www.clydefitchreport.com: To be an Asian American fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race is to embark upon a fraught journey. A longtime fan, I started watching the show during Season 3. That 2011 season saw Drag Race’s first and only Asian American winner, the multitalented Raja, and boasted Manila Luzon as runner-up.
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When I first learned about what drag was, and about RuPaul's Drag Race, I thought it was awesome and I couldn't wait to watch it, but when I did I was honestly horrified. So much of the drag that I first experienced relied mainly on racism. I had made the mistake of watching the very first episode of RuPaul, which came out in 2009, in 2017. Humor changed a lot in the past ten years and thank god for that, but certain aspects of that first very very racist performance I saw have remained. As pointed out in this article, Orientalism is the current culprit. What is so hard about these situations is that a lot of these harmful stereotypes are being perpetrated by the culture that is most harmed by it. It really is about the lengths that they go to win. I wish we lived in a world where they did not feel they had to rely on those stereotypes to capture the attention and admiration of their audience. In all honesty, I don't know what the answer is other than to not engage with that so it will stop being effective and therefore stop being used. The difficulty, as the author mentions, is in finding a way to continue to support queens of Asian descent despite what they do to win
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