the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism

Note: there is a real chance that in the course of this meta that I will betray my lack of gender/queer studies education (I’m so new to this world) and phrase something in a way that’s offensive and/or hurtful.  If that’s the case, I go ahead and completely apologize.  Please feel free to tell me what I’m doing wrong and to correct me in how to be more sensitive with my language.  I’m eager to learn.  (I also don't own any of the images, so I am not claiming credit for them.)

One of the things that’s fascinated me since I first got into kpop is the ubiquity of drag (or at least of males-in-female-costume drag).  It seems like every single male kpop idol has ended up in a dress at some point, dancing (or attempting to dance) to some girl group dance while the audience laughs.  And yet, for all that we see it so often, I rarely get the feeling that there’s anything transgressive about it.  The purpose of it always seems to be humor—and of the broadest, most obvious sort: the idea that there’s something inherently funny about a guy wearing clothes usually designated as female.  There’s rarely anything else going on, so when something else does peep through, it’s all the more amazing for that.