Rising

Dear RuPaul,

I’d like to first thank you for the work you’ve done providing a platform in which drag performers can gain national recognition. You’ve helped bring an art historically practiced in dark seedy bars to homes all over America. I would also like to commend you for your work with dowdy women that I find nothing short of saintly. It is for this reason I am seeking your help.

Last night I attended a performance which I will not even dignify with the moniker of “drag.” More than half of the performances featured men in their regular clothing merely lip-syncing to poorly-chosen songs. There was one drag king, and it was just a woman with a mullet in a police uniform. I’m still not completely convinced that she wasn’t just a police officer that just happened to be in the bar at the time. The whole production just felt too conservative for a drag show, and I wish I were just talking about their application of makeup.

There was one point in the show where a man was lip-syncing in plain clothes to a Shakira song before the emcee put that to a stop saying “You need to sing a man’s song,” to which he bewilderingly started playing Enrique Iglesias. A drag show was the last place I was expecting to see gender norms reinforced, and yet there we were. I believe you have the power to help drag communities like these, so this is my proposal:

For your next show you should go into rural communities across America to help improve the quality of drag. No one should have to pay good money to watch people too lazy to even put on a pair of heels. It could be like “RuPaul’s Drag Takeover,” “RuPaul’s Extreme Drag Makeover,” or even “RuPaul’s Dragstic Measures.”

America needs you RuPaul.

Sincerely,

A concerned drag enthusiast.