Social media will determine America’s next top drag queen — does it violate FCC rules?

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:25:00 +0000

Viewers of "RuPaul's Drag Race," which will declare its winner on May 6, may have been surprised by a recent exhortation by head judge RuPaul after the final lip-sync.

The show, which features a slowly dwindling group of female impersonators fighting for RuPaul's approval, has traditionally determined eliminations and winners on the basis of its judges' whims. However, RuPaul asked viewers to show their support for finalists Roxxxy Andrews, Jinkx Monsoon, or Alaska by retweeting, commenting on Facebook and Instagram, and reblogging on Tumblr.

It's a novel way to help determine a winner -- judging won't just be based on how the queens did on the runway but how their personalities came across to those watching at home. ("Ru has not made his final decision" but will be informed by the queens' popularity, a Logo representative said via email.) And it's one that's shown results for the small cable network Logo, whose representatives boasted in an email to Salon that they had received 60,000 Facebook comments and 15,000 retweets.

"The queens have no knowledge of what’s headed their way as the season unfolds," wrote a Logo representative. "They didn’t see it coming or have prior knowledge."

RuPaul sashays into the mainstream

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:57:00 +0000

The question of whether or not Michelle Obama was "throwing shade" at John Boehner after last week's inauguration likely hadn't been asked of a first lady before; the term, which originated in the drag world, has officially entered the language. Before there was Michelle's eye roll, there was a winter of Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey reading each other in clips from the nation's most popular television show. Recently, Prince threw shade at Madonna. "Dissing" someone is so 2004!

"RuPaul's Drag Race," the show that helped to bring drag culture into the mainstream, returns for a fifth season tonight, and the question is: Is everyone a little bit queeny? Has "shade-throwing" -- the sort of sly, cutting insults that, coincidentally, tend to clock in under 140 characters -- become a national pastime? And is there anything risky about drag queens when everything from their language to their costumes (the proudly, comically outré Katy Perry and Lady Gaga) is mainstream?

Salon.com > rupaul's drag race

Social media will determine America’s next top drag queen — does it violate FCC rules?

RuPaul sashays into the mainstream