Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Drag Jocks Bring Out the "Camp" in RuPaul

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-JDX_s96gHKlOZ2bNs2239QYCyaFz8AQMF6NFvhzfNbfs9LtE-nHddc4DoV1sbIF7pN1UmfpKNOuhblparY6Qmo92tyZaMWzAztaj6Ptz204xajLeD7tkrN8bWQRBt1ZCW4O3wLOHabI/s1600/fuschia.jpg

Although I had heard about RuPaul being a famous drag queen, I had no idea she had her own reality of show of trying to find the next drag superstar. The episode of RuPaul Drag Race that I watched was "Jock in Frocks" which is where the drag contestants had to dress up male jocks as drag queen "sisters" and also come up with a cheerleading routine advocating for safe sex. I found the entire episode to be so amusing at the juxtaposition of the contestants and the jocks. While the setting is all biologically male, each one has a different desire and they construct their own societal norms. This is best seen is one of my favorite moments from the episode: Yara Sofia asks her jock if he is straight. He replies yes, and then she has a sympathetic, almost pitiful look on her face as she says "It's okay, nobody is perfect." Thus implying that for Sofia, homosexuality is the ideal norm.


When reading Susan Sontag's Notes on "Camp", she describes camp art as being "decorative art, emphasizing texture, sensuous surface, and style at the expense of content". These artistic definition can best be seen through Manila and her masculine and "brick" jock, Fuschia. The content of both men is that in real life they have big personalities and are considered annoying by their peers. However, in drag, these men become beautiful women through extensive make up, wigs, and exquisitely crafted kimonos that are made by Manila. So these men choose to have a sexy surface and the kimono-inspired fans and hair can be seen as decorative art. Their construction of femininity meant that the content of their big personalities had to expensed in order to achieve the art of beauty.

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