6CTA1110-0905-2019 - Degree Essay (Film & Television Production) RuPaul’s Drag Race - Shift from margins to mainstream. Lucy McCutcheon 16046740 Submitted to the University of Hertfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Art (Honors) Film and Television Production Contents Abstract……………………………………………….…...…..…. page 2 Introduction………………………………………….….……...… page 3 Essay………………………………….………………….………. page 4 Conclusion……………..…………….……………..….………. page 22 Bibliography……………..………….…………….……………. page 24 List of Illustrations………………….……………..……………. page 30 Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 1 ​ ABSTRACT RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo TV, 2009) has been instrumental over the last ten years in ​ changing the perception of drag and drag culture in modern mainstream media. This degree essay will examine, as a primary focus, the evidence relating to the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the reality television series, the career of its creator RuPaul Andre ​ Charles and the growing franchise that he has developed, which has moved beyond its original television platform. It will delve into the history of drag and assess the impact of pertinent performers, including Danny La Rue and Divine, and compare the different elements of their drag performances. The evolving role of drag performances within cinema will be considered and the impact and legacy left by some iconic movies will be evaluated. With added insight into historical and modern queer culture and the examination of Judith Butler’s theories of gender and performance and gender roles, it will also consider Raymond Williams’ notions that the complexity of culture can be described through a cultural system including a dominant, residual and emergent ideology. This degree essay will utilise available literature, journal and newspaper articles, as well as relevant episodes from the television series and other salient sources, to evaluate the extent of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s influence and impact in ​ ​ changing the face of drag from the margins to mainstream. It will conclude with the arguments for more diversity and development within the show and further progression towards inclusion of the many members of the varied queer communities. Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 2 ​ Over the past ten years drag has evolved, it has moved from its origins in the world of pantomime and underground theatre into the modern day drag culture, with all its associated merchandise and franchises. This dissertation will consider how it has shifted from the margins of drag performance as a base for comic caricature, into the more mainstream, with drag represented as a specific, recognised and celebrated art form. It will be analysing the history of drag culture in film and television beginning with comedic caricature within pantomimes, films and television, and live performances, where drag was portrayed as a ‘disguise’. It will highlight some of the influential individuals that have made an impact within the drag community and who have been significant in pioneering its shift from the margins into the mainstream. The essay will also be analysing Raymond Williams’ theory of ideologies and Judith Butler’s theory of gender as a performance and discussing how everyone is performing a gender while drag is taking that extra step into a performance based artform. In addition, the format of reality television shows will be explored and referenced, including one of the main sources for this essay, RuPaul’s Drag Race. The ​ ​ work and career of RuPaul Andre Charles will be reviewed and will examine how he has transported and promoted drag over the past ten years within the film, television and music industry and provided a platform to empower and support drag performers through his own show and the empire he has been instrumental in creating throughout his career. Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 3 ​ The origins of drag are hard to ascertain but cross-dressing performers were a central theme in the ancient Greek tragedy, The Bacchae, by Euripides (405 BC) (Doonan, ​ ​ 2019, p103). The practice of men dressing up in women’s clothing was commonplace on stage in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and William Shakespeare, out of necessity, cast most of his plays with males playing the female roles. The stage at that time had strong links to the church and with that came strict rules that only men could tread the boards (Doonan, 2019, p114). The Baroque period that followed brought ‘ornate styles in painting and dress’ and the infamous parties of Phillippe, duc d’Orleans, found him ‘regularly frocked up’ and covered in ‘rouge’ (Doonan, 2019, pp121) as in fig. 1). Figure 1, Philippe duc d’Orleans, in a frock in the series Versailles (2017). ​ ​ Drag by this time was closely connected to disreputable ideals, ‘most notably the crime of homosexuality, which was punishable by hanging’ (Doonan, 2019, p122). In London ‘police and gossiping lampoons’ were focusing their attention on the ‘notorious molly Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 4 ​ houses’, which were a gay and transgender ‘subculture of clubs and brothels’ (Doonan, 2019, p122). Establishments such as Mother Clap’s infamous Molly House were ‘filled with cross-dressing gays’ and became the ‘subject of scandal’ and regular police raids (Doonan, 2019, p122). Many vaudeville acts of the early 1880’s until the early 1930’s provided a mixture of acts that appealed to the mainstream public, some of which included female and male impersonators on their bill, such as the hugely popular Julian Eltinge (Doonan, 2019, p18). The actual term ‘drag’ is believed to have originated in 19th century British theatre when women were still not allowed to be in shows and so the men would perform as the female characters and their dresses would literally drag across the floor (Deron, 2018). One of the most prominent female impersonators within British theatre and television was Danny La Rue. Born in Ireland in 1927, the son of an interior designer and a former nurse, he began his career at a time when drag acts were considered a ‘seedy and suspect’ ‘area of show business’ (Hayward, 2019). Some of his earliest appearances in the 1950’s included cabaret at Churchill’s nightclub in Bond Street, London and the stage characters he created for pantomime such as a geisha girl, a teenage rocker and a striptease artist (Hayward, 2019). La Rue ‘elevated his performance to an art form’ by dressing in the most expensive and glittering costumes, therefore adding an element of sophistication and ‘sending drag up rather than playing it straight’ (Hayward, 2019) as in fig. 2). As he took to the stage he would open the show with “Watcha, mates!” in a very masculine voice, making it abundantly clear that what the audience were about to see Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 5 ​ was definitely not a woman (Hayward, 2019). Doonan (2019) goes on further to state that La Rue despised the term drag queen and much preferred to refer to his on stage persona as a ‘comic in a frock’. Figure 2, Danny La Rue, 15 December 2000, Martin Godwin/Getty Images. ​ ​ Prolific in America in the late 1960’s and early 1980’s, Harris Glenn Milstead, better known by his stage name Divine, was an actor, singer and drag queen born in Baltimore, USA in 1945 to a conservative middle-class family. Millstead developed a name for himself as a female impersonator known for behaving in a disreputable manner and he featured in many of the early John Waters films, including Female ​ Trouble (1974) and Hairspray (1988) (see fig. 3). Divine became an icon among gay ​ ​ ​ audiences and performed live at some of the world’s biggest gay clubs, including Heaven in Central London. However, it is widely reported that Divine was not happy Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 6 ​ with being known primarily for his drag persona and once stated that his favourite part of drag was changing out of it (Jay, 1993, p128). He referred to his drag costumes as his work clothes, that he would only put on if someone was paying him (Jay, 1993, p128). Drag in the 1980’s began to evolve and movie drag, in particular, had become ‘family-friendly’ and ‘upbeat, non-sexual, non-homicidal and worthy’ (Doonan, 2019, p195). Figure 3, John Waters and his muse Divine. Dr Frank-N-Furter, the transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim ​ ​ Sharman,1975), Julie Andrews’ character in Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards,1982) and ​ ​ ​ ​ The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994) provided a ​ ‘celebration of transvestism’ and these films were pivotal in the exploration of sexual subversion within mainstream cinema (Farmer, 2004, p82). Another example of an iconic film is Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982), in which Dustin Hoffman portrayed an ​ ​ overwrought actor, who was driven to perform in drag. ‘He transforms himself into a Lucy McCutcheon - 16046740 7 ​ beloved soap queen, Dorothy Michaels, aka Tootsie’ in a bid to continue his floundering ​ ​ career in acting (Doonan, 2019, p195). Doonan goes on to state that following the success, and acceptance, of Tootsie, dragging up was now recognised as ​ ​ ‘consciousness-raising’ and not equated ‘with madness and death’ (Doonan, 2019, p195). Although it must be argued that the movie that changed drag into the ‘global consciousness’ was Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959) (Doonan, 2019, p187) (see ​ ​ fig. 4). Director and writer Billy Wilder’s story of the reluctant cross-dressing male lead ​ ​ characters, forced to dress in drag to evade rampant criminals in the Roaring Twenties, stunned the audience of ‘conservative mid-century America’ because it played with homosexuality and featured cross-dressing (Doonan, 2019, p187). Wilder’s inclusion of the famous, risque final scenes added a ‘little extra provocation’ as Jack Lemmon ripped off his wig and shouted “I’m a man” and his potential suitor, Osgood Fielding III, replied, “Well, nobody’s perfect!” and the ‘happy consenting males boat off into the sunset (Doonan, 2019, p188).