RuPaul's drag race and the shifting visibility of drag culture : the boundaries of reality TV

This volume identifies and interrogates the ways in which RuPaul's Drag Race (RPDR) has transformed the visibility of drag culture in the US and internationally, as well as how the program has changed understandings of reality TV. The collection entails works whose aim is to address how drag has become a significant aspect of LGBTQ experience and identity globally vis-à-vis RPDR, and how RPDR has altered a media landscape in which competition and reality itself are understood as given. Read more... Abstract: This book identifies and analyzes the ways in which RuPaul's Drag Race has reshaped the visibility of drag culture in the US and internationally, as well as how the program has changed understandings of reality TV. Read more... Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Drag Culture, Global Participation and RuPaul’s Drag Race (Niall Brennan, David Gudelunas)....Pages 1-11 Front Matter ....Pages 13-13 The “RuPaulitics” of Subjectification in RuPaul’s Drag Race (Julia Yudelman)....Pages 15-28 Contradictions Between the Subversive and the Mainstream: Drag Cultures and RuPaul’s Drag Race (Niall Brennan)....Pages 29-43 “Pick up a book and go read”: Art and Legitimacy in RuPaul’s Drag Race (Dieter Brusselaers)....Pages 45-59 North American Universalism in RuPaul’s Drag Race: Stereotypes, Linguicism, and the Construction of “Puerto Rican Queens” (Joanna McIntyre, Damien W. Riggs)....Pages 61-75 Spicy. Exotic. Creature. Representations of Racial and Ethnic Minorities on RuPaul’s Drag Race (Sarah Tucker Jenkins)....Pages 77-90 The Werk That Remains: Drag and the Mining of the Idealized Female Form (Amy L. Darnell, Ahoo Tabatabai)....Pages 91-101 Big-Girls Don’t Cry: Portrayals of the Fat Body in RuPaul’s Drag Race (Ami Pomerantz)....Pages 103-120 Front Matter ....Pages 121-121 “I Am the Drag Whisperer”: Notes from the Front Line of a Cultural Phenomenon (Rob Rosiello)....Pages 123-135 Sissy That Performance Script! The Queer Pedagogy of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Colin Whitworth)....Pages 137-151 Super Troopers: The Homonormative Regime of Visibility in RuPaul’s Drag Race (Anna Antonia Ferrante)....Pages 153-165 “Please Come to Brazil!” The Practices of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Brazilian Fandom (Mayka Castellano, Heitor Leal Machado)....Pages 167-177 Reception of Queer Content and Stereotypes Among Young People in Monterrey, Mexico: RuPaul’s Drag Race (Nazar Ali de la Garza Villarreal, Carolina Valdez García, Grecia Karina Rodríguez Fernández)....Pages 179-195 Mainstreaming the Transgressive: Greek Audiences’ Readings of Drag Culture Through the Consumption of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Despina Chronaki)....Pages 197-212 RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Reconceptualisation of Queer Communities and Publics (Kate O’Halloran)....Pages 213-228 Front Matter ....Pages 229-229 Digital Extensions, Experiential Extensions and Hair Extensions: RuPaul’s Drag Race and the New Media Environment (David Gudelunas)....Pages 231-243 What Can Drag Do for Me? The Multifaceted Influences of RuPaul’s Drag Race on the Perth Drag Scene (Claire Alexander)....Pages 245-269 “If You Can’t Love Yourself, How in the Hell You Gonna Love Somebody Else?” Drag TV and Self-Love Discourse (Chelsea Daggett)....Pages 271-285 “We’re All Born Naked and the Rest Is Drag”: The Performativity of Bodies Constructed in Digital Networks (Ronaldo Henn, Felipe Viero Kolinski Machado, Christian Gonzatti)....Pages 287-303 Back Matter ....Pages 305-309 Annotation This book identifies and analyzes the ways in which RuPaul's Drag Race has reshaped the visibility of drag culture in the US and internationally, as well as how the program has changed understandings of reality TV. This edited volume illustrates how drag has become a significant aspect of LGBTQ experience and identity globally through RuPaul's Drag Race, and how the show has reformed a media landscape in which competition and reality itself are understood as given. Taking on lenses addressing race, ethnicity, geographical origin, cultural identity, physicality and body image, and participation in drag culture across the globe, this volume offers critical, non-traditional, and first-hand perspectives on drag culture