The mediatic representations of the drag queen community in American television: the case of RuPaul’s Drag Race PDF

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The mediatic representations of the drag queen community in American television: the case of RuPaul’s Drag Race
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Projet Tutoré The mediatic representations of the drag queen community in American television: the case of RuPaul’s Drag Race

Jouband Ida (15604379) Tutor: Audrey Fogels Master Langues et Sociétés, M1 Médias, Culture, 2 Langues Parcours Culture, Anglais Année 2015-2016 UFR Langues et cultures étrangères (LLCE-LEA) Université Paris 8

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Abstract: The purpose of this research is to understand the impact of mediatic representations on community building, by studying the inclusion of a sub-cultural group (the drag queens) into the national American mediatic landscape, through the influence of the hit tv-show RuPaul's Drag Race. The drag queen community will here be considered as a counter-cultural group, whose members are linked by their occupational interest in drag (either as performers or public). We will also take into account the fact that this group is deeply anchored in the LGBT community since, up to this day, all contestants have been gay men or transgender women. This paper will then use primary sources (from the show) as well as previous research on community building, media studies and queer studies to understand how media representations have staged the drag queen community in order to integrate its participants in the cultural hegemonic discourse and what are the consequences of this integration.

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Table of content Introduction : …....................................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 1 : Representating drag culture ….............................................................................. 5 1.1 : The birth of RPDR ….................................................................................................... 5 1.2 : From a marketable audience to a new community …................................................... 7 1.3 : Educating a wider public …........................................................................................ 11 Chapter 2 : Queer activism and its limits ….......................................................................... 13 2.1 : Raising community-based issues …............................................................................ 13 2.2 : Towards intersectional representation …................................................................... 15 2.3 : The limits of the dialogue …........................................................................................ 17 Chapter 3 : Commodification and beyond …........................................................................ 20 3.1 : Towards the mainstream …......................................................................................... 20 3.2 : Homonormative politics ….......................................................................................... 23 3.3 : Towards new platforms …............................................................................................24 Conclusion : …...................................................................................................................... 25 Reference list : ….................................................................................................................. 26

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Introduction Media, and more specifically TV, is especially important when it comes to shaping how people view the world. Indeed, according to O' Sullivan (O'Sullivan et al, 1998): •

'The concept of representation embodies the theme that the media construct meanings about the world they represent it, and in doing so, help audiences to make sense of it’.

The way a certain community is represented on TV will thus influence how this group is perceived by the general public. This affirmation will be proved by studying the impact of a specific TV-show, RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) on the community it principally targets and represents: the drag queens. According to Lee and Newby (1983) community can designate a group of people sharing a common identity (like sexual orientation) or interest (like drag). This shared set of characteristics creates a sense of belonging to a socially constructed group: in our case, this had led to the emergence of drag performances and culture, as drag performers reunited and found their public. Since drag performances usually take place in the gay community, we can thus talk about the creation of a sub-culture in an already formed and marginalized one. Moreover, according to Cohen (1985): ‘People construct community symbolically, making it a resource and repository of meaning and a referent of their identity’. This symbolic construction can happen through the representation of a certain group through the media, as we will see with RPDR. Indeed, by representing a specific community television gives more visibility to a group, thus allowing people to participate in it, either passively (as watchers) or actively (by taking part in the show or interacting with other fans). The purpose of this project will thus be to study how RPDR has encouraged the inclusion of the drag queen community in the American hegemonic cultural discourse but also how this representation has in turn influenced the community itself, through the active response of fans. Moreover, we will also wonder if these representations are completely neutral and how the show not only represents but stages the drag community. Since the show is still going on today (with the beginning of season eight), we will mostly focus on seasons one to five, in order to have enough material to observe the show's evolution without getting too dispersed. It is also important to note that, even if the contestants are men, they will mostly be addressed with female pronouns and named after their drag persona, as done during the show.

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I) Representating drag culture 1.1 The birth of RPDR Even if female impersonators have existed for centuries (as examples of male cross dressers have been found in Roman literature or in Japanese kabuki theatre), drag queens are deeply linked to gay culture. Indeed, the term drag queen is composed of the word ‘drag’, which was used to refer to men dressing up as the other gender in the theater world, and ‘queen’, a slang word historically used as an insult against gay men. Drag queens are thus usually gay men dressing up and performing as women for entertainment purposes. What started as an underground culture in the 1960’s has since then been popularized, as the drag queen has become a common figure of pop culture. Part of this popularization can be linked to one iconic figure, RuPaul. Andre Charles (mostly know by his stage name RuPaul) is an American drag queen, model, writer, actor and recording artist. Rising to fame in the 1990’s he is mostly known for his hit song ‘Supermodel’ and has appeared in movies like To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar or But I’m a cheerleader. His media popularity allowed him to create the show that has been responsible for giving more visibility to drag: RuPaul’s Drag race. The show premiered in 2009 on LOGO channel, an American TV-channel aimed at the LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) community, and still goes on today. The aim of the show is to find ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar’, or in other words, RuPaul’s successor. Indeed, in a 2011 interview, RuPaul stated: •

‘What we’re looking for is someone who can really follow in my footsteps: someone who can be hired by a company to represent their product, someone who can put together a sentence on television and present themselves in the most incredible way’.

As we can see here, the theme of media visibility is essential since the best candidate has to be able to ‘put together a sentence on television’ and represent a product (we have to remember that advertising is necessary to generate revenues on television). What is seen as a good drag queen by the show is thus one that can understand television codes and adapt to them. In the end, drag is not only staged on the scene but through the codes of the media portraying it. In order to win the contestants have to face various challenges each week, which includes creating their own outfits, singing, dancing, performing comedy routines, acting, impersonating celebrities, walking on the runway and lip-synching. In the end of each episode RuPaul, aided by a panel of celebrity judges, decides which contestant will be eliminated until only one remains. This demonstrates well how RPDR puts an emphasis on versatility: indeed, not only do the candidates have to promote their 'uniqueness, charisma, nerve and talent' (as RuPaul often states during the show) but they also have to convince the jury of their ability to adapt to various situations in which a drag queen superstar could find herself. Instead of giving a homogenized image of drag RPDR thus shows that drag can exist in many different forms (both through comedic or high fashion performances for instance).

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Even if RPDR started out as a small budget show (the first season was filmed in RuPaul’s garage) it quickly gained in popularity: indeed, the show’s has received several awards (Daems, 2014), including for ‘Outstanding Reality Program’ (2009 GLAAD Media Awards), ‘Best Reality Competition Series’ (2012 TV.com Awards) and has become LOGO’s highestrated program. All these elements thus show that the program was able to gain legitimacy as a quality television show and to attract viewer’s and critics’ attention. By doing so the program thus allowed to put forward a community that was before almost only represented in local gay bars or underground stages. As stated by Charles himself for Entertainment Tonight: •

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‘We’ve enjoyed a beautiful, open window in our culture here in the United States where the powers that be are open to it’.

1.2 From a marketable audience to a new community But the birth of RPDR also proves another important point: the creation of a program aimed at the LGBT community (which drag queens are part of) demonstrates that LGBT people had become recognized as a marketable group in the first place. Indeed, a television show is created with a specific target audience in mind (that has to be large enough for the producers to gain profit): in order for a program to be created a target audience thus has to be defined in the first place, which shows that LGBT audiences had begun to be taken into account by media producers. This can be seen as a result of the rise of new political movement focusing on gaining visibility and rights (like the LGBT rights movement) and the expansion of capitalist culture (as consumers products became more diversified and started targetting new niche markets) at the end of the 20th century (Chasin, 2000).What were before considered as invisibilized groups Figure 1: Absolut Rainbow thus became incorporated in the mediatic landscape, as 'identity based ad (2008) productions' (Chasin, 2000) became an integral part of consumer culture. This phenomenom can also be seen with the direct inclusion in RPDR (as sponsors) of brands such as Absolut and L.A Eyeworks, that directly started targeting the LGBT community at the end of the 20th century. For instance, ads for the vodka brand Absolut already started appearing in gay magazines in 1981, which were followed by events in bars, donations to charity groups and products targetting the LGBT commmunity. This last point can be seen in figure 1 as the semiotic value of the rainbow is used as a reference to the LGBT flag. These commercial tactics can also be found directly in RPDR, as the use of direct product placement is extremely present. For instance, after each episode's final challenge the contestants are invited by RuPaul to 'Enjoy an Absolut cocktail in the Interior Illusions Lounge' while awaiting judging. By incorporating LGBT oriented brands and allowing them to use the show for promotional purposes RPDR is thus able to gain enough funds to exist while promoting the idea that LGBT groups are an important part enough of modern capitalist society to be incorporated in it. By gaining mediatic visibility, even for commercial purposes, LGBT groups are thus being incorporated in the mediatic landscape, which allows viewers to recognize themselves as targets and as members of a symbolic community. Moreover, the fact that RPDR was created specifically for the LGBT and drag communities can be seen with the context of its creation and the codes used by the program. Indeed, the show was created by a drag queen and aired on Logo, the first advertisement supported tv channel that directly targetted the LGBT community. As Eir-Ann Edgar notes, the show's viewers will thus mostly be drag queens and LGBT people in general: •

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'It seems unlikely that a viewer would stumble across Drag Race accidentely while channel surfing. While audience exclusivity may impeding gaining new viewership, it also legitimates and authenticates the show through its close proximity to queer audience'.

Since the show is directly addressing a queer audience it also uses communicational codes specific to the drag community, like cultural or historical references. For instance, Jennie Livingston's documentary movie Paris is burning (1991) is often quoted (directly or indirectly) in the show. This is a strong symbolic gesture since the movie was one of the first to capture the essence of gay and drag subcultures in 1980's New York, as it represented drag queens competing in what were called drag balls. These friendly competitions among drag queens included fashion challenges, runway walks and dance challenges, which allowed drag queens to come together and express themselves in a very unique manner. While these elements can be found in many of RPDR's challenges, some are even direct references to those meetings, as can be seen in season one, episode six, Absolut drag ball. In this episode contestants were asked to create outfits inspired by different flavors of the brand Absolut. While the use of the term drag ball and the content of the challenge are directly inspired from Paris is burning we can however see that that a level of commodification has been added, with the direct inclusion of a product placement in the episode's narrative. Even if the show aknowledges the historical impact of Paris is burning on the mediatic representation of drag communities we can see that the representation offered by RPDR is carefully staged with commercial purposes in mind. This example is thus a good way to understand how RPDR is able to use and adapt queer cultural codes to attract and market itself to that community. Another technique used by the show to appeal to LGBT viewers is language. Indeed, RPDR is filled with numerous expressions and catchphrases that are specific to the drag community and will thus only be understood by people of this group. For instance, the contestants are encouraged to 'throw shade', an expression already used in Paris is burning as drag queen Dorian Corey explains that shade is a friendly yet incisive way to express competitiveness between drag queens: 'I don’t have to tell you you’re ugly, because you know you’re ugly'. These verbal jousts can be considered as 'communal art' (De Villiers, 2012) and are staged in the show's 'reading' (which means the act of throwing shade) Mini Challenge (a short and light-hearted game that take place before the Main Challenge of each episode), in which the contestants are asked to take turns reading each others before RuPaul picks the one whose lines were the most humorous and witty. This challenge is almost staged as a ritual, appearing in every season of RPDR and being introduce by RuPaul's now famous catchphrase: 'In the Great Tradition of Paris is Burning, Bring out your Library Cards! '. By staging a drag ball ritual for television and aknowledging its historical impact in the drag queen community (as seen with the word 'tradition'), RPDR thus allows contestants to express their rivalry in a unique and symbolic way. Drag queens and LGBT people are then able to recognize themselves in the presented codes, which in turn creates a sense of communal cohesion among them. But the show does not only feed on vocabulary already present in drag communities, it also transforms it. RuPaul often uses puns to subvert existing words with drag references (as she replaces 'congratulations' by 'condragulations', 'apology' by 'Rupology' and 'history' by 'herstory' for instance). This act of 'linguistic drag' (De Villiers, 2012) thus allows the show to push the limits of language further in order to create more shared references the viewers can 8

use. In the end, the celebration of common codes (either cultural or linguistic) allows drag queens and their fans 'to communicate within this particular discourse community and outside perceived language norms' (Anthony, 2014). In order words, by using a language that distanciates itself from the standart english used in mainstream media RPDR aknowledges and celebrate the evolution of the drag community, while encouraging its queer audience to take part in its construction. This both create a sense of continuity and of distortion with the historical drag scene since, contrary to Paris is burning (which only documents the community it depicts) RPDR transforms and stages the codes of the drag scene in order to adapt them to the format of reality television. We can thus see that the show is made by LGBT people, for LGBT people. Indeed, the show is giving its own voice to a group often invisibilized or ridiculed by the media and offers them an alternative and positive representation instead: we can thus see that RPDR has reached the third stage of representation, according to Clark's (1969) four stages of TV representation of minorities. While the first stage is non-representational, the second stage involves some representation but with the represented group being stereotyped and ridiculed. In the third stage the group is 'presented but regulated' (Clark, 1969) and in the fourth stage the group is represented in diverse roles and as fully integrated in society as we know it. The positive representation of drag queens in RPDR can be seen with the fact that the shows treats its contestants as multi-layered human beings, with both their positive and negative sides, but also their hardships. For example, in season two, even if contestant Tyra Sanchez is used by the show as the antagonist, a typical role in reality tv productions, she is also humanized and celebrated for her talent at the same time. Indeed, even if the show often chooses scenes focusing on her rude and scornful behavior on the set (she was for instance nicknammed 'Satan's baby' by her fellow contestant Sahara Davenport), it also shows interviews in which Ross (Tyra's boy version) explains that his goal is to win in order to have the money to raise his child and that he is actually homeless, living on his aunt's couch. In the end RuPaul consecrates Tyra's talent and efforts by choosing her as the winner. As De Villiers (2012) states the show 'encapsulates the meritocratic dream of talent-scouting television ' and offers a new, drag version of the american dream. While Drag Race still relies of some stereotypical TV-tropes and was created for a specific part of society only (LGBT audiences) it also tries to offer a new representation of drag queens, by depicting them as hard working human beings with their own difficulties and dreams, an idea that will strongly resonate with the American ideology. We can thus conclude that RPDR has allowed drag queens to reach Clark's third stage but not yet the fourth. By being able to produce positive representations aimed at the LGBT community, the show tries to use its influence to create cohesion among its participants (both contestants and viewers), with RuPaul not only being depicted as a leader but as a mentor. This can for instance be seen when RuPaul enters the workroom (the set in which the contestants prepare for challenges and get dressed) and spends time with each drag queen in order to offer her advice, thus appearing more like a coach than a ruthless judge. Moreover, the vocabulary of family is extremely present, with RuPaul often bein...