‘RuPaul’s Best Friend Race’: Identifying an online queer community Name: Tamar Hellinga Student number: 10784675 Date of completion: 23 June 2020 Supervisor: dhr. dr. S.C.J. (Stijn) Peeters Second reader: dhr. A. (Alex) Gekker Media Studies: New Media and Digital Culture University of Amsterdam Word count: 20,497 Table of contents Preface………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..i ‘RuPaul’s Best Friend Race’: Identifying an online queer community .................................................... 1 1.1 Queer representation .................................................................................................................... 2 1.2 Building a community .................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Impact ............................................................................................................................................ 4 1.4 The library is open ......................................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Research questions........................................................................................................................ 7 2 Theoretical framework ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Online communities ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Defining online communities ................................................................................................. 8 2.1.2 Shared interest ..................................................................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Communicative practices and interaction............................................................................ 10 2.1.4 Communal culture ................................................................................................................ 11 2.1.5 Friendliness ........................................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Queer communities ..................................................................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Identity ................................................................................................................................. 14 2.2.2 Safe space ............................................................................................................................. 16 2.2.3 Intergroup Contact Theory and Parasocial Interaction ........................................................ 17 2.2.4 Controversy .......................................................................................................................... 17 3 Methodology ...................................................................................................................................... 19 3.1 Digital methods ........................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Affordances .......................................................................................................................... 19 3.1.2 Twitter .................................................................................................................................. 20 3.1.3 Reddit ................................................................................................................................... 20 3.2 Protocol ....................................................................................................................................... 21 3.2.1 Alternative research methods .............................................................................................. 21 3.2.2 Data collection ...................................................................................................................... 23 3.2.3 Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 25 3.3 Ethical considerations ................................................................................................................. 26 RuPaul’s Drag Race herstory ................................................................................................................. 27 Season 12 .......................................................................................................................................... 28 4 Results ................................................................................................................................................ 32 4.1 Hip pads to the RPDR community ............................................................................................... 32 4.2 Twitter and Reddit ....................................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Category is … ............................................................................................................................... 35 4.3.1 General topics ....................................................................................................................... 35 4.3.2 The shade of it all ................................................................................................................. 36 4.3.3 RuPaul’s Drag Race ............................................................................................................... 37 4.3.4 RuPaul ................................................................................................................................... 38 4.3.5 Societal issues ....................................................................................................................... 38 4.3.6 Community behaviour .......................................................................................................... 40 4.3.7 Sexual harassment ................................................................................................................ 40 5 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................... 42 5.1 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 42 5.2 Implications of research .............................................................................................................. 42 5.2.1 Community aspects .............................................................................................................. 43 5.2.2 Differences across platforms ................................................................................................ 43 5.2.3 Topics .................................................................................................................................... 44 5.2.4 Controversy .......................................................................................................................... 45 5.3 Limitations ................................................................................................................................... 46 5.4 Recommendations for future research ....................................................................................... 47 6 References .......................................................................................................................................... 49 i Preface To the connoisseurs of RuPaul’s Drag Race, my name is Tamar and I have watched the show. To those less familiar with the RuPaul empire that this television show represents, start your engines and get ready for a deep dive into the world of Drag Race. Drag performers are part of a marginalised community within our society. Queer individuals, such as drag performers, are subject to negative experiences as a result of societal structures. Sharing these experiences contribute to the formation of (online) communities. These communities are mainly beneficial for the parties involved, but can have unintended negative consequences. This study aims to represent both sides, befitting scientific research, in order to understand this queer community. Luckily, the process of writing this thesis was not as tumultuous as the twelfth season of RPDR. Not once did I regret choosing this topic, even as I ploughed through the seemingly countless posts from Twitter and Reddit. And now, I am preparing myself for the judges’ critiques. 1 ‘RuPaul’s Best Friend Race’: Identifying an online queer community ‘I think of Drag Race as a kind of church service and we the faithful congregation show up to feel safe and to be around others.’ (Woo, 2016) With ‘Drag Race’, Woo is referring to the tv hit series RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR). This reality television program aired its first season in 2009 with the quest of finding ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar’. It is currently on its twelfth regular season, along with four finished All Stars seasons. In the All Stars series, a select few of previous contestants compete to be crowned an ‘All Star’. Apart from its American franchise, there are international spin-offs in Thailand and the United Kingdom, with Canada and Australia said to follow in the future (Montgomery, 2019). At the time of writing, the broadcast of All Stars