#10 RuPaul's Drag Race: Deconstructing Gender and Femininity

Everyone is placed in a specific mold the minute they come into the world. "It's a boy!" balloons are blue and "It's a girl!" balloons are pink. The minute a person breaks that mold, they are labeled as being different, and in our society, being different is often faced with backlash. As such, coming by any representation of anything outside of the gender, race, and sexuality binary is difficult, but many have been able to find comfort in one of the quirkiest shows on television: "RuPaul's Drag Race." In this reality show, RuPaul, one of the first famous drag queens to ever grace television screens, puts different drag queens to the test in order to crown 'America's Next Drag Superstar.' The majority of the contestants are gay men of various color, size, and economic background, from Latrice Royale, a "chunky but funky" queen who used to be in jail for drug possession, to "Willam Belli," a snarky queen who has had numerous appearances on mainstream television shows outside of Drag Race. With this eclectic group of individuals, RuPaul has essentially created one of the most diverse shows on television. Not only that, but drag, a formally underground form of entertainment, has become mainstream, and with that, so has the idea that femininity isn't something to be ashamed of, regardless of your gender.

               (Latrice Royale)                                                                                   (Willam Belli)

When a person first encounters feminism, they might get the idea that being feminine goes against all ideas of feminism. This is a common misconception, one that I held all throughout childhood. It's a little embarrassing to admit, but this rag tag group of men have been able to figure out and put on display something that took me years to learn: femininity is a source of power. When these men put on drag and blazon a caricature of women, they do it to entertain, but they also do it as an art form, as something to be applauded. When contestants on "RuPaul's Drag Race" walk the runway, they put on their highest heels and their best gowns and they do so in order to impress, and they get applauded for it. That in itself is amazing. These men are able to become a different person and embody everything that there is about being feminine. Not only that, but the fact that the show highlights the men both in drag, out of drag, and in between drag deconstructs gender roles in a way not normally seen. Gender pronouns are used interchangeably, and some contestants even come out as transgender. In a society where being feminine in any sense is viewed as a form of weakness, these men use it as a strength. Most of the contestants are even feminine out of drag, and instead of being shunned or mocked, it is just seen as normal, sending the message that anyone regardless of race, gender, or sexuality can be feminine and be strong.

This is not to say that being feminine is the only way in which a person can be. Certainly women and men alike should also be empowered to be masculine if that is who they are, and just as a feminine man might be shunned in our society, so are the masculine women who struggle with conforming to societal norms. One can also ascertain that only enforcing femininity would, of course, also negatively contribute to the patriarchy and would place women in a box that told them that they must only be the caretakers (a traditional feminine role) of society rather than be whomever they wish to be, as would telling men that they must only be the muscle of society rather than whomever they respectively wished to be. The fact is that any form of gender representation should be celebrated, whether it be a man who partakes in fashion or a woman who wants to be a construction worker, any form of expression should be accepted into society. Femininity is something that I have struggled with my whole life. I remember being in 6th grade and deciding to only wear boy's clothes because I didn't want to contribute to the standards of femininity. Looking back now, I think I definitely took the idea of women's empowerment the wrong way.  Blogger Emily Gordon puts it best, "the femininity we shun is also an important tool," and women and men alike have the ability to use those tools to their advantage, because ultimately, masculinity and femininity can both be used by any one person.

Clay, Andreana. "Glamazons: The Time Has Come." QueerBlackFeminist. Blogger. 25 April 2012. Web. 24 April 2013.

Gordon, Emily. "What RuPaul Taught Me About Femininity." XO Jane. SAY Media. 8 February 2012. Web. 24 April 2013. 

Nelson, Carrie. "'Hey, Fake Ladies!': On the Construction of Gender in RuPaul's Drag Race." Gender Across Borders. Gender Across Borders. 12 February 2010. Web. 24 April 2013. 

Villiers, Nicolas de. "RuPaul's Drag Race as meta-reality television." Jump Cut. Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media. Web. 24 April 2013.