I love RuPaul’s Drag Race for the way it has brought drag into mainstream media, de-stigmatising the art form for more people to enjoy. I fully appreciate the way it has expanded the drag community, engaging and inspiring younger generations to feel free to express themselves through drag, or even to just appreciate it as an art form. However, I worry it is becoming outdated. When I say this I can only really compare it to the UK drag scene since that is the community I am immersed in, but after seeing the first few episodes of UK Drag Race, I can’t help but feel it has been misrepresented.
For starters, my experience of the drag world consists of drag artists of a huge variety of genders, ethnicities, sexualities and ages, its all-inclusive and welcoming. The more experienced performers intermix with new-comers or aspiring artists, supporting one another in the community. Drag kings, AFAB and non-binary performers make up a huge portion of the UK drag scene, a portion you will not be seeing on Drag Race. You’ll also see an array of drag styles, a very feminine queen will be on the same line-up as a completely avant-garde performer, in one show you may see 10 completely different performances.
These are things I adore about UK drag scene, it’s so diverse and inclusive, it’s not just the old dame or the femme-fresh that the mainstream (and Drag Race) tends to focus on, it’s so experimental and beautiful, it can be so artistic, tender, political or just plain fun. Its a form of entertainment that makes you think, cheer and appreciate the performances, not just another old lipsync.
This is where my problem with UK Drag Race comes in, although they are all incredibly talented queens, it feels as though the casting team have gone through a Bag(a) sweets and just picked out the ones that suit their very selective tastes. Firstly there are only two people of colour in the whole cast, it feels somewhat whitewashed compared to the plethora of amazingly talented drag performers of colour in the UK drag scene. Secondly, the drag queens on the show seem to have been handpicked to suit the feminine drag style that Drag Race repeatedly perpetuates in its US seasons. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this style of drag, however, it feels so misrepresentative of the immense variety of drag thats out there in the UK. This is especially true for Drag Kings, who seem to be completely overshadowed in the media by Drag Race’s agenda, they are ignoring a whole genre of drag performance. Thirdly, where are the AFAB artists? where are the non-binary artists? Where are the transgender artists? They’re nowhere to be seen, an issue that was brought up not long ago by fans and queens on twitter, which ended up painting RuPaul in quite an unflattering, potentially transphobic, light.
I feel by mainstreaming this specific drag aesthetic, Drag Race is harming the rest of the community; it feels as though it is stealing the validity of PoC, AFAB, gender-bending, Androyenous, experimental, avant-garde, non-femme, non-binary, drag king (etc etc etc) performers. If you are a drag race fan that has never been to local shows, you may have no idea of the extreme spectrum of drag performance that exists in the UK. Drag Race has taken the word ‘Drag’ and manipulated it to suit its own agenda, they have diluted down a massive community of performers into a very specific genre and exclusively labelled it ‘Drag’. I know its entertaining, I know its only reality television, but when its the only mainstream representation of such a big community, it feels wrong to ignore the message it is sending out.
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I worry it is becoming outdated, with more and more younger, fresher performers coming into local drag scene (no doubt with the help of Drag Race) we are seeing the art form evolve and expand, yet this is not being reflected in the mainstream media. Young drag artists arent seeing people like them on the television, Drag Race is ignoring the beautiful and inspiring drag that exists outside of the pretty-and-perfect aesthetic, they’re missing out on so much talent.
This is partly why I feel fans are getting bored and seasons keep getting more and more repetitive, the production team seem to have found a formula and stuck with it. They keep feeding fans the same old story-lines, the same characters and I think we’re starting to get hungry for something more.
Disclaimer: This article contains the personal opinions of the writer and does not represent DragQueenHQ.com as a whole.