My Girlfriend Is Obsessed With RuPaul’s Drag Race. Here’s What I Learned

“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.