Final Dissertation, Danial Worrallo 2019:2020
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“To be camp is to present oneself as being committed to the marginal with a commitment greater than the marginal merits” Discuss in relation to Rupaul’s Drag Race, Past and Present. Danial Worrallo BA (Hons) Art & Design Contents START YOUR ENGINES - INTRODUCTION PAGE 2 CHOICES PAGE 4 BAM PAGE 5 #SEASON 6 PAGE 6 YAS GAWD MAWMA! PAGE 8 VH1 SHANTAY YOU STAY, LOGO SASHAY AWAY PAGE 9 YOU AIN’TNO SASHA VELOUR!! PAGE 12 CONCLUSION PAGE 13 BIBLIOGRAPHY PAGE 14 1 Start Your Engines Introduction “To be camp is to present oneself as being committed to the marginal with a commitment greater than the marginal merits” (Mark Booth,1983). During the 1960’s camp was used as a generic negative term for individuals who did not fit within the definition of mainstream societal norms and was used to include , but not restricted to the LGBT community. However in recent years camp has arguably been exploited by mainstream media leading to camp becoming fashionable and in itself mainstream. This Dissertation will explore how the perceived image of camp is affected when media attempts to “involve”a wider audience. To achieve this, I will first outline the understanding of Camp and Camp fad and the differences between the two concepts. I will then be applying the findings and understandings to multiple seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, an American TV Show based upon Drag Queens competing in weekly episodes in order to be crowned America’s next Drag Queen superstar, as a case study. As previously stated, Camp has been intertwined with Gay culture, of which Drag Queens portray a significant part. “RuPaul’s Drag Race has become a global phenomenon in the ten years it’s been airing in the US”(Meghan Sutton, cited, good house keeping, 2019). I will analyse seasons, throughout the ten year airing period, starting with marginalised subcultural earlier seasons, progressing through to the Emmy award winning, mainstream show. I will examine the shows method of branding and marketing to expand on their targeted audience. What is Rupaul’s Drag race? “RuPaul was born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960, in San Diego, California”. (find cite). His merits include:- acting, modelling, singer, song writing, television personality and author. “Prior to the 2019 Emmy Awards, RuPaul’s Drag Race earned nine Emmy Awards and a handful of nominations”(Julia Dzurillay, cited showbiz, 2019) and is perceived as the most successful drag artist to date. Rupaul produced the reality television show Rupaul’s drag race. “Season 1, had its premiere on the Logo network on February 2, 2009” (Evan Ross Kats, cited paper magazine, 2019). 2 The TV show is centred around drag performance. At present the show has completed 11 years. This includes 11 main seasons, where, currently, 12/13 queens come to compete for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar and a cash prize of $100,000. The television show has also enjoyed four seasons of the ultimate Drag Queen All Stars title, which sees the seasonal most popular queens coming together to compete for the crown and be inducted into the Drag Queen Hall of Fame. Drag Race has expanded into Thailand and also the United Kingdom, with no difference in production of the show. Rupaul is now focused on a celebrity Drag Race, inviting celebrities to take part in the original concept. The original American based series culminated in a grande finale where the “America’s Next Drag Superstar is crowned. Each week the “queens” compete in a number of challenges which include designing and making their own outfits, acting and comedy sketches. The Queens are challenged with parading their outfits on a catwalk/ Stage and performing acts which can also include comedy. The queens are encouraged to bring their outrageous outfits, characters and personalities to the forefront of the show leading to a contrived and camp production. Fig.1 Photographer(2018) Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Cast With the assistance of guest judges, Rupaul then chooses the top performing queens and the two bottom performing queens. The two bottom performing queens will then have to 3 “lip sync for their lives”, which consists of the queens performing and lipsyncing to a song chosen by Rupaul, which is normally associated with queer culture. Repeal then decides which queen gets to stay in the competition and which queen has to “Sashay away” leaving the competition. “The essence of camp is it’s love of the unnatural:of artifice and exaggeration” (Susan Sontag, 1964). The show, Rupaul’s Drag Race, in itself, is a camp aesthetic. The program celebrates queer history and amplified gender fluidity, which is an exaggeration of the “unnatural”. However, throughout the seasons of Drag Race, the show has become increasingly popular and it can be argued that it has become a worldwide phenomenon within mainstream media. Rupaul’s Drag Race TV show has allowed the emergence of an otherwise subversive region of Queer Art and camp to be brought to mainstream media. Formerly, the art of drag was so underground that nobody could have envisaged it being featured in mainstream media, going on to become a quintessential part of modern media. The question is, has the race to please mainstream media overtaken the queer aesthetics of Camp? Choices Originally, the show was presented via the television network, Logo TV. Whose target audience was the gay community. As proudly quoted in their bio on their youtube channel - “Entertaining a savvy audience of gay trendsetters and straight friends who are ahead of the curve, Logo TV is BEYOND! “ (Logo, 2007). Logo TV, via their own quotation, has effectively confirmed that they cater to the marginalised. Logo TV is also owned by the company Viacom, which is an exclusive “Pay as you view” network, committed to the marginalised community. As the show was aimed at the camp/queer community, the network facilitated the option of using “eye Candy” for the queer community. The “eye Candy” is known as “the Pit Crew”. The Pit Crew are a group of men, and transgender men, who wear skimpy underwear and assist Rupaul in the series mini challenges. The Pit crew feature in 90% of episodes. The aesthetic of men in underwear is very common and can be seen in queer clubs across the world, in night clubs and venues catering to the queer community, and is also classed as a cultural aesthetic to the queer community. As logo is an exclusive, pay as you view, network channel, providing to the queer community, 4 they do not have to conform to regulations of the FCC. “The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states”. (Federal Communications Commission, 2019) The FCC regulate mainstream television to appease the mainstream viewers. In addition to logo tv being a pay as you view channel, the watershed laws would not apply to the content and, therefore, allowed Rupaul’s Drag Race to abide by fewer rules. BAM! When drag race viewers are asked the question “which is the defining season of Rupaul’s Drag Race”?, season 3 is one of the popular answers due to the nostalgia factors . But, why not season 1 or 2? With a low budget, snapchat filter (Overpowering), as seen in figure 2, and a winning prize of $20,000, “the first season of Rupaul’s Drag Race left a lot to be desired and was described as the lost season. As quoted by Paper Magazine “Season 1 of the series was regarded even by it’s own network as "The Lost Season unavailable for purchase or for viewing on streaming platforms, relegated to memory,"(Evan Ross Katz, cited Paper magazine, 2019). Fig.2 Rupaul On Main stage 5 Steady progression was made throughout season 2, where an increase in budget allowed for a bigger prize pool of $25,000, better facilities and a more defined format of the show. Season 3 saw a surge in the popularity of the show, within the queer community itself. Many more queens were inspired and more were inclined to audition for the show. Many of the queens were the more renowned and better known queens. The better known queens brought with them their own, large, fanbases which helped increase the popularity of the show. For instance, the winner of season 3, Raja, had featured on numerous episodes of another popular reality tv show “America’s Next top model”, as a make-up artist, working alongside household name Tyra Banks, who was an American supermodel. As a result of the popularity the show was achieving, it also enjoyed an increased budget. The winner’s prize money had increased from $20,000 to a much more favourable and encouraging $75,000. The number of queens participating in the show also saw an increase from an initial count of 10 to 13. The fan base was steadily increasing and expanding, gaining more recognition. However, the content of the show was still very raw and very real. Social media was still, relatively new during this phase so many queens did not have a large media fanbase, which in turn did not facilitate a fan feedback system. Thus allowing the queens to maintain their unique identities, themselves, which in turn maintained their commitment to the marginal. Drag race, at this point in time, was still very camp. #Season 6 When presented with the letters A, B, C, the majority of people would automatically think it is with reference to the start of the alphabet. However, die hard Drag Race fans would, and do, know differently.