked with to get those mannerisms down, I thought they looked really good, and considering how femme she presents herself most of the time, to be able to erase the way that you move your body is hard. We’ve worked with a lot of kings who are a lot more femme in their everyday life, and it’s a little bit more work. That’s a hard thing to do. You’re changing years and years and years of ways that you’ve moved through the world and basic things like walking and gesturing. I especially like the scene where she was in the bar with her dudebros and talking about women’s asses and their tits. She 100-percent passed as a dudebro. A’s across the board for that. WOULD YOU POINT ANY FEMME DRAG KINGS LOOKING TO MASC UP THEIR GAME IN THIS VIDEO’S DIRECTION? I probably would. Even though I still stand by the fact that I don’t think that she was a drag king in this, I think there are some important things to pick up from it. The way that she was manspreading on the subway had such a great masculine, dudebro feel to it. Watching her walk and move, for sure, I would totally send someone. Not every drag king is trying to be hypermasculine on stage, but sometimes we get people who are like, “I just want to move a little bit differently.” I think I would absolutely show them this video and say, “Just look at the way that she walks.” And the way, even when she was on the phone, she was taking up space. It’s this idea of taking up space without any regard to the people around you. Again, this is not describing every man. This is describing a very particular type of man, and I think she did a phenomenal job doing it. SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM Readers like you make our work possible. Help us continue to provide the reporting, commentary and criticism you won’t find anywhere

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