The Student News Site of PCM High School

The PCM Outlook

The Student News Site of PCM High School

The PCM Outlook

The Student News Site of PCM High School

The PCM Outlook

by Ashley Miller

This column might be about the following things: RuPaul’s Drag Race, being the online editor of this paper, AP courses or my junior year. Being the online editor is an honor, but I don’t think I can write 475 words worth about it. And I don’t particularly want strangers to read a rant, so AP is out of question. My junior year is consumed by AP and pre-calculus, so once again, out of question. That leaves us with the only good thing out of the list of four: RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The new season of RPDR just started about a month ago. The premise is 10 queens returning for a chance to win the crown again. With three of my favorites returning, it’s been a stressful time watching them get in the bottom three or sent home. I’m not going to recap the series, however I’m going to talk about how Drag Race and RuPaul are actually helping people.

Let’s start with RuPaul, who came into the spotlight with his song “Supermodel (You Better Work)” in 1992. Being openly gay in that time was a big deal. Take Ellen Degeneres, for example, she had her TV sitcom cancelled after coming out in real life and on the show in 1997. RuPaul not only made drag mainstream and open to the public eye in a positive way. He also showed LGBT+ people, or anyone for that matter, that it’s okay to be who you are.

Some queens used drag to help themselves get through a bad time. Trixie Mattel was verbally abused by her stepfather and was called a “Trixie” as an insult. When they began doing drag they turned it around and made something positive out of it. Another queen, Katya Zamolodchikova used drag and the show to help break an addiction to drugs.

Out of all the beautiful people to have graced the show with their presence, almost all of them have been treated badly because of who they are. RuPaul states on numerous occasions that they’re all family now. One giant family that has each other’s backs. And to top off the theme of acceptance, every episode ends with RuPaul telling you to love yourself, which is so important, not only to the LGBT+ community, but to everyone. Loving yourself is more important than someone else loving you, in my opinion. Loving yourself is taking care of your body, being aware of your feelings, letting those feelings out and not being ashamed of who you are.

RuPaul and all of the queens on the show have really impacted the lives of people everywhere, no matter age, race or sexuality. Everyone can benefit from watching the show, so I encourage you, the reader, to give it a try and remember:

“If you don’t love yourself, how in the heck you gonna love somebody else?”

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