RuPaul, sashay PEN

Screenshot from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ via Observer.com

> You better work! On educating yourself about the struggles that affect the drag community

 

Jessica Berget
Opinions Editor

 

et me start off by saying that RuPaul’s

Drag Race is the best television show
ever made. Its portrayal of the drag
community has heightened the art of
drag into mainstream culture, it puts
every other fashion, make-up, costume,
and entertainment reality show to
shame, and has inadvertently made a
mockery of those who say that gender
is not a social construct. In saying that,
as much as I love the show, there is one
thing I cannot stand about it, and that
is the queen bitch herself: RuPaul.

Time and time again RuPaul has
proven that she cares little about the
way in which many of the queens are
exploited and represented on the show
for the sake of attracting an audience,
and she has even been the perpetrator
of such mistreatments. Contestants on
the show are often asked by producers
about their tragic backstories and
sensitive, personal issues, such asa
family member dying or a traumatic
life event to garner pity and sympathy,
and, ultimately, to get better ratings.

Blame this on the producers and
the nature of reality television all you
want, but Ru has also been involved in
exploiting her fellow queens under the
guise of being a caring, motherly figure.
Fans of the show will remember near the
end of a season when the top four queens
have “dinner” and one-on-one time with
Ru (“dinner” in this case being a bunch

of tic-tacs, but I’ll get to this later).
Although it sounds innocent at first,
these dinners are just an excuse for Ru
to ask the queens about their personal
struggles or dysfunctional family
dynamics to squeeze out any last bit of
drama that she can get. She essentially
does the same thing on the main stage
when she pulls out baby photos of the
contestants and asks them what they
would say to their younger selves.

The way Ru tries to get the queens
to disclose their troubled pasts to the
audience has always made me cringe,
but it was especially uncomfortable in
season seven when one queen named
Pearl had her one-on-one time with
Ru. Despite Ru knowing that Pearl had
gone through a traumatic experience
as a child, she constantly asked her
questions about it and tried to get her
to open-up about her childhood, even
though it was when they don’t want
to is bad, but to do it for ratings on
your television show is just horrible.

I understand that it is a reality
television show, so they need drama and
controversy to get viewers. However,
within a community as strong and
supportive as the drag community
is, | would hope that RuPaul would
treat the queens with a bit more
sensitivity and respect, and not
exploit their life stories for ratings.

Another problem I have with
RuPaul is that she sets impossibly high
standards for the queens on her show
and expects them to do many things

It's a righty’s world

> Left-handed people have it the worst

Katie Czenczek
Staff Writer

 

Li: been said before, and it will likely be
said again; being left-handed is hard.

T almost understand my grandma
tying my left arm behind my back when
I was a kid, telling me to write with
the “right” hand—pun intended. She
thought she was helping me, because
back in her day, lefties were synonymous
with the Devil and kids would be
punished at school for trying to write
with the “wrong” hand. Historic lefty
oppression aside, being left-handed in the
modern world still has its drawbacks.

It’s always a struggle to use everyday
objects that are made solely for right-
handed people. Scissors become a painful,
imprecise experience as you attempt
to cut out a circle for a school project,
only to have the upper lip of the scissor
dig into your thumb. Can you imagine
cutting with a right-handed knife as a
left-handed person? It doesn’t work. The
carrots are always cut in awkward angles
and are unevenly sized. Lefties who work
in trades often run into the problem of

 
 

having right-handed only power tools,
which can be life-threatening. (Though
WorkSafe wouldn't allow this to happen
now, it was common practice in the past
for left-handed people to pretend they're
right-handed to be able to work).

At school, binders are rarely a viable
option. Trying to take notes down while
the binder rings jut out awkwardly into
your forearm is uncomfortable and
inefficient. Moreover, picking a spot
in the lecture hall becomes extremely
limited as the only designated row for
lefties is always on the farthest left aisle,

that she can’t even do. They are expected
to memorize lines and choreography,
dress their wigs, and even occasionally
sew and design their costumes within
just a few days. Contrary to what some
may believe, she has her gowns designed
and sewed and has her make-up done
by other people, but these are all things
she has given other queens harsh
critiques for in the past. It has also been
rumoured by some guest judges and
past contestants that RuPaul doesn't
even memorize the few lines she has
on the show—they are fed directly to
her through an earpiece. Of course, Ru
doesn’t have to be able to do everything
that the other queens are expected to
do, but it’s ridiculous that she gets angry
when they don’t know how to do one
thing, when she can’t do a lot of them.
Ru has also showed that she is
especially tone-deaf around issues
that don’t directly affect her, especially
transgender issues. Many times, she has
defended her use of the word “tr*nny,”
because, as she claims, “it is not a slur
aimed at trans women,” and that “no
one has ever said the word ‘tr*nny’ in
a derogatory sense.” Sure, Ru. Coming
from someone who does not identify as
trans, it’s ignorant for her to say what
the transgender community should
or shouldn't be offended by. She has
been continuously called out by past
transgender Drag Race contestants and
fans for her actions, to which she either
brushes it off, using the tired excuse
that “people get offended by everything

Photo by Analyn Cuarto

which can fill up quickly ifthere happens
to bea lot of left-handed people at that
lecture for whatever reason. Getting a
decent spot is already difficult enough
for the average student, but add being
left-handed and it’s that much worse.
You might think that sitting at
classroom tables is easier than lecture
halls, but it is an entirely different issue of
its own. It must be nice for right-handed
people to go to class where they're the
majority. Imagine being able to walk
into a class and not have to worry about
strategically placing yourself on the left

these days.” Or, she takes the petty route
and blocks them on Twitter. Ru is often
quoted in saying “unless they pay your
bills, pay them bitches no mind,” but her
conduct on social media says otherwise.
Finally, there is the infamous tic-tac
one-on-one dinners that Ru has near
the end of the season with the final four
contestants. During these dinners, Ru
jokes about being on a diet and watching
her weight, so all she eats are tic-tacs.
This is an obvious dig at people with
eating disorders, as tic-tacs are often
used to curb appetite. Eating disorders
are common in the gay community;
and among men with the disorder,
about 42 per cent identify as gay. Many
queens who have been on the show have
talked openly about their struggles
with eating, so for Ru to make a joke of
it for about five seasons straight shows
how out of touch she is with some of
the struggles of the drag community.
RuPaul has made changes in the
world of drag by bringing it to the
public sphere and building an entire
empire for queens to support both
themselves and each other. As much
as I appreciate her for making drag
mainstream, I really dislike like the
way she runs her show. You can’t teach
an old dog new tricks, and RuPaul
perpetuates this tired, old cliché. Ru
is fabulous—there is no doubt about
that, but she should be more sensitive
to the issues that surround the drag
community and use her voice to help
her fellow queens, not alienate them.

side of whoever you sit next to, to avoid
getting into an elbow-shoving match.
People will decide that it’s your fault for
the situation because youre the weird
one writing with the wrong hand. This is
not just reserved for classrooms, eating at
dinner tables is just as bad. Round tables
are a lefty’s worst nightmare because
there’s no edge to give you some space.
Plus, writing on a whiteboard is
an almost impossible task as your hand
drags across it, therefore nullifying the
words you just wrote down. If you decide
not to rest your hand on the board,
you get clunky kindergarten writing
that is basically illegible anyways, so
really what's the point in even trying?
The only thing that being left-handed
is good for is baseball. To which youre
asked all the time, “Youre a lefty? Do you
play baseball?” Apparently, baseball is the
only career option for lefties. Everything
else will kill you at the worst or be a
great inconvenience at the least, so it
may be time to change career paths.
There is a bright side to everything,
however; at least we're no longer being
persecuted, or likened to the Devil.