Shades of Lipstick & Other Colors

Regardless of the superfluous amounts of makeup drag queens cake on in order to feminize themselves, no matter the outlandish shades of lipstick applied, there is little they can do to conceal their race.  In RuPaul’s Drag Race, a queen’s version of America’s Next Top Model, the performers are varied shapes, sizes, and colors; They are displayed as beautiful.  However, even as these different races are glorified, they are portrayed falsely, either due to stereotypes or exaggerations.  The multiple occurrences of stereotyping, internalized oppression, and institutional racism within the show are ignored widely because of colorblindness.

Furthermore, colorblindness promotes the neglect of discourse revolving around race leading to an atmosphere of unwillingness, or at the very least unawareness, to see the truth.  RuPaul’s Drag Race is viewed by thousands of Americans.  Its popularity directly relates to the difficulty of seeing through the colorblindness that surrounds it.  “If we live in a ‘smoggy’ place how can we avoid breathing the air” (Hill 2008)?

            The most prominent examples of the stereotypes seen in the season are within the episode, “Ru Ha Ha.”  Here the queens are asked to perform comedy routines, with no specific guidelines or prompts.  Before their shows, the men are given the opportunity to roast one another light-heartedly.  Miss Delta seems to cling to race almost immediately as she tears into Puerto Rican, Yara Sofia, “Isn’t it interesting that when you’re flight came into town that the sightings of chupacabras increased?” and Korean, Manila “What are we going to do when a hurricane hits all of Asia? You won’t have any material left” (Stevenson 2011).  These comments may seem to be “active racism,” but the real issue here is that none of these comments are directly addressed as such (Tatum 1997).  Colorblindness is exemplified here in the silence:

“This partly stems from a desire to avoid conflict and partly from a belief that acknowledging race in any form creates the problem in the first place.  Not talking about race may avoid short term conflict, but in the midst of a society that is racially structured, to say talk creates the problem will keep people from discussing what is needed for solutions.” (Hitchcock 2002)