RuPaul's Drag Race

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a schlocky, tacky, cheap production of reality television. With that said, it is... well, faaaaabulous. RuPaul first gained fame as a drag queen and club performer in the early 1990s and subsequently went on to appear in television and films. His importance in the realm of drag performance is paramount and his mainstream accessibility is not to be understated. He has made himself a paragon for any hopefuls to come and that is the basis of his drag race, contestants compete with each other in sort of a attempt to knock the rhinestone tiara from his head. 

RuPaul’s Drag Race follows a vein similar to shows like Project Runway and Top Chef in that it is a reality show where more is required of the participant. A strong stomach for beetles and bile or a penchant for vulgarity is not enough. And more than sheer nerve is needed, though it helps to have plenty of that too. Mostly what seems to be asked of contestants is talent, ingenuity and work ethic. They are expected to design and sew most of they’re own costumes, do their own make-up and are usually put through the ringer with some sort of physical exertion whether it be a dance routine or otherwise. And of course, in the final showdown every week, the grown men competing to be “America’s Next Drag Superstar” must sashay down the runway in their stilettos.

What’s interesting about the show is for the majority of it, the contestants are out of their glitzy garb and the men, most of them solidly built, are carefully calculating and plotting on how they can lose all effects of masculinity and be the most feminine each week. Preconceived notions of masculinity aren’t even notions in this arena and it’s expected that these men will drop any remnants of that as easily and effortlessly as they slip on a wig. There’s a good heaping of camp that goes with the drag, and naturally, sequins are de rigueur,  but each of the men seem to be paying a serious salute and a honorable homage to the women who have inspired them. 

It’s hard to talk seriously about something which holds no reverence for anything except maybe glamour, nonetheless RuPaul’s Drag Race, for all it’s fun and frivolity, is doing something serious. It’s very existing is permission for others to do the same thing, to redefine what masculinity or femininity is, to rediscover it on their own terms and to celebrate it. And while, this viewer may not be slipping on a wig anytime soon, perhaps I could put a little more bass in my walk...

Beatrice Straight in "Network" (1976)

      In 1976, Faye Dunaway won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the film, Network. She was the forerunner to win that year and no one was surprised by her score. The winner for Best Supporting Actress that year was also in Network, a woman named Beatrice Straight, who’s win was much less expected than Dunaway’s. Straight was 62 years old and had spent most of her acting career on the New York stage. Before Network she had appeared in a handful of films and done a smattering of TV work. One can imagine she must have felt a little out of her element at the glitzy awards ceremony in Los Angeles, a very dark horse she was, indeed.
     Straight’s performance in Network is of a peculiar achievement. At five minutes and forty seconds, it is the shortest performance ever to garner a win of the celebrated Oscar. Straight played the wife of a television executive, who has been thrown over for a younger woman after twenty-five years of marriage. Straight worked on the film for three days and aside from her critical scene when the affair is revealed to her, she only appears in a few, quiet shots waking up and starting her day before her husband.
     As Louise (Straight’s character) listens to her husband calmly explain to her that he’s having an affair, it’s easy to see the sensibility that has pervaded through their twenty-five years of marriage. Straight is remarkable in how she conveys the character’s desperate rationality. Louise is white-knuckling her collectedness, asking questions like, “How long has it been going on?” and “Do you love her?” With each of her husband’s answers she loses a little more control of her practiced and balanced resolve. When he has repeated twice that he is “infatuated” with this younger woman, and then proceeds to say he is “obsessed,” Straight unleashes herself completely.
     Most incredible about the woman’s hysterics is the intelligence of their temper. It’s never ridiculous or absurd, she realizes that this is no small indiscretion and she is livid about it. She’s livid that after twenty-five years, another woman will be reaping the benefit of what she’s sowed. Credit has to be given to screenwriter, Paddy Chayefsky, but Straight’s delivery is no slouch. She says to him, burning raw, “So this is your great, winter romance, isn’t it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that’s what’s left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion and I get the dotage?”
     The superior quality in Straight’s performance is how quickly and naturally she reels the character in. This intensity is not what their marriage has been. Perhaps it has been lacking in all out heat, but still, they have been warm companions. She gives up her rage and tells him simply, “I hurt.” They begin to talk and she listens as a best friend would to someone talking about their new love. At the end of Louise’s tour de force as a wife and Straight’s tour de force as an actress, she hugs him and says, “I won’t give you up easily...but I think perhaps it is better if you move out.” Within this startling range that Straight gives us in under three minutes is amazing conceivability.
     As day broke over Hollywood on the morning after the 1976 Academy Awards, Faye Dunaway’s fiancee, photographer, Terry O’Neill, shot a fabulous image of her. In the photo, Dunaway lounges poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel, sleepless and hung over in a white silk bath robe and heels, with a cup of coffee and her Best Actress statuette next to her, newspapers filled with headlines of her victory scattered around her feet. Trying to imagine what Beatrice Straight’s morning after looked like, one can guess that it probably wasn’t quite so glamorous, nonetheless that same feeling of glorified achievement was just as richly deserved

Artwork of Bahraini Protestors

The country of Bahrain is a small, island country located to the east of Saudi Arabia. The country is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. Like much of the rest of the Middle East, Bahrain is finding itself in severe upheaval and turmoil right now. Following the lead of other neighboring countries, major protests against the government and leaders have taken place. The Pearl Roundabout became the center for all activity regarding the protests, including being the main site for demonstrations. What has also developed at the Roundabout because of all this Arabian sturm und drang, is a significant amount of opposition art.

The art displayed along the sides of the Roundabout have run the gamut from graffiti to banners to mere photographs of protestors lying dead. A lot of this artwork has been sloppily done. If one were to look at any of these creations under a separate set of circumstances, it would be easy to dismiss it with the same sort of carelessness that it looks like it was made under. However, the hasted effect is precisely what gives all of this work resonance.

One of the more intriguing pieces created was the front of a Sanyo air conditioner with a paper print out taped to it, reading, “We won’t move even if summer comes. We have the air conditioners ready.” It’s shoddy and looks like a grade school art project, and it’s commanding and incredibly inspiring. These people will not be moved, not even by the charring weather of their country’s summer, and they’re letting their government know in a form with a little style and imagination.

Despite the lack of finesse in any of these pieces, it’s the idea of creativity coming out under intense pressure that makes it so powerful. The fact that they are not trained in a particular method of creation gives their work even more clout. These are not artists making poetic statements about injustice in the world; these are real people expressing their rage and defiance in a new form. The people of Bahrain, with the government trying to silence them in the most extreme and literal way, have let their voices be heard through art.

The government of Bahrain has torn down the Roundabout, promising instead to put in traffic lights as a more effective way of passing along the road. It also seems to be a more effective way of traveling without spreading the message of the protestors. The Bahrainis may have lost a place to hang their work but it is doubtful that those who have the will to create can be stopped from doing it. Roundabout or not, there is hope for them and their air conditioners.