She told us she’s hardly enjoyed performing in bars open to hen parties, either: “They would be badly behaved and think that their breasts have some sort of power. "Just because your limited view is that everyone's there to serve you and that you're the only person in the world, it doesn't work that way."Īnd remember season 10 contestant Miz Cracker? She articulately warned about the “ straight lady invasion of gay bars” in an article a few years ago, pointing out that the annoyance didn’t stem from “hetero-phobia” but a “yawning gap of understanding and sensitivity between the straight and LGBTQ world”.Īnd then there’s Charlie Hides, the only London-based queen to compete on Drag Race. "People who live in the mainstream and the status quo think that everyone else is there to serve them," he said when addressing the topic on Dinner Party podcast. It’s a phenomenon condemned by many, including RuPaul himself. The backlash against “straights” might sound divisive, sure, but this reaction is not unreasonable, and the concern about heterosexuals appropriating queer spaces is hardly unfounded.įor just one example, take the controversy over the trend of straight people choosing gay bars as their clubbing destination.
RuPaul with Chewbacca and Thandie Newton on the Solo red carpet “I would argue that visibility - what some might call appropriation - hasn’t been good for Drag Race, and it hasn’t been good for queer television writ large,” he writes. In particular, in “ Why Drag Race's Popularity Is Ruining the Show”, Vulture and Guardian writer Brian Moylan laments “the moment the straights had discovered our show” and argues Drag Race has become merely a trend “like avocado toast or matcha tea”. While Twitter users have called out “straights”, asking questions like “ can they let us have this one thing?”, the discussion has also sparked lengthy debates and comment pieces titled things like “ Straights Always Steal All the Gay Trends! Make it Stop!”.
Is a growing heterosexual Drag Race audience another positive sign of LGBTQ acceptance in our society? Or is it something more damaging?Ĭould it be that instead of celebrating tolerance, these new viewers are actually diluting and 'stealing' an important piece of culture from the gay community? And, if you decide that’s even partly true, is the answer really for straight people to stop watching Drag Race?įor some, the answer to the latter question is a resounding yes. What started as a quirky competition scoring contestants’ “charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent” (thus creating TV's best acronym), has now become a pop culture behemoth for all. He was recently honoured with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, next to the likes of Leonard Nimoy and Debbie Reynolds.
RuPaul himself has appeared on shows like Alan Carr: Chatty Man and The Late Late Show with James Corden to promote Drag Race. Moreover, it’s embraced the mainstream with guest judges like Ariana Grande, Graham Norton, Sharon Osbourne, Christina Aguilera and Khloé Kardashian. Although Drag Race began as an underground show on a niche US LGBTQ channel, a mass non-queer audience now tunes in every week. In other words, if you weren’t convinced by #DragRace or #JusticeForSHANGELA sashaying down your Twitter feed in recent months, then rest assured: the show has become a big deal.īut here’s the thing: it’s become a big deal for everyone. Let’s not forget that Drag Race runner-up Courtney Act – who we’ll be hearing more from later – also did plenty to raise the show’s profile by winning this year’s Celebrity Big Brother UK with an unprecedented 49% of the final vote.Īs Trixie Mattel, one of the show’s outbreak stars, told the BBC, although once “gay people's best kept secret”, RuPaul’s Drag Race has “gone from black and white to IMAX”.Ĭourtney Act won Celebrity Big Brother 2018 (Getty) Furthermore, on average over the past 12 months people have Googled RuPaul more than Jeremy Clarkson and Emma Watson combined. On our shores? We’re in the dark about exact viewing figures (Netflix keep all their audience numbers under lock and key), but we do know UK-based Google searches for RuPaul’s Drag Race have increased 96% since the first season was broadcast (and soon cancelled) on E4 in 2009.
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