RuPaul Drags Queens Back Into the Spotlight
Source: AOL
Posted: 02/24/09 4:37PM
Filed Under: Television
As a teenager in the 90s, I remember seeing drag queens everywhere. Or maybe it was just RuPaul. At 13 I would nod my head to the disco beats of her most famous dance track [“Supermodel (You Better Work)”] while I flipped through my collection of Vogues only to find the queen in question clad in red patent leather to promote MAC makeup. Then I would switch on my TV and there she was, hosting her own show on VH1 next to the Middle American likes of Regis and Kathie Lee.
Before RuPaul, I had always thought of drag queens as clown-like monstrosities, men with five-o'clock shadow wearing garish lipstick and dressing in their wives’ tan stockings. RuPaul rose up from among these impostors like a genderless siren who effortlessly removed any hint of vulgarity from the cross-dressing culture in order to bleed blue blood into its veins.
The term drag queen originates in Polari, a subset of English slang that was popular in select gay communities at the beginning of the 20th century. Drag meant "clothes" while “queen” referred to the contrived royalty found in many drag characters.
Famous Drag Queens |
RuPaul Andre Charles is probably the most well known drag queen. He struggled as a musician and filmmaker in Atlanta during the 1980s, participating in underground cinema and performing with his band, Wee Wee Pole. RuPaul first gained fame in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and five musical albums ("Supermodel (You Better Work)" was one of his most famous singles). In 1996 he hosted a talk show on VH1 called The RuPaul Show. He currently hosts a reality television show called RuPaul's Drag Race. |
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While they were born decades before, it was not until the late 60s that these queens were accepted in the mainstream. On June 28, 1969, drag queens led the Stonewall riots, a series of demonstrations in response to a police raid on homosexuals at New York’s Stonewall Inn. The event is widely believed to have marked the start of the gay rights movement and led to drag queens becoming prominent in the gay community as the official spokespeople for equal rights.
The most famous of these spokespeople is no doubt RuPaul, aka RuPaul Andre Charles, the statuesque black man from San Diego who, in a golden wig and 6-inch platforms, walked his way into history books as the first drag supermodel. RuPaul was ubiquitous in the 1990s, appearing in a wide variety of TV programs (including VH1's The RuPaul Show in 1996) and releasing a number of dance albums.
Ten years later, RuPaul's name is unfamiliar to a new generation of pop culture consumers. But that won't be the case for long. In the wake of Obama's presidential nomination, the doe-eyed vixen is returning to television to give the drag community a much-needed kick in the booty. As the host of RuPaul's Drag Race, the man who said "You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee!" is on the hunt for the next drag superstar.
Being such a vocal member of the drag community, it’s a wonder RuPaul didn't jump on the reality show train when it first rounded the bend. On the phone from California, he explains that it was not for want of trying on the part of his associates.
“My buddies who did the RuPaul show on VH1 had been after me to do this show for years, but I was hoping the whole reality show thing would go away,” he says. “Usually in TV, especially in reality, they have a tendency to make fun of drag. I didn’t want to be a part of anything that made fun of it. I wanted to do something to celebrate drag because it’s an important contribution to our culture.”
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But it’s a contribution that has been on the down-low ever since the Bush administration came to power. “In this climate of fear and hysteria that has gripped our country drag had to really go underground,” RuPaul says. “This fundamentalism doesn’t allow for gender experimentation.”
In order to appeal to a new generation of pop culture consumers, RuPaul chose contestants that were in their 20s, the oldest being 30. The front runner of the group is a Puerto Rican named Nina Flowers, who produces the kind of makeup and costumes I haven’t seen since The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
“Nina would be a great artist at anything she would do,” RuPaul says. “I think that coming from Puerto Rico, where things are ornate and colourful and it’s a sensual culture, that plays a big part in her love of ornaments.”
In some ways, the contestants remind RuPaul of himself as a kid growing up in San Diego in the 60s and 70s. 'All boys who were ostracized from society – because they were gay or because they were “sissies” – usually have a bird’s eye view of society,” he explains. 'They see society with a certain irreverence, because once you’re pushed out of it you can look back in and go, “Oh my god, it’s all a hoax. The whole thing is an illusion.” '
While drag was a way for RuPaul to express himself, he says it wasn't always easy to embrace the art form. “I, myself, had to work through a lot of the shame attached to drag,” he says. On the other hand, he finds it refreshing that many of the contestants in Drag Race do not face the same challenge.
“Doing things that are considered feminine for boys, is really like an act of treason in our society,” he says. “So overcoming a lot of that conditioning is tough.”
It's a good thing many of the contestants don't have to deal with this added complication because Drag Race is already hard enough. They are given a variety of tasks in order to earn their crown, including designing their own garb from material found in the garbage, lip synching “for their lives” and playing supermodel for various photographers. At the end of each show, the contestants are then told to stay or to “sashay, away.”
Preview: RuPaul's Drag Race
RuPaul says the selection process is the only part of the show that she wasn't prepared for. “I didn’t budget in the fact that I would be so emotionally attached to the girls,” he says. “I thought they all had the potential to be America’s next drag super star. To say goodbye to them, it broke my heart each time.”
I askRuPaul who he thinks is the greatest drag queen of all time to get an idea of who might win Drag Race.
“The greatest drag queen of all time would probably be Cher,” he says. “She’d be the first to tell you she’s in drag. She doesn’t walk around dressed like Cher all the time. She understands it’s something you put on, just like most people put on their work clothes.”
It's nice to know that while the rest of us suffer through the day in pumps and A-line skirts, somewhere out there are a bunch of girls who can start their day in sequins, feather boas and rainbow-coloured hair.
Drag Race airs Sundays at 8pm on MuchMoreMusic.
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