One of the most compelling storylines this season, of Rupaul’s Drag Race which also best exemplifies the themes of this class overall in that of my favorite queen this season, Lexi Love. Lexi is a trans woman and is also the oldest contestant on the season(but she is still only 32). In an earlier episode of season 17 Lexi tells the story of her mom kicking her out of the house when she was eighteen because her mom found out she was gay(at the time Lexi was identifying as a gay man, before coming out as trans later in life). Lexi has talked about her past a lot on the show including a history with sex work, and getting sober from a crystal meth addiction. She talked about how drag and her drag family quite literally saved her life. On the most recent episode(episode 13, “Drag Baby Mamas) the top five queens were tasked with making over their real life parents into members of their drag families. Given Lexi’s backstory, I was shocked when they revealed Lexi’s makeover partner to be her biological mother. Like the other queens, Lexi begins crying tears of joy when she sees her mother. In the confessional she talks about how she and her mom had a very rocky relationship but are now in a very good place. As Rupaul is doing her Werk Room walkthrough, she stops to talk to all the contestants and their parents, including Lexi and her mom. While talking to Rupaul, Lexi’s mom says “This is her dream.” Lexi begins to tear up, saying this is the first time her mom has referred to Lexi with the correct pronouns. Later in the conversation she misgenders Lexi but then quickly corrects herself. Finally during critiques on the main stage Lexi’s mom uses her correct pronouns, which makes Lexi exclaim “she called me she” through tears. In the confessional, Lexi calls this her mother giving her “the gift of trans acceptance.”
Lexi’s story reminded me a lot of the life Venus Xtravaganza of Paris Is Burning could’ve had if she had lived. They were both abandoned by their biological families, found solace in queer communities(ball and drag), and had a past with sex work. One of the main differences between them is unlike Venus, Lexi only came out a few years ago(I believe at age 29, and she was 32 at the time of filming Drag Race). So she was older when she came out than Venus was when she died. This made me think of the Clarke Forum, Rainbows and Mud, where Nic Weststrate, mentioned queer time in a trans context, talking about how there are trans people who come out in their 60s and 70s versus some who have been openly trans since childhood, and might be teaching elder trans people things. There is also an episode where Lexi reveals she has a full time job outside of drag(this is pretty rare for Drag Race contestants). She then explains how her job is online, and she uses pictures of her from before her transition, and pretends to be a cis man. This shocks the younger contestants, who express they see Lexi as this proud, completely confident trans woman. This also makes me think of Venus and her death because even the most proud and confident trans women are still victims of systemic transphobia. In the same makeover episode, Lexi talks about how she’s been intimidated by fellow contestant Suzie Toot because Suzie represents what she could have been if she didn’t have to go through her trauma. Similarly, Lexi being able to live the life she wanted, including reconciling with her mom as she grew up made Venus’s death feel even sadder for me. Lexi is not better or smarter than Venus, but she didn’t meet the same fate as her. Venus Xtravaganza, and all the innocent murdered trans women in America, could have had a beautiful life if she had lived, and Lexi Love is proof of that. I wish there was some reason I could point to a reason why Lexi came out the other end of a similar life while Venus didn’t but there isn’t one. For some odd reason Venus’s life was stolen, and Lexi was able to become a superstar. The greatest tragedy of all is how easily their fates could’ve been switched.
Stewamar, this is a great post! I also love RuPaul’s Drag Race, so this analysis really spoke to me. In particular, your mention of Lexi’s age reminded me of our class discussion on queer elders. Lexi is only thirty-two years old, but the other queens still look to her as a role model, an older sister, and even a maternal figure. It’s such a sad reality that queer elders are not elderly whatsoever. Since we lost an entire generation of queer people, too many queer youth have been forced to grow up too fast. How can a person still reconciling with their own identity help guide the next generation? It is an extremely heavy burden to bear.
Your mention of Paris Is Burning also reminded me of our class discussion on the appropriation of Black culture. While I also like Lexi, she sometimes treads dangerously close to cultural appropriation. She takes obvious visual inspiration from Black fashion and often uses a Blaccent in confessionals. In a mini challenge, fellow queen Onya Nurve even jokingly claimed that Lexi takes drag inspiration from Aunt Jemima. I wonder what the queens from Paris Is Burning would make of all the cultural appropriation in the drag scene today. With voguing and ballroom slang becoming available to a wider, whiter audience, is some of drag’s subversiveness lost? I don’t expect you to have all the answers, of course, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts!