TELEVISION
Pride Month and the two important shows the world is learning from.
re you a Jonathan or a Bobby? Maybe you’re a Karamo? Do you also pop the corn to feed the children, or like to Halleluh. Have you said Vanjie in the last few hours? If you don’t know the meaning of any of these references, you’re in trouble.
In 2018, queer culture is shaping pop culture more than ever, and since it’s Pride Month, perhaps it’s time to find out how gay, lesbian and transgender people are shaping the way the world sees itself in entertainment spaces.
Outside the maelstrom of political lies, show’s like Netflix’s Queer Eye, VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, documentaries like Who Shot Martha P. Henson? and comedians like Ellen Degeneres and Hannah Gadsby are breaking down walls like never before.
This is not a new phenomenon, but the fact that it’s happening on big platforms with millions tuning in to watch is.
South Africa is a microcosm of world trends and just two months ago it was announced Bianca del Rio (the season six winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race) is heading to Cape Town and Johannesburg with her one-woman show Blame it on Bianca Del Rio – and her visit shouldn’t have come as a surprise.
Del Rio, the creation of Roy Haylock, is hugely popular with mainstream comedy audiences thanks to his connection to the show. In the last few years, drag queens have started emerging from gay bars and into the limelight globally thanks to RuPaul’s Drag Race, a show that this year alone released two seasons, RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars Season 3 and RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 which concludes next week on VH1 in the parts of the world where the show is licensed.
The juggernaut show is by definition a reality show, where men dress in drag and compete in a variety of challenges to be crowned America’s next drag superstar. But it really provides a platform where gay and drag culture is shared with a mainstream audience.
From phrases like Lewks, Werk, Shade and now Vanjie (a word inspired by drag queen Vanessa Vanjie Mateo, who bizarrely said it repeatedly while walking backwards from the stage during her elimination), the show is trendsetting.
But behind the feathers and sequin gowns it’s also sharing poignant experiences. From growing up gay with religious parents or family or in strict cultural backgrounds, competitors share personal stories of abandonment and ultimately success.
This week one of the latest season’s “villians” The Vixen walked off stage during the show’s reunion taping after confrontations with some of her competitors were continuously brought up.
After her walk-off some of the competitors pointed out that she’s clearly struggling with a number of issues – to which The Vixen quickly responded on Twitter:
“One last thing: I don’t need ‘help’. I’m not going through ‘something’. I’m not ‘troubled’ in any way. After I left the reunion there was a lot of talk about my needs. I need to be treated with respect. I brought important issues to the show and a lot of ratings. That’s all”.
On the show, The Vixen’s story included her voicing what black, queer people face in America.
When a white competitor, Aquaria, started crying after The Vixen raised questions about how the two will be played in the media, The Vixen was quick to point out that her narrative will be “the angry black woman” when she merely asked tough questions.
The inclusion of these story lines helps show how rapidly the world has changed, and how more people have a platform to air the real-world problems they face, especially considering half the cast was not white – a rare mix of diversity in America where TV shows remain predominately homogeneous.
Similarly, Netflix’s Queer Eye is shaping conversations that are long overdue. The show released its second season last week.
On the show, the Fab Five, consisting of Antoni Porowski (food and wine expert), Bobby Berk (interior design), Karamo Brown (culture), Jonathan Van Ness (grooming) and Tan France (fashion) travel through the southern American state of Georgia helping people get back on track.
What seems like a make-over show has become a phenomenon where the five actually open a window onto the world, one where goodness exists. Words like community are often used – and that’s what it’s establishing.
Instead of showing differences, it’s showing viewers similarities between a diverse cast and the families and individuals they end up helping.
Some beautiful moments include a religious family openly talking about their acceptance of gay people, a trans-gendered man changing his driver’s license to say male instead of female, and a mother who survived cancer shares how it helped her reconnect with her estranged son.
And instead of just make-overs the Fab Five help decorate church halls, give important life advice and share experiences of the human condition. These type of stories carry powerful messages in a world that seems so broken. There’s a lot of good, and this Pride Month that’s all the world needs.
Queer Eye is available to stream on Netflix in South Africa, and RuPaul’s Drag Race can be watched on wow-presents.com when subscribing to the service.