Felipe González Silva 2078621G MLitt Film and Television Studies Dissertation – September 2015 “It’s Not Personal, It’s Drag”: The Sassy Politics of RuPaul’s Drag Race Supervised by Professor Karen Lury University of Glasgow Word count: 14,840 Beneficiario COLFUTURO 2014 Abstract After the success of reality competition shows such as Project Runway and America’s Next Top Model in the United States, RuPaul’s Drag Race reached the small screen to be the first TV programme of its kind to feature drag queens. Through textual analysis and theories of queer and feminist studies, this thesis joins the fundamental debates about drag and its role in society. With these debates as a starting point, this thesis is dedicated to determining the position of Drag Race within the tension between gay politics and queer politics that lies in the programme’s construction of what drag is supposed to be. By focusing on the relation of masculinity and femininity in drag, and on the role of sleaziness in drag, this thesis argues that RuPaul’s Drag Race refuses to be located unequivocally as a project of either gay or queer politics. This reading does not only propose an innovative take on the programme but it also manages to further problematise the distinction between the two “kinds” of politics. Key words: RuPaul’s Drag Race, drag, gay politics, queer politics, femininity, masculinity, sleaziness, gender, race ii Acknowledgements I would like to show gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Karen Lury. Her impressive knowledge and sensibility about television and academia in general, along with her commitment to my project, helped me develop this dissertation successfully. Her genuine concern was fundamental for the completion of this text during a difficult time. I thank Dave for his meticulous proofreading throughout the process, and for the comments, ideas and invigorating words. Also, I am grateful for all my great friends from the course. I am proud of all of us. To Josh, for being the person who believes in me the most and for helping me realize that I am capable of accomplishing anything I desire. Most importantly, and despite the distance, thanks to my family who are my greatest supporters in absolutely everything. You encourage me to keep going. iii Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Contents iv Introduction 1 Research questions 3 Methodology 5 Considerations 6 Chapter 1. Conceptualising drag: Literature review 7 I. Introduction to drag 7 II. “Courtney looks like a girl. Very pretty but that doesn't impress me. It’s not drag!” 11 III. Overview: The literature of RuPaul’s Drag Race 14 The gender of drag or the drag of gender 15 Discoloured and hyper-coloured identities: race and drag 17 The “real” fish: women and drag 19 Chapter 2. Femininity vs. Masculinity 23 I. Bearded femininities 24 “May the best bearded woman win”: a hierarchy of the beard 26 II. Beyond masculinity and femininity 29 Dissonant sway: dance and the limits of gender 33 Chapter 3. Sleaziness 38 I. “Oh my God Almighty! Someone has sent me a bowel movement!” 38 Authentic filthiness or masked purity? 40 Sleaziness, sashay away 43 II. The ghostly and outrageous femininity of Sharon Needles 45 III. Hello Kitty and the consumerist femininity 50 Conclusions 56 Recommendations 58 Index of images 60 Works cited 60 Bibliography 60 Filmography 64 Teleography 64 iv Introduction RuPaul’s Drag Race is a reality competition TV programme initially broadcasted in the United States by the network Logo. As the name suggests, the show is hosted by the internationally famous drag queen, RuPaul, and the term “drag race” is a pun that originates from the motor racing competition but, in this case, the competition is not between cars but between drag queens. During each of its already seven seasons from 2009 to the present, RuPaul’s Drag Race has featured from 9 to 14 drag queens fighting for the title of ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar’ as well as a cash prize and other prizes given by the programme’s sponsors. The contestants, who come from all around the United States (including Puerto Rico), face weekly challenges that conclude with the elimination of a queen from the competition until a winner is crowned. Typically, in every episode (week) there are three explicit moments of competition that affect the judges’ decisions about who remains in and who leaves the competition. These are (1) the “mini challenge”, (2) the “main challenge” or “maxi challenge” and (3) the “lip sync for your life”. The mini challenge occupies about 3 minutes of the episode’s runtime but sometimes it extends for a couple of minutes more. Some mini challenges are repeated season after season while others have happened only one time. These challenges usually give the winning queen(s) an advantage for the main challenge. Examples of mini challenges are a photo-shoot (recurring), guessing the price of items used to do drag (one time), a wet T-shirt contest (one time), etc. Examples of advantages the queens earn after the mini-challenge are the 1 right to choose their team for a group challenge, the chance to pair up every queen with something or someone related to the main challenge, and so on. The main challenge, according to the judges’ comments every season, is the most important factor in determining whether a queen stays in or leaves the competition. As with the mini challenges, some of the main challenges are recurrent throughout seasons while others have had unique appearances. Some of the unique challenges have been to re-enact scenes from John Waters’ films, to perform in a musical, and even to act for the trailer of an imaginary film called From Earth to Uranus. Other challenges are not only present in most seasons of Drag Race, but they are loved and awaited by the fans year after year. “Snatch Game”, a parody of the game show “Match Game”, requires the queens to do celebrity female impersonation. This is probably the most popular of all challenges. Other examples are The Ball (which has a different topic each year: Sugar, Glitter, Bitch, etc.) and the transformation/makeover (in which queens have to dress another person in drag). After the winner of the week’s challenge is determined, the two contestants whose performances are deemed the worst of the week have to participate in a final challenge called “lip sync for your life”. This means that the queens have to lip sync to a song in front of the judges and convince them to let them stay. Usually one queen “sashays away” (leaves) while the other is given another chance marked by RuPaul’s phrase, “shante, you stay”. However, there have been occasions when both or neither of the queens have left the competition. 2 RuPaul’s Drag Race has had a companion show since its second season. This show is called Untucked and it shows the interactions between queens backstage while they wait for RuPaul and the other judges to make a decision about the week’s challenge. Untucked has aired on TV after Drag Race’s episode every Monday—with the exception of season seven, when it became a YouTube web series, uploaded every Tuesday. Untucked does not have a direct (or spoken) influence in the competition, but it reveals more of the narratives the show creates during Drag Race. In addition to that, a spin-off called RuPaul’s Drag U premiered in 2010 and ran for three seasons until 2012. In every episode three queens from past seasons are selected to do drag makeovers to three women. Every episode results with a one-off couple of winners (a queen and her pair). The format of the show borrows known conventions from other reality competition shows such as America’s Next Top Model, Project Runway and many others (Edgar, 2011, p.137; Marcel, 2014, p.16). Research questions The study of drag in academia has had a range of focuses, from specific objects of study such as certain drag queens at ballrooms and TV shows like Drag Race, to more general debates about drag itself. Some authors look into previous discussions and understandings of drag itself before moving on the programme itself. The publication of The Makeup of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Essays on the Queen of Reality Shows (2014) brought nine new articles to the body of work 3 about this reality show which had only been the subject of four academic pieces by the end of 2013. Some of these essays inscribed themselves into existing debates introduced by other authors (Anthony, 2014; Kohlsdorf, 2014; Marcel, 2014; Mayora, 2014; Morrison, 2014; Simmons, 2014), while others introduced new angles and subject matters dealing with Drag Race (Chernoff, 2014; Fine and Shreve, 2014; Norris, 2014; Pagoni Berns, 2014). While many of these authors do not directly reference earlier articles about the programme, it is possible to track some general debates about topics such as gender, race, and sexuality. It will be my task to find, acknowledge, and react to the arguments they develop when they intersect with my own appreciation and ideas about the show. Taking into consideration the literature that I have begun to engage with and my appreciation of RuPaul’s Drag Race as a rich site for academic discussion, this text will focus primarily on ideas of queer politics and gay politics on the show. More specifically, I will address the following research questions: (1) How does the policing of queens towards an establishment of desired drag practices by RuPaul’s Drag Race define, complicate, ease—or simply negotiate—the tension between queer politics and gay politics? (2) If the show were to be located closer to “gayness”, or gay politics, is it still possible to find queer possibilities in such text as well? I will use the term queer politics as understood by Greer (2012) as one of the functions of queerness.