Reality shows are known to be completely gratuitous and unrealistic. Turn a competition for best drag queen into a reality show, and that's a perfect recipe for the most unbelievable and excessive performances. But RuPaul's Drag Race is not reality show; it is the ultimate no-reality show.
While the interchangeable casts of most every popular reality show proclaim their own realness and genuine motives on the show, the queens in RuPaul's Drag Race embrace and flaunt the complete antithesis to reality that they represent. Drag is not about the expression of an internal essential self, but rather an in-depth exploration of mimicry and performance. Chad Michaels, for instance, appears as Cher on the first day. But he doesn't believe he is Cher on the inside, and even admits to being a devoted impersonator.
At first, I was somewhat offended by their portrayal of women. I'm not nearly as feminine, voluptuous, sensual, stylish, or committed to my appearance as the queens on RuPaul's show. It seemed that by doing drag, they were appropriating my womanhood and distorting it into something extreme. In a way, yes--that is what's happening. But on another level, the drag queens aren't doing drag to make a generalization about how a woman "should" be or what the "most" womanly way to be is at all.
In fact, they are performing a highly individual and unique persona. When each queen is interviewed about her drag personality, they use the third person and female pronouns. They describe themselves in drag as entirely separate individuals. Furthermore, they use adjectives that seem almost cartoonishly extreme. The drag queen's personality out of drag is one person, but in drag, they are not simply performing a new gender, but a new character as well.
Despite my expectations of being thrilled by the gender-bending and queer pride of drag, my first reaction to the show was offense--until I began to wrap my mind around what the queens were really doing. Just as the show was building to the most intense moment of elimination, Sharon Needles, the most obscure and alternative queen inadvertently shed some light on what drag is all about for her: "There's a million kinds of drag, and it's not just being a fishy*, annoying girl." Sharon Needles typically dresses to shock, not to seduce--white contacts, fake blood, and overall scariness. So for her, drag means exploring alternative identities; bringing characters to life; and feeling powerful doing it.
*I'm not entirely sure, but it seems that fishy is a term used to describe drag queens who could be mistaken for biological women.
I love what you said about how you were offended by their extreme portrayal of women. It reminded me of our class discussion, about how drag queens are violently appropriating the female image.
ReplyDeleteYour understanding of their performance as a "performance" qualifies the extremity of their performative decisions. Drag queens do develop a unique and extreme persona for their own purposes, whether it be to "shock" or to "attract".
This brings me to question whether or not the Drag they wear is their true persona that they are liberating from social constructs or if this is their way of rebelling against social constructs by developing a persona that isn't their own.