My Girlfriend Is Obsessed With RuPaul’s Drag Race. Here’s What I Learned
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“Cover girl, put the bass in your walk … head to toe, let your whole body talk …”
“Good morning to you too, my love”, I yell from the bathroom. This isn’t some song playing on the radio, no, it’s my girlfriend singing.
She’s singing “Cover Girl” by RuPaul Charles — a famous song from the show RuPaul’s Drag Race.
RuPaul’s Drag Race???
Gentlemen, start your engines …
No, no, no! RuPaul’s Drag Race is not, as one may think, a show about cars. Nothing masculine like that. Quite the opposite — it’s a show about drag queens, competing against each other in various disciplines. You win by being “the best woman”.
… and may the best woman (extends right arm, puts left hand on hip) win.
Let’s rewind a little. What the actual fuck is a drag queen?
The Europeans among us might remember Conchita Wurst, an Austrian singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2014. Conchita Wurst is a drag queen.
A drag queen is a person (usually a man, but can technically also be a woman or someone who identifies as transgender) that likes to hyper-dress-up as a woman. By hyper-dressing-up, I mean that they don’t just dress like a woman — they dress like a woman on a mission, with extensive makeup, crazy hair (usually not their real one) and beautiful, often self-tailored clothing.
They’re mostly beautiful, and some of them elicit reactions like “no way that’s a man”, “holy shit she’s hot oh wait that never mind” and sometimes seriously confusing the average heterosexual male.
Drag Queens don’t go by their real names (except for a few, like RuPaul), but instead adopt a new identity with a fictional name. Here’s a few of my favorites:
- Alaska Thunderfuck
- Sharon Needles
- Courtney Act (gotta say it with an Australian accent)
- Penny Tration
- Rebecca Glasscock
- Jinks Monsoon
- Shangela Laquifa Wadley
- Bebe Zahara Benet
- … and so on
