Drag queens in the media

Why is it important to represent the drag community in a television context?

The term Drag queen is defined as "a man who ostentatiously dresses up in women's clothes."1 It is a subculture most commonly associated with the homosexual community, and since the launch of Ru-Pauls Drag Race2 has become a part of popular culture. Although the show gained 859,000 views in the season 9 finale3 therefore, implying that drag queens are accepted in modern society, the community is still frequently attacked. With this in mind, it is important to explore this show in terms of media studies as it has such a positive influential effect on members of the audience who identify with the cast, and would otherwise hide away from who they are due to the negative reception in the real world. I believe shows which can influence a change in the public should be analysed to determine their strategies and apply them to other content which aim to do the same with little success.

RuPauls Drag Race communicates a variety of messages about encouraging individuals to be themselves, with one of the main quotes, which is repeated every episode, being 'if you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love somebody else.' "RuPaul Charles is known for breaking the barriers. Despite Americas predominately heteronormative culture, RuPaul was able to rise to fame... Her show RuPauls drag race (2009-2012), allows drag queens the opportunity to be represented on television and provides them the forum to confront a variety of issues."4 There are other shows such as Gok Wans', 'How to look good naked', that communicate a similar message of self-embrace and pride. This message is important to display as my own personal research shows that 80% of people feel they would be more confident if the media encouraged self-love more often. One person answered the question "How do you feel about yourself after watching the show?"5 with "I feel as though I can comfortably embrace what I love and start doing drag in public."6 If a message is important to display, then I feel it is important to research in a media context as a way to break down the strategies and implement them in other contexts. Using this show as an example, the strategy for encouraging this message would be repeating the literal statement at the end of every statement, the constant positive re-enforcement of rewards for doing well, and during the judges reviews they always point out a positive before or after commenting on a negative aspect of the drag queens performance.

The show also outlines a lot of serious issues, for example the cast of season 9 talked openly about how the attack on pulse nightclub in 2016, which left 50 people dead and another 58 injured, impacted their lives. One contestant, Trinity Taylor, talked about how she had friends who were trapped in the dressing room, and how a newly graduated nursing student lost their life. Another, Cynthia, explained her guilt that she was due to perform that night and a friend of hers was there purely to see her and in turn lost his life. She also said the attack was so unexpected as "we thought we had finally built a safe place for our community". Airing heart wrenching content such as this, professionally and with appropriate music in the background has a strong emotional impact on the audience, especially when these 'fierce' performers are seen minutes before in an upbeat light. It is very important to show this publicly as the cast aren't actors, and are public figures, therefore the genuine tears show the audience just how tragic the event is. On the other hand it does also link back to the idea of loving yourself, as when this community has been shown hate, these particular drag queens love themselves so much that they carry on with their art for and don’t hide away out of fear. The attack on pulse nightclub was one of 49 media covered attacks on the gay community since 1978

Another example took place in season 9 is when Charlie Hides opened up about the aids crisis in the 1980's. Charlie explained that people not knowing about it and the impact it has on the body was the reason why it was spread so easily, and was what led to the death of a lot of his friends. This implies that if there had been more media coverage at the time about the disease, less people would have died. This suspicion is further supported by researchers Thomas A Moreton and Julie M Duck whose work uncovered that members of the public are strongly influenced by the media in their approach to safe sex, "these results emphasize the social psychological basis of media influence in the context of community-based HIV prevention campaigns"7. Another theorist, Gail Dines, also highlights this point by expressing that the media "tended to focus mostly on ethnic and racial minorities and … ignored sexual orientation as a defining aspect of identity."8 This highlights the importance of covering all aspects of life, from subcultures to medical issues, as the media has a strong influence on public mentality. By this logic, more coverage of communities such as drag queens, in terms of a positive light, should reduce the amount of attacks on innocent people by normalising it and creating a public understanding.

Media dependency in times of crisis such as the aids crisis in the 1980's increases post event. A more recent example of this would be after the 911 attacks in America. Lowrey concluded, "(A) degree of dependency is a significant predictor of attitude and behavior change in the wake of the attacks, as is perceived threat. Contrary to expectations, socioeconomic status and degree of social capital and connectedness matter little either to degree of dependency or to subsequent effects from dependency."9 This once again supports that if there had been more media coverage of the disease, more lives could have been saved.

The main target audience for the show is young outcasts who don’t feel as though they fit in, homosexuals, people who enjoy the culture and mainly ages between 12 and 30. Stereotypically it also targets people from social group d/e with the potential for c. This was concluded as the older generation is commonly associated with being less understanding and open to subcultures therefore they would not be targeted. I also chose these social groups as the language used throughout the show such as curse words and slang is not usually associated with members of the upper or middle class such as professionals. Finally, the reason for identifying 'young outcasts' is because the cast often say they want to influence this type of people to be able to express themselves and show them that things get better.

RuPauls Drag Race is a reality competition produced by World of Wonder and is aired on Logo TV. World of wonder specialises in 'documenting erotica, sexuality and the sex subculture'.10 The company are famous for productions such as 'Sex change hospital' and 'Good work', the second also being hosted by RuPaul. They are well known for representing subcultures and ways of life other than the 'norm' in a positive light. Technically this is done, at least in the context of RuPauls Drag Race by using all the conventions of a regular reality television show thus not creating a divide between common culture and drag queens. The lighting is bright and positive, the background sounds and music are uplifting and the transitions are happy and on brand by having RuPaul laughing as audio and a racing flag with RuPaul in drag as visual.

The show has constant references to drag queens and the gay community. One example being that the 'work room' is mainly pink thus creating a link to femininity. This is not the first case of pink being used to make a statement. In 2005 the University of Iowa painted the visitor locker room entirely pink. Hayden Fry, the head coach between 1979 and 1998, had a degree in psychology and therefore was noted claiming there was, "psychology behind the walls. He wanted to capitalize on the “passive” connotation of pink, the color of “sissies” and little girls’ bedrooms. Even without considering Fry’s explanation, the gendered symbolism of the 2005 pink décor is understood"11. Another visual connotation to femininity comes from the lip background during the casts personal thought interviews. To take this to a different context, lips are considered to be a symbol of femininity in Korea. Actresses often overpaint their lips to highlight their femininity and seductiveness, "The best metaphor for the paradox of Han Ju's female repression and confession lies in the leading actresses' often full, sensuous lips painted and even overpainted beyond lips proper to intimate a rebelliousness or transgressiveness, even as lipstick connotes femininity. "12

In conclusion it is important to cover drag queens in the context of the media as it has the potential to change the public perception of the subculture and reduce the attacks on innocent people. Media dependency has various reasons for increasing, the most common being during a crisis, however it is also important on understanding situations that do not occur in everyone's everyday life. World of Wonder represents drag culture in a positive light therefore promoting a positive attitude towards the queens. Also by using an icon such as RuPaul in various shows it extends her reach therefore potentially impacted a wider audience.

The following articles and links are relevant to this paper and were used to help me shape ideas:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FsGxTL0gtZUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=drag+queens+in+the+media&ots=RXErqc-LN5&sig=pZVs2mptBBVRkR99HxIVGXJr1uU#v=onepage&q=drag%20queens%20in%20the%20media&f=false

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/428421?journalCode=signs

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626090005003003

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/088626097012002003

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2000.tb02821.x/full

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v51n04_02

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2013.829861

https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=38429

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6g8GZMdckQEC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=rupaul%27s+drag+race&ots=weyvw8-Gf0&sig=ef9pXXS12E-P4ZUOh00D66JHNC8#v=onepage&q=rupaul's%20drag%20race&f=false