#the rupaulification of drag

[heyftinally]

No, okay, actually I am going to write this rant.

The rupaulification of drag has directly contributed to why Chappell Roan is getting so much backlash for having basic boundaries.

Do y'all realize that one of the original ideas behind drag personas was that people could entirely separate their "real" (out of drag) life from their drag life?

It used to be unsafe to do drag. It used to be illegal. You could very easily be murdered for it, and nobody would even care because it was so stigmatized. Drag personas gave performers the much needed separation and safety between their two worlds. So long as nobody knew that Charles in accounting moonlit as Miss Betty Cocker, his job was safe.

Even in modern live drag you rarely see anything that breaks the immersion. Putting on and taking off drag happens backstage or at home. Performers exclusively go by their stage names while around audience members. Even the ones with social media followings who *do* share their non-drag names will ask fans to call them by their drag name exclusively (Trixie Mattell has said this before - the only people allowed to call her by her birth name are her parents and her lover).

But RuPaul, in seeking to spotlight the often unseen and unknown culture of the drag (and queer) community, simultaneously put queen's non-drag lives in the public eye as well.

Suddenly it's normal (when watching the show) to see Trixie labeled as "Brian" while in confessional. It's normal to see performers in their sweats and no makeup prior to performing. And it's normal for that part of their reality to be broadcast for public consumption.

As a dancer, let me give you a brief look at a show day for me. I'll show up to the show venue 2-3hrs before the show starts, wearing sweats or leggings, hair in a messy bun or ponytail, no makeup, with a bunch of bags.

In that 2-3hrs I'll warm up, do my hair and makeup, get into my first costume, and practice anything I want or need to review. The preparation for this is not inherently glamorous. It's work. It's a large mental load preparing to have an entire room full of people to look at you - especially when they've PAID to do so.

I don't want to be bothered during that prep time by anything that isn't directly to do with the show, because I'm focused on doing what I need to do to put on a good show, the same way any athlete has to "get in the zone" before a game. Would you expect to chat with Simone Biles 10min before she's about to take to the beam? I certainly hope not.

In the same way, RuPaul began televising that preparation process - what used to be relatively private time with friends and colleagues is now as much of a performance as what happens on stage.

So how does this relate to Chappell?

It's the same principle.

"Chappell Roan" is a drag persona. That's not her name at the grocery store, nor is it how she dresses to do so.

In the same way drag used to allow Charles to step into the office and be unknown as Betty, Chappell has attempted to follow in that tradition. And, outside of RuPaul, that's still how drag works. If you go to your local drag scene, you likely will never know who Sexon Thebeache is out of drag. You'll probably never know her name, what she looks like, or what she does for work outside of drag. Because that's how she wants it, and that's what's normal in the culture.

But because Chappell has taken her drag to "RuPaul" levels of publicity and notoriety, people feel entitled to engage with her in the same way RuPaul promotes engaging with the queens on Drag Race.

So when Chappell says "I don't want to take selfies when I'm not in drag", fans take it as a personal attack because there is no longer a respect for that separation of "drag" and "not drag". That line has been blurred on tv and online - where most people engage with most or all of their drag consumption - and thus the line irl has also been blurred.

It's not normal to know every single minute of someone's life. Taylor Swift is just as much at fault, and I could write a whole other rant on that.

It's long past time people take a hard look at their parasocial relationships and start trying to see celebrities as *people* instead of names that sing or act.

Let celebrities have their boundaries. They already get so few in the industry - basic human decency shouldn't be an expected sacrifice just because a lot of people like what you do.

[dandylion-s]

watching trixie mattel and violet chachki slag off bearded drag queens...like capitalism really has ruined you to the point of not understanding drag at all take ur millions and stfu

[cuntycadaver]

Rupaul: good luck….and dont fuck it up 😌

Mama Pao: if you fuck up this lip sync so help me god i will murder you and throw your body in the river

[jukeboxjunk]

the meatball protect bad drag post has broken containment it is not a statement it’s a drag race joke guys pls 😭

[rockoblanco]

dang S8 of Drag Race is just an amazing season of television 😭

[girlbob-boypants]

That "protect bad drag" post is so far removed from its context now

[minervadeutonomy]

Something very strange I've noticed is how often lesbians and white women feel entitled to Chappell Roan's time, attention, and fame, and when they do not receive those things, they resort to either bizarre grandstanding and frankly (ie, Chappell Roan is the Rupaulification 2.0 of drag (for not having afab drag kings in her shows so far)), or just flat out misogyny and homophobia when she doesn't clap like a seal for them.

[1million]

re the last post i rbed . literally one of the most annoying fucking phenomena is the assumption of cis gay men that anyone who is a woman (or hell, also anyone they perceive as one) at drag events is automatically there for performative or otherwise bad reasons. like genuinely ill never understand how more than half the performers you see get up on a damn drag stage aren’t cis gay men yet you see other members of the lgbt community in the crowd with you just like up on the stage and you have the audacity to complain or be rude to us or be offended at the sheer fact we r there. it just reeks of a weird form of entitlement and rupaulification of attitudes towards drag

[comingtoyoursenses]

I can't help but laugh at how depressing life seems for the radfem terf lesbians like y'all have no fucking fun or critical thinking skills. Like obviously there's something you need help with if seeing drag (excluding the rupaulification of drag hence critical thinking), camp, people who are trans, general genderfucking, etc., is threatening to your sense of womanhood, or if it makes you disgusted. Like that's a you problem and not an issue with people who aren't cis. It just seems so upsetting and limiting to deny yourself and others the freedom of exploration and expression of how they feel .. especially as a lesbian??? Like you're fucking stupid and full of vitriol for what you are defending "womanhood" by putting boundaries on it -- don't you see how antithetical that is????

Ok another thing idk how you can want equity, feminism, and destruction of patriarchal norms if you're also going to erase huge integral aspects of LGBT+ history and identity because it makes you..uncomfortable? And for what? Do you not get that the rhetoric you're using to oppress other lgbt people is what has been used to oppress us???? I've done so much reading into terf rhetoric and like, science and love are not on your side !!. Genuinely people who deny trans people exist are so behind in their understanding of neurology and psychology. Transphobia is inherently rooted in bioessentialism which also ... A pillar of feminism is defying the notion that bioessentialism is real and proving that in several ways.

[evilthotiana]

I keep thinking about a post I saw a few days ago that said the rupaulification of drag was the worst thing to happen to drag which is kind of a beautifully hilarious take. Love when people on tumblr think like this

[saya-sakisaka]

🔥 (one unpopular opinion pls!)

The rupaulification of drag is setting a bad example of what drags supposed to be and what people cna do with it

[cruelsister-moved2]

@johnpeelsession