RuPaul: our evil, problematic Queen? A deep dive... 

Fun story about Ru. A friend of mine (an Ny/nj architect) was called in to find out why Ru's penthouse roof was leaking. Upon inspection, the culprit was found to be a plethora of small, round holes on the roof...caused by high-heels during drag roof parties. 😂

My ex (straight cis male) grew up in Colombia and had a lot of homophobia in him. We talked about it lots, but what really changed his views was when we lived together and I watched RPDR in our joint living room. At first, he ignored it, then peaked, stood longer and longer beside the sofa, until he finally fully joined. A year later, he came vogueing into the room when the theme tune played, we watched Pose together, he is now an outspoken ally. He is an ex for a reason, but as RuPaul shows, people aren't one dimensional. He didn't turn out to be a good partner for me by the end, but I am very happy that there is one more ally out therein the world.

I feel like RuPaul is a good example of how people can do good things while themselves not being a really good person

An icon discussing an icon?! How iconic!! This is dramatic but as a young LGBT in rural Arkansas (circa 2010) RuPaul was TRULY an inspiration and guide to me as I navigated finding myself and even though she's no longer really who I fell in love with she'll forever have a place in my heart.

24:41 it is also worth mentioning that Willow’s sister LITERALLY DIED OF CYSTINOSIS shortly after filming wrapped. That is a huge deal that needs to be talked about if we’re going to talk about someone “rising above”… chronic illness is not always overcome-able, and in Willow’s case it was particularly a gross thing to say.

Fun fact: there's someone on the RPDR subreddit who makes pixelnart of the queens as pokemon. It's very fun.

I expected a more critical deep dive. RP has said some pretty sexist things and there is unfortunately a lot of sexism and misogyny in the world and history of drag. I mean, it literally came to be because women weren't allowed to perform on stage. There was also this idea that men were better at portraying women than women themselves. Yeah, let that sink in...So much "humor" in the world of drag depends on misogyny (e.g. the "fishy" comments, women as ditsy or hypersexual). Let's also not forget that RP doesn't want women to be on his show, and he's repeatedly turned down Drag Kings for the show. I find this so telling, as Drag Kings portray/make fun of those in power (men), whereas it's the opposite for Drag Queens.

The other day I was driving on I-95 (maybe I-75?) in Florida, and saw a sign that stated that I was close to the Drag Racing Hall of Fame. I smiled and wondered how I didn’t know this was a thing in Florida. Then I laughed out loud at the fact that this museum is actually about car drag racing and not drag performance. Disappointing. 😅😂

Thank you for mentioning drag kings, I would love it so much if you made a whole video on them. As a drag king performer myself I feel really upset RuPaul hasn't done anything for kings and doesn't even acknowledge our drag

I’m glad i’m not the only one who thought that when Rupaul was saying how impressive it is that Willow Pill “rose above” her illnesses 😬 When michelle said it’s so great she never uses her chronic illness as an “excuse”, in one episode (might have been the same one) Everyone in the work room grabbed things for the design challenge when she had to take longer to open the boxes, and ended up being left with barely anything. She pulled together a great outfit, but to applaud her for not complaining when the producers gave her no accommodations and nobody other than Kornbread offered to help her is so aggravating!! They did similar things on Yvies season and I hated that mentality ugh

22:22 Texan trans girl here, lifelong musical theatre performer. This conflation of drag (entertainment) and transness (identity)... It reminds me of when my former voice teacher told me that it would be "hilarious" to have a trans woman performing XYZ musical theatre role or song. I know she didn’t mean any harm, but... it was demoralizing. It's tough to explain, because I am a comedic actress. I'm a ham. But it has never been because of my gender. (If anything, my prior male roles were the drag ones.) Thankfully I have a lot of great theatre friends, and I do think Drag Race helped introduce them to gender-nonconformity (without expecting me to be like that), which I truly appreciate. But they aren't the ones casting shows. I want to play Fiona in Shrek, or Ursula... I want to be funny, but not because I'm AMAB. Otherwise it feels like I'll have to pretend to be a drag queen just to have a shot at affirming roles... I hope that makes sense.

OMG! I'm french and I never notice the hidden word in" Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent".

"did you see that article from instinct magazine?" "oh the fracking?" "NO NOT THAT-" "🙅‍♀️" "🙅‍♀️"

thinking about the s14 finale where ru asks willow pill about how her chronic illness is and she goes “i don’t see how that’s any of your business” and changes the subject. also! love yvie oddly. i find it worth noting that in AS7, she was talking to ru and michelle about how hard it is to have eds and actively losing mobility. she started crying and made a diffusing joke and both of them commented about how “at least you can laugh about it”. that struck me as really icky when i saw it because she was clearly upset about it

Thank you for this dive. I am an oldhead fan, someone who was a masc4masc cis-whitepassing gay man (or at least thought I was) when the first season came out. My first thought was "Oh great, I guess now LOGO is going down the drain" until I actually sat down and watched it a season later. It was eye opening to me, allowed me to get in touch with my feminine side and also understand the queer community more. I had to do a lot of heavy lifting and I still do, my drag mother was able to slap the casual transphobia out of me years ago that I had learned from RuPaul's early seasons. I am no where near whom I was when RuPaul's show came out and I still watch a lot of it almost religiously out of respect of what it has done for me and for the queer community as a whole. That said, I am not a vocal part of the fandom anymore. I am not a blind believer in RuPaul's image. I know the show can and should do better. Camp Wannakiki (which started here on RU-vid!) and Dragula have both broken barriers seasons ahead of RuPaul. Camp Wannakiki had the first Drag King performer by one season (though they have their own issues with Kings) and they broke a few other barriers. I use those two shows as reference because they have done better, they show different aspects of this niche in our community, and they stride forward. RuPaul's Drag Race (Main Show + All Stars) feels very manufactured now, almost like I'm watching a calculation being worked out with late minute additions by fan theory or responses thrown in. I love drag, I love how it got me out of complacency and stifled stagnation and into activism and helped me discover my own identity as a queer person. I know our current era isn't perfect but man, I'm going to miss it when it's gone.

Jessica, do you know about Deafies in Drag? I feel like that's a RU-vid channel you might be interested in. They make a lot of videos about their experiences as deaf people, and are very fun to watch, especially as a hearing student learning ASL looking to see signing used naturally and in a non-academic setting.

“To Woo Fong” Best slip I’ve heard in a while. 😂😂

I really recommend watching a video called “Drag and Feminism” here available on RU-vid. Several drag queens (AFAB, AMAB and non-binary) talk about how much of modern drag is controlled by Drag Race (which can lead to lack of funding to other ventures and very specific views of what drag can be), and how much of drag history starts with trans women and how it’s been hidden. They have a great conversation about gender and performance, and recognizing how much class and education is part of the discussion around it. Also, some genuinely lovely human beings!

So well presented! People are nuanced and I love it how Jessica can talk about the good and the not so good things that people have done without defending or condemning them as people.

Microaggression can feel like violence, I believe. Someone can experience so much racism or other type of discrimination so often that they're in a perpetual state of feeling like they're rubbed raw and bleeding. As a cis white woman, everything is so much easier, and I'm glad to know it and try to be aware. Fatness can be a hot button issue for me, but when you mentioned Ru's comment congratulating a contestant on "rising above" her chronic illness or disability, I LITERALLY, physically flinched away from the screen. "Not being a victim" raises my hackles, too. Acknowledging your race, ethnicity, size, chronic illness or disability as a fact is not playing victim.

You mistakenly listed Tennessee as being in the process of implementing a drag ban. In fact, the law which would have banned drag performances in the presence of children was overturned in a federal court the end of 2023 and not only was never enforced, it can never be enforced. So Tennessee is not in the process of implementing the law. Yes, technically it could be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court, and heaven only knows what they would rule. But the Tennessee attorney general informed the state legislature proposed resolution was unconstitutional before they even held the first vote on the bill, and they've been extremely lackluster in defending the the law, so I sincerely doubt it will ever be reinstated. It reminds me of our old sodomy laws. I worked for the office of the attorney general of Tennessee in the '90s when those laws were challenged in court. Since the attorney general had already told the governor, the law was unconstitutional, and the governor insisted that the laws be defended anyway, the then sitting Tennessee attorney general assigned it to the single most fabulous and flamboyant gay man on the entire staff. It was hilarious watching his defense of the law. And little wonder that it was defeated in court! Still one of the few good memories I have of working at the attorney general's office!

FINALLY SOMEONE IS TALKING ABOUT RUPAUL’S FRACKING!!! i’ve known about this for a while now, looked into it during a drawfee livestream cuz someone in the chat mentioned that they worked on an oil rig with a bright pink star painted on it or something lol

I was introduced into Drag culture by my best friend's mom and her boyfriend(longstory short, he was a trans man before even gay people seemed to accept it, she constantly referred to her own SO as she but I will not) who were both Kings, it was fun to learn more about them.. we lived in a very small town and her mom was the first openly lesbian woman so I got to overhear a lot of the town's opinions before I was allowed to go to her house. Even from my own family. But they both introduced me to their life, in an age appropriate way, and really helped me learn to express myself without caring what my midwest town thought of me.

I really appreciate your well balanced take on Ru and Drag Race! I especially like how you addressed the way chronic illness is depicted!

I can appreciate what drag in general and RPDR have done for queer people while still not supporting RP. The amount of transphobia perpetuated by a celebrity in a scene where so many transwomen find themselves is baffling and honestly any queer person who has a single disrespectful thing to say about transwomen needs to learn some things about 20th century queer history. Mattel is honoring RP with a Monster High Collector Doll and I'm like 🤢🤢🤢 while all icons are people and people are inherently flawed, there are so many better choices for a brand about being unique and yourself than a person who publically promoted and spread hate without apology.

30:01 ok. I'm writing my academic thesis on Drag Race right now AND Iw watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent last night. did you make this video for me?

Celebrating somebody's ability to rise above their chronic conditions, whilst in a position of extreme power, in this case, reeks of "Thank f*** I didn't have to accommodate for this in any way for you to be on my show".

Miss Jessica said "oh, we are gonna talk about the fracking!"

'Drag Race' resulting in Drag Queen slang passing into the mainstream has echoes of how the characters of Jules & Sandy on' 'Round the Horne', led to the mainstreamization of Polari in the 'sixties. Which was covered, of course, in the video on Polari.

Just a quick side note: just because Drag Kings are not visible, that doesnt mean that they are less common. They do exist... many of then do.

Sisterhood, not cisterhood! And above everything, humanhood 💖Thanks for the video, Jessica.

jessica talking about mother ru??? i never thought this day would come 🙈

Your pink sparkly dress in the very last part of the video! It is so sparkly it looks like a soft pink glittery mist. Very cool! And of course thanks for this interesting video!

I’ve seen RuPaul in an old 1980s music video by the B-52s’ “Love Shack”. Tin Roof Rusted!

You nailed 'Pintrest Librarian!'

I only watched season 13. And besides the fact I didn't understand many things like how they seemed to poke on drama between contestants and the whole pit crew being naked thing, I perceived the message and attitude to be very positive and I appreciated the contestants had deep and meaningful conversations on race, their families, diversity and so on. I also appreciated that Gottmik was very vocal about being trans and overall his identity seemed to be unquestioned in the show. Now that I see all this, I realize that part of that might have been redemption from past criticism. Especially since you mentioned both racism and fatphobia being endorsed, I feel like he might have been overcompensating that with the special treatment given to Kandy Muse.

For furture endeavors may I offer a possible PG version: Motherfluffer! Could apply for everything fluffy like cute pets or in terms of costumes everything with impressive ruffles? Or general fluffy shapes, skirts and so on. ^_^

as an afab drag artist i'm not ready to watch this one just yet, but i appreciate you Jessica!!!🩷 would love if you did one on Dragula too💞

Finally, it's like everyone is afraid to talk about it! He can be amazing in some ways and also not be perfect in other ways and downright unpleasant in other ways. There was a lot of upset around RPDR UK when it first started because the community is quite diverse and it's not uncommon for non binary folks, women (trans or cis) to be part of local scenes and the non cis men & cis dude allies were pretty concerned. Not sure if anyone other than cis men are in the show as I can't get it in NZ and honestly we have a lot of serious stuff going on rn (and my chronic migraines don't exactly help) so looking into all the UK drag race peeps isn't worth my spoons but I hope everyone got a fair shot. Enjoying the video so far 😊 good stoof! Edit: great to hear this discussion included, also great to see a figure being acknowledged and criticized respectfully, with an acknowledgement that he's human, a flawed, beautiful, neuanced, glorious human.

Without RuPaul, I don't know if I would be a drag queen now. Without that, I don't know if I would have fully discovered my transness... It's wild how much this man I've never met has impacted my literal actual life.

I watched Drag Race 15 years ago, while pregnant with my oldest. I was so mad when Ongina lost that I swore it off for years. It’s still my favorite tho.

Every time Jessica says "RuPaul" (even though it's not exaggerated) I'm transported to Dela's snatch game as Dame Maggie Smith 🪄💫 😆

I would hesitate to suggest that someone in such a position of power and wealth has 'changed their views' based on public statements (and on social media) versus actual treatment and engagement with trans and gender diverse people and communities. I also don't think calling trans folks 'teachers' and a vague 'apology' is actually making noticeable change and acknowledging behaviors and problems (not to mention its not trans and gender diverse folks responsibility to teach you to not be a bigot). It seems that these 'changes in attitude/belief' only came after backlash. He should still be held accountable for his actions. I would be DEEPLY hesitant to remove the responsibility of harm and continued problematic behavior of Ru Paul overall. I appreciate the nuance you included in this!

I appreciate your thorough and thoughtful summary of RuPaul‘s impact on pop culture. RuPaul is a controversial person because he’s done a lot of great things to provide a platform for hundreds of drag queens to be able to have careers lucrative careers . However, as you detailed in your video there have been times he has said some very hurtful things. I think it’s good that he’s also been open to that criticism and has actually evolved and changed his position on many issues. I think one of the problems that RuPaul still runs into is that he overly romanticizes the idea of the personal narrative of an individual overcoming systemic barriers. In someways, he has been able to overcome a lot of barriers in his life that have resulted in him being extremely successful. However , I think it’s hard for him to understand how he is kind of exceptional in that regard. For most people facing discrimination, expecting them to overcome every barrier they encounter without any change in the society is unreasonable. I also think he doesn’t recognize how much society had to progress to even be able to accept a drag queen to succeed to the level that he has.

The word DRAG was first used by William Shakespeare. When righting his plays he would write the word DRAG in the corners of the page to indicate "Dressed As Girl" in that scene . . . As all actors back in the day were men.

not me (a Michelle) having to check the screen to make sure mother was not scolding me 🤣 26:45

oh wow this video came at a perfect time for me, when I'm in the middle of a drag race / queens from drag race hyperfixation. I double-taked when I saw the thumbnail lol. Super excited to dive into this one.

I must applaud your transition to the ad. I barely noticed and I love how creative YTrs get when insertinng them!

Drag is not being trans, and being trans is not drag. There are drag kings/queens out there that aren't trans, and there are trans people out there that aren't drag kings/queens. But they can meet, and that's a personal preference. Not all people have similar interests (thankfully)...

ooh I can’t wait to hear Jessica’s opinion on this

Here we go. If we cannot talk calmly about problems within our own communities, then how can we expect ppl outside said communities to calmly talk about problems that we bring up with them and they also bring upwith us. The whole GOAL here is for everything to be so normal, that people can be safe with each other, especially when addressing conflicting need and wants. Regardless of us doing so with individual matters or group dynamics. AND often forgotten: this also includes the normalisation to the point where people can be safe when issues can be brought up with them. Aka ppl asked for support and accommodation to be safe, as the dynamic works like: "I care for ppl around me, so their needs are important to me. And my needs are important to them, so they'll also attend to my needs and boundaries in the process". We're aiming at reducing "competition of needs" and normalising "cooperation of needs"

This was a masterpiece. The three costumes/characters…the asides…and good research. Well done. Usually in the US the mineral rights go with the surface land use, but some states and jurisdictions have different restrictions, etc. So for anyone buying land in the US or a house and the land it is on, generally speaking you won’t have to worry about someone coming along and fracking under your home.

This is the first video of yours that's been recommended to me, and I thinks it's time for a channel binge. History, specifically LGBTQA+ history is one of my favorite things. And your voice/energy/humor are all *chefs kiss*

Jessica, thanks for making the vid... I use to watch the show but I have only watch so much. Until I kind of lost track.

I love how Drag Race is such a huge icon for the LGBTQ community that is was bordeline controversial on the show that there was a *gasp* cis straight whote man on it. Its like the reverse of what normally happens and I LOVE the drama it caused. Really put a lot of things into perspective with how silly people act whenever there's a *gasp* LGBTQ person/character in a show.

alternatively, some think that the title 'drag' comes from the acronym 'dressed resembling a girl'... take that with a pinch of salt as the origin of the title is not definitively known.

The fracking episode in Bojack makes so much more sense now lol

I laughed out loud at “Just look at Nicolas Cage!” 😂😂😂 I appreciate this video. As a trans woman, I have ALWAYS been a little put off by drag and never let myself enjoy it because, as discussed, the vast majority of non-allies still think transgender means transvestite, and that perception really contributes heavily to the dangers we face in society. It scares me so much that even when I began to hear about trans women who do drag, I was put off. It’s scary because, if one woman does it, it feels like conservatives will believe that all trans women are putting on a show of hyper femininity and not just, you know, being regular women. I overcame that fear, which was close-minded, as I saw more and more trans people and people of all genders doing drag. But I still don’t really feel comfortable around drag, somewhere deep inside, like an unresolved trauma. All my friends watch Drag Race and of course I hear about it all the time, as well as how many contestants have been trans recently, and it actually has made me feel a bit a pride, even though I’m still scared of drag. Because there’s probably still more trans people on Drag Race alone in a given year than on the rest of national television combined. That’s representation, even if it’s not in the form I want it in. I really appreciated this video and the discussion of trans people in relation to RuPaul and it was very informative. As you can tell, I am actually super sympathetic to his original viewpoint that the trans and drag communities should be separate. But just like Ru, I’ve come around to the idea that they can be separate things and still overlap and comingle. Anyone can express themselves however they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others, after all!!

So excited for this vid!!!❤

Regarding the fracking... I won't say I know all the laws regarding mineral rights, but when I bought a home in the Midwest and inquired about Mineral rights, I was told they go with the land unless there is a specific note for them in the paperwork. If it is the same in that state as this state, they most definitely have a say in whether fracking happens.

To anyone interested in some FIERCE drag kings, I recommend looking up the influence that Dope Saint Jude has had on the growing South African drag scene.

What an excellent exploration! I love the details and issues highlighted here, and I love that both the good and … “needs improving” point have been covered. It’s beautiful that RuPaul and co are actively learning - and learning how to use their position for positive change. We all stumble, but how we move forward makes all the difference

Well done, Jessica!! Also "To Woo Fong"? Work! LOL

Ooo I've been waiting for this girlllll

I love "To Wong Fu". One of my fave movies ever. :)

I've been waiting for this!

I just started watching, so forgive me if you mention this, but my brain doesn't always brain well, so I wanted to comment while I was thinking about it. I first saw RuPaul in the movie But, I'm a Cheerleader (made in 1999, I saw it in 2001) and I really liked and appreciated him. A few years ago, I heard him tell a story about being on his balcony late one night looking over the Hudson River in New York City. He saw a boat that had capsized & was sinking with a very frezied and desperate man on board. RuPaul prayed for god to save the man, then went back into his apartment, and chose not to call energency services because he trusted god would save the man (for those who don't know, the Hudson River is very cold, it is likely that man passed away from hypothermia.) I cannot look at him with anything but dusgust after that.

Seriously have wondered why no one talks about this.

Wonderful video and OBSSESSED with that multilayered pearls necklace

Thank you for talking about this!!

Tu Wong Fu: Thanks for everything Julie Newmark. That was a halarious movie. Great video, love your style! ❤

This was amazing. Thank you for this deep dive. Your the best

What a brilliant video, Jessica, especially the gentle reminder around minute 34. Lovely as always. 🎀💖🎀

Your voice is so soothing, if you read audiobooks it would be amaaaaazing

This is fascinating. I've never actually seen RuPaul's show but I'm probably going to check it out. Something I saw years ago, a film called Victor Victoria starring Julie Andrews and James Garner Julie dresses as a man to perform a lounge Act and poor James Garner finds himself drawn to her even though he is straight, while still thinking she's a man. It was quite interesting. And I'm sure you've already previously addressed the fact that during the 16th and 17th centuries and even later female parts in stage plays were played by men who dressed up as women. So honestly, why are people so upset about drag queens reading to little kids. They're just guys in a costume for Pete's sake.

wow, thank you for this detailed deep dive, I really appreciate all of the work that you put into this!❤❤❤❤

I love your vibe great video and I am surprised that Rupaul doesn’t have collectible, playing cards of all of the queens😂

Thank you for this video. Research, writing and attention to nuance and detail, bravo. Also, unrelated to the quality of the content/ narration - your outfits are immaculate as always. I'm always delighted by your style whenever I watch one of your videos.

Ballroom threw me up bc I do ballroom dancing (very different than queer ballroom)

so interessting!! I'd also love a video on drag history and the house system!!

is that madame x with a teddy bear in the background?! omg it’s awesome.

All of your comments and videos are so thoughtful and well researched. I want to share some broad stroke commentary adding some historic context I often see omitted. I’m never sure if it’s assumed to be known or lost to time so I like to share. Some additional insight: Ru was in a lot of main stream shows in the 90’s; guest hosting and staring in a variety of pop cultural spaces. He was the main, if not only, Drag performer the general population in the US was aware of at the time. People had a lot of questions/concerns and his whole truth was opaque in the main stream media. Depending on the audience/publication In several instances He could either be a drag perform or be gay. E.g. His guest role on …Martin (I think that was the show) His drag character was explicitly a straight man who liked to dress up. It was an endearing episode but limited in scope of full acceptance. In the early aughts, under President Bush, the climate wasn’t safe or as celebratory for drag performers or LGBTQ+. Partially because of the political climate Ru rarely performed during this decade. Starting Drag Race at the same time as that shift to President Obama was a major step for the culture. All of the initial contestants are truly brave; facing unknown consequences going on tv. Ru coming back to performing and leveraging his reputation was a bit of a risk which luckily has aided the current celebration of drag and queer culture. I think planning the show to Get the main stream reacquainted with drag in a way that people would continue to welcome it caused an initial (& elongated) suppression of representation. These same issues you touch on have been brought up in relation to NYC Pride parade and LGBT magazines like the Advocate in recent years, yet they are not discussed in the main stream. these fights on those platforms. so, while frustrating that these issues exist on Drag Race, the show has become the rally point for these deeper topics that may not have been noticed by the audience at large. As a community expands and becomes safer for people to be a part of new generations may not fully understand the navigation that others fought through to open the doors for them. There are still modern hardships and battles to fight, but they are different and generally better organized. In advocacy, People work hard to break through stigmas but can get stuck in the hang ups of “the way things were” and react as if those parameters are still in play even though they no longer stand - a behavioral fog that lingers. Holding people to evolved standards as the culture catches up is great. Giving time for “elders” to adjust to modern realities is also important. I love that all of these conversations are happening openly rather than through the historic regional /whisper networks. We should all be able to celebrate our true selves without fear. Supporting each other to find our best selves is essential. I feel We all have prejudices, whether we recognize them or not, and having them constructively called out so they can be worked through ideally, allows us to interact with compassion. P.s. talking about environment concerns: airline pollution from all the appearances should be discussed. Fracking is horrible but regional. Jets are an international constant. Seriously though, as bad as fracking is to the water, land and air - firefighters don’t know the chemicals used because they are “proprietary.” So if/when things go wrong there is limited emergency preparation. Bonkers. - I know my sleep deprived comments are a bit all over the place. I hope they make sense. I really adore all that you share with the world.

I never saw To Woo Fong thanks for everything Julie Newmark, but I'm gonna check it out

Loved the video. Also, can we just agree that you will be our future spokesperson for everything LGBT-related?

Ive been WAITING for this video

You’re so well spoken, incredible video

Great content. Great to hear you speaking on the issues around Drag Race and also pointing out that double edged sword of Drag Race becoming so mainstream. I used to love it but I noticed a lot of the same negatives in the show. You are one of the few I have seen speaking on the gaslighting of The Vixen. They were completely vilified and made to look like they were bullying Eureka. But it was Eureka who was using micro aggressions towards The Vixen was harshly criticised and suffered from it and still gets flack from certain demographics within the community and that’s disheartening . A lot of older members of the community sometimes have a hard time moving past that… well I struggled, so should you, mentality. I love your dry witty comments and take on delivering issues and various history regarding LGBTQIA+ and Disabled individuals. Keep it up 👍 🎉❤ Rather than banding together. I live in hope that we will grow and learn from the past mistakes and evolve together.

Its a bold af title. 😮 Very well researched video 😊

As someone that got to know more about drag through Drag Race, I can accept and understand the criticism, while also having to agree that RuPaul plays a major role in the LGBTQIA+ community. I guess that, in the end, no person is perfect. I was very pleased when he apologised for his comments/views on trans people and how he acted on it by doing changes in the show. With all its limitations, Drag Race can actually help people learn more about Drag performers. So, all in all, I think he's a generally okay person with flaws, who is willing to learn and grow - and that's more than most people seem to do *cough* JKR *cough* tysm for this deep dive!

29:45 Hi! Just to clear something up, Sasha Colby is the first openly trans winner in fhe main RPDR series but there have already been 2 trans winners from other spin-offs prior to her. First was Angele Anang of Drag Race Thailand S2 and Kylie Sonique Love who won All Stars 6 (previously competed in Drag Race Season 2 where I believe she came out as trans during the reunion episode).

He accidentally dropshipped Mein Campf and What is a woman this year, sad you didn't mention that He's a literal villan, guys

Re. fracking- In the US, split estate lands, in which the surface and subsurface minerals are owned separately, are the exception. For privately owned land, they mostly result from the Stock-Raising Homestead Act. If land transferred from federal to private ownership by the particular process established by that act, it's split estate. Otherwise, it *probably* isn't. For RuPaul's husband's land in Wyoming... without further information, who knows? It might be split estate, it might not. If it is split estate, he might own both surface and subsurface, he might not. The fact that it's a ranch increases the odds of it being split estate, since the Stock-Raising Homestead Act was about, well, raising livestock. That act also applied to lands in the western US, so Wyoming increases the odds.

Jinx Monsoon helped me get diagnosed correctly by showing her symptoms os narcolepsy on screen. Because I wasn't doing things like falling asleep in a bowl of soup making me a drowning risk or just dropping over in the middle of a party I hadn't even considered narcolepsy to be the cause of my excessive drowsiness. After I watched her season I went to a neurologist, did the sleep tests, and got diagnosed at 40. Being on narcolepsy medication has made an invaluable difference in my life.

Another great, fun and informative video to watch. Thanks, Jess.

Not to bring up a straight person too much, but Maddie is an AMAZING interviewer. I'm so glad Ru gave her a chance because she's absolutely fantastic. I learn more about queens from her interviews than I ever do on Drag Race. Her interview with Farah is a whole experience, and shows so much depth of character to someone who was always portrayed as the ditzy dumb blonde on the show.

Another thoughtful, insightful and well-researched history video!! Thank you! One note: I wouldn’t mention, but since you said you learned many drag queen names from written versions, wanted to offer one note. This concerns the pronunciation of the name of Crystal LaBeija. I believe it’s actually spoken as Crystal “La-Beige-ah,” honoring her background as a person of color. There is a more complete explanation of how her name evolved on her Wikipedia page.

Last week I went to what I think of as an “old school” drag performance at a Melbourne bar called DT’s. This was the drag I grew up with in the mid-2000’s. I realise it’s not really old school, but it’s what I grew up with. Modern drag at newer clubs is very different. I appreciate both. But I didn’t realise how many different styles there are. I love being queer!

I forget which queen it was or what season, but the queens were to dress up as a known woman in media (not snatch game) and one queen went as Janelle Monet (who identified as woman publicly at the time, they have now come out as non-binary). Janelle notoriously wears men's suits, and so the queen wore a men's suit. AND SHE WAS ELIMINATED FOR IT. Because it wasn't "drag". Also that in earlier season, all trans queen were eliminated either the episode they came out or soon after. (at one point Alaska also played a masculine character in a play they put on for a challenge in her first season appearance, and she was also hounded about it) As well as purely going against masculinity in drag queen's performances. (there is also a lot of cultural appropriation in the earlier seasons, that has gone untalked about, as well as open racism. again, i forget which queen or season, but somebody called a black queen "the help" during a maxi challenge and when the queen voiced her discomfort, she was shut down.) Also with the lack of Drag King performers. I went to Toronto Pride in 2022, and this event was 80% drag kings, it was amazing. Drag kings are here, they are amazing, and undermined by the popularized drag community. at this point, i understand the show has gotten more progressive, but it's the complete SILENCE over their past wrong-doings that make me not want to watch the show. Nobody talks about these things, and it irks me. it's called rupaul's drag race, not rupaul's drag QUEEN race, and the lack of drag kings being in popular media is just maddening

I just saw the video of RuPaul not remembering the lyrics of Sissy that Walk and this popped up... so perfect 🤣

This video is WONDERFUL, thank you for putting this info all in one place (and I always love your spin and sense of humour.