It's a reminder that Drag Race is hard
Start your engines, our yearly never ending Drag Race cycle is about to begin with Season 13.
The season 13 queens have been announced (to all those who aren’t constantly trolling Reddit for leaks and spoilers), and it’s an exciting group of girls this (coming) year! As the promo photos come out, and everyone flocks to their early favourites; this stage in the Drag Race cycle we can be blind to the amount of future vitriol this fanbase can lash out at its Queens. As reminded by the alumni of the show Brooke Lynn Hytes and Mayhem Miller.
It’s a fair point to bring up, as the Rosé (get it?) coloured glasses of the glossy promo looks will fade when the show gets rolling and people start getting eliminated.
Speaking as someone very actively apart of the Drag Race fandom, I am very well versed in the ways it is problematic. It’s a show that thrives off drama, being extra, and big TV moments. While it can be aMUSEing (get it?) to watch these queens have it out, the real world repercussions of how they’re portrayed on this show can have detrimental affects.
Just last season we saw this with the treatment of Brita, who was edited to be a little obnoxious and rather confrontational to Aiden Zane. While it provided from some great Untucked moments (Heidi in Closet screaming FUCK YOU to all the queens), she received constant death threats throughout the run of the show to the point where she stepped away from social media. I, personally, loved Brita on the show. While she was a bit catty and a bit obnoxious; she was a NY Drag legend, had some solid runways and TV moments, and she was hot as a boy! (I’m not apologizing for this, and I hope she reads this and slides into my DMs).
A lot of that compounded hate has to do with the vehement racism in the fanbase, something exposed and pulled apart by season 10 contestant, The Vixen. Queens of colour on the show has disproportionately less followers, which results in less bookings and lower payments, and the winners circle (despite starting out very mixed) as gotten severely white. This year saw a flock of Queens of colour crowned in all segments of this franchise. Jada Essence Hall, Shea Coulee, Priyanka, Envy Peru; this is the court of queens that won this year. It wasn’t that the show was trying to give queens of colour the crown, its that these queens were the best on their season.
The fanbase also blissfully remains unaware for some reason that Drag Race is hard and expensive. Queens take out huge bank loans to pay for looks, endure grueling shoot schedules, and compete in a crazy amount of skill based challenges; all in huge heels, layers of make up, heavy wigs, and tight tight outfits. Anyone who even gets there, let alone WINS the damn show deserves 100k. Drag Queens are out here really doing the work to entertain us!
I love this show, and I know many of us do too. But be more like me and route for EVERYONE to win! Because being on this show is a Luxury (get it) and a huge win for anyones drag career, don’t ruin it with your shitty internet comments (says the man who recapped Canada’s Drag Race and shat on Lemon a lot… Do as I say, not as I do [if you do, get paid for it]).
