Capitol Hillbillies — A gay webcomic, updated Tues and Fri

So I love RuPaul’s Drag Race. I also am a fan of RuPaul. She’s made a wildly successful career out of being a moderately talented singer and a generally over-the-top person (in or out of drag). And apparently she’s a writer, as we are frequently and aggressively reminded on any of her shows. I think she’s pretty entertaining and she (or her stylists) definitely know how to turn out a good look. I also love that she’s done a lot of work to bring drag into the mainstream media, especially on television. So generally, I’m a fan.

So I anticipated RuPaul’s Drag U (her newer television show, hot on the heels of Drag Race) with some excitement. The premise of Drag Race was for twelve or so drag queens to compete in an America’s Next Top Model-type competition. But with lip-syncing and more cattiness. It’s a fun show and it’s frequently hysterical. RuPaul’s Drag U is a make-over show hosted by the titular queen and with the assistance of a coterie of favorite (or otherwise out-of-work) queens from the previous two seasons of Drag Race. The concept is to take down-trodden and homely women and give them fabulous drag make-overs and inject them with self-esteem and fierceness. Watch out Oprah, RuPaul’s gunning for you. As a concept it didn’t strike me as anything other than fun and harmless.

…and then I actually watched the show. The season premier was yesterday (available to watch on Logo) and it was kind of awful. First of all, the women they put on the show are not only “homely” and decidedly un-fabulous but they’re also generally very, very butch (although they are all ostensibly straight). The impression given is that in order to make their lives better and to improve their self-esteem they need to learn how to walk in heels, work a dress and wear make-up. Right off in the first ten minutes of the show I was offended and appalled that these women would subject themselves to the implication that the root of their failures is their lack of traditional feminine inclinations.

The show got a little better after that. There was much talk on RuPaul’s part of, “you ARE a beautiful woman” and other Oprah-inspired affirmations and the queens helping the women with their make-overs were generally supportive and doing their best to make a positive change for the women. And then the end of the show is their “Drag-uation” where the women are critiqued by a panel of judges on their walk, their look, their bearing and their lip-sync/dance number. And the bile rose in my throat again. Take three women who are depressed about their lack of feminine wiles, tell them they are beautiful and deserve all the happiness in the world and then when they step out in a dress, heels and make-up for the first time in twenty-odd years, have a panel of judges critique them and give them a letter grade. The producers of the show no doubt wanted to give the show some suspense by making it a competition. Whichever woman makes the most successful turn-around from dowdy wretch to fabulous queen wins and gets a prize. The other two are now confirmed in their fears that they’re failures as women and they’ve had a panel of judges tell them exactly why. “All the elegance and poise of a grizzly bear” was one of the critiques given to a woman from a panel judge.

RuPauls’ Drag Race is about drag queens competing to show that they’re the best, most versatile and most resilient queen on the show. They go into it with confidence and generally an aggressive will to win mentality. Judging a person in that situation is commonplace on reality tv. Television overflows with such cat-fighting, back-stabbing, sideways looks, and elimination rounds with suspenseful music and dramatic commercial breaks. However, to purposefully take three women who are vulnerable and unsure of themselves and put them before a panel of judges to tell them what is wrong with their expression of womanhood is discomfiting and irresponsible.