If America's Next Top Model and Project Runway had a child, that would be Rupaul's Drag Race. What are we talking about? It is a competition of drag queens - ‘men who disguise themselves as women to make shows’ It is as crazy as exciting.
The program was created by RuPaul Charles, one of the most famous drag queens in the United States, ten years ago. The idea was simple: show the world the talent it takes to be the best queen of all and humanize the LGBT community in the process. Being a drag queen is much more than dressing up as a woman, it is putting on makeup better than professionals, singing, dancing and being a fashion designer, among many other things.
From creating outfits with Christmas decorations, starring in the most bizarre TV shows you've seen, singing RuPaul songs, devising stand-ups and acting lip syncs for their lives, these queens do everything to achieve the much-desired title of 'America's next drag superstar'. If I still do not convince you, here are some reasons why you should watch RuPaul's Drag Race.
1. It is pure joy
Bizarre and extravagant, of course, but with love and joy. The show is an inexhaustible source of laughter and hilarious GIFs.
2. The dresses
In the universe of drag queens there is room for everything, and inside, iwe can see spectacular avant-garde dresses, often created by the participants themselves.
3. The wigs
Pizza and beer, movies and popcorn ...
some combinations are inevitable. Well, the same thing happens with the drag queens and their wigs. And, the bigger, the better.
4. Humour
If something is not lacking in the show, it is the intelligent, shameless and extravagant mood of the queens.
5. Teaches you to love yourself
The spirit of inclusion and self-acceptance of the show is concentrated in the famous phrase that RuPaul repeats as a mantra at the end of each program: If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love anyone else?
6. The catch-phrases
There is no doubt that RuPaul loves her catch-phrases. 'Do not f... it up', 'Condragulations' and 'Sashay away' are some of the phrases that give the program the unmistakable stamp of RuPaul.
7. The lip syncs
One of the best moments of the program. Towards the end of the episode, the two queens with the worst performance should make a ‘lip sync for your life’, a kind of dance-off that will define who stays in the competition and who should go home.
If these reasons were not enough for you to watch the show, here are two main aspects to watch it.
It is respectful
One of RuPaul's conditions for the channels that were going to buy the show was that its protagonists did not become a joke. RuPaul's Drag Race could easily have become a freaks circus with the drag queens as the main attraction, but it did not. Although its content is pure comedy, competitors are never the target of ridicule, quite the contrary.
And for all those who had not had contact with the world of drag queens before this program, their presence can be shocking, but RuPaul made sure to make clear that behind the makeup and women's clothing there are people of flesh and blood who live by their art.
It is inclusive
With ten seasons and an average of one million spectators per episode in the US, the show has managed to make visible a culture that for decades was confined in an underworld of nightclubs and bars. In addition, it fosters empathy and compassion when participants share their experiences when leaving the closet and the difficulties that many have in their family ties for their performances as drag queens.
We recommend you to watch Netflix's most extravagant reality. Anyway, we warn you: Rupaulism is a way to go.