This past week I finally showed my boyfriend the hilarious and sometimes sickening world of RuPaul’s drag race. If you didn’t know, RuPaul is an incredibly successful American drag queen, actor, model, singer, author, and television personality. RuPaul’s Drag Race started back in 2009 and is still running 13 seasons strong with six seasons of Drag Race: All Stars and even extending the show to the UK. I’ve been a huge fan of drag race since high school, but I haven’t kept up with it in recent years because I had no one to watch it with. In my opinion, drag race is the best and funniest when you watch it with your friends!
My boyfriend has always been accepting of other people’s choices and artistic expression, but he never knew much about the drag or LGBTQ+ community. This show has been an excellent way for him to learn about the community and ask various questions about what drag really is. I definitely think him and I both get a lot out of exploring the drag and gay community through this show, although some of their pop culture references go straight over our heads. Another factor about the show we get to learn more about is the standards for makeup and fashion. If you know anything about drag race, it’s that the judges will give some of the harshest critiques to someone’s makeup and outfit. I have never been the biggest fan of fashion, so watching the queens explain their runway or character looks can help me learn the different styles of fashion. I am very familiar with drag makeup and the makeup industry in general, so I have definitely had a lot of fun explaining different queen’s makeup styles to my boyfriend. Even though we might not understand all of the references and terminology thrown around on the show, the comedy and drama served up by the queens is irresistible.
If you haven’t watched RuPaul’s Drag Race but don’t know where to start, I definitely recommend starting with Season 8 then moving on to Season 9. Once you’re done with those two seasons, you can watch All Stars Season 2. If you want to start from the very beginning, all 13 seasons including All Stars are available to stream on Paramount+. If you start later on in the show, I would definitely have your phone on hand to google any past queens they reference. I hope this article pushes you to explore the world of drag, and don’t forget about the best advice Mama RuPaul has ever given. “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”