Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: drag race

Queering Country
Culture & Literature, Music

Queering Country

Drag superstar and winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 Trixie Mattel was on the path to becoming a country singer long before she tried on her signature blonde wig for the first time. In fact, the seed of musicality was planted before the persona of Trixie Mattel existed at all. Brian Firkus, the man behind Trixie’s dramatically contoured face and histrionically feminine figure, was just a child growing up in rural Wisconsin when his grandfather identified his knack for music.  “My grandfather was a folk musician,” Firkus tells in an interview with Broadly. “I grew up playing guitar and singing at the kitchen table with my grandpa. That was in my blood, and there was an understanding that I’d grow up and be a musician.” Trixie’s grandfather’s table-side fostering of her musical tal...
RuPaul, transphobia, and remembering your Herstory
Opinion

RuPaul, transphobia, and remembering your Herstory

“If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else?”, “We’re all born naked and the rest is drag” … we’re all familiar with RuPaul’s famous one-liners, which are often expressions of self-love; defending our right to be authentically and unapologetically ourselves. RuPaul’s status within the LGBTQ+ community cannot be understated. Bringing drag into mainstream culture is no small feat, but being the most famous drag queen in the world also comes at a price. So when RuPaul recently sparked a debate about who can or can’t be a drag queen, it made me wonder how valuable RuPaul’s opinions still are when he’s clearly forgotten his Herstory.  In a recent interview with The Guardian, Ru shocked us all when he said he wouldn’t accept a transgender contestant on his...