Let me just start off by saying, I'm a moron. There. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, here's why.
Tonight starts two shows that I like a lot. Two shows that, as a blogger of things drag, should have made me specifically ask for the night off. What am I talking about? Honey, if you haven't heard, then you must be living under a rock. Tonight starts both RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 6, AND Watch RuPaul's Drag Race with Taffy Pulls. Both star drag queens. Both make me very happy. AND, both are going to be unavailable to me, because I didn't realize that I should have asked for the time off...So, I'm stuck working tonight. I get out of work after both shows will be over. It's depressing.
This was the Taffy Pulls I first met, when I moved to Portland. I knew of her, before I moved here, because she and my ex knew of each other through Facebook. Coming from a small town, where drag consisted of what essentially boiled down to the literal sense of it, "Boys in dresses, sometimes with full beards," this particular look was not something I was at all familiar with. Then again, I also believe that the first time I met this Taffy person, it happened to be a Harbor Masters night at Blackstones...thus the look, and my extreme discomfort. I actually spent the following couple of days wondering if I had actually made the right decision to move...
Flash forward two years, and (where did the time go? Has it really been that long?) I consider Taffy to be one of my closest friends. Mostly, because I don't like to let people get close to me. Over time, I got to know Taffy as both Taffy and Shane. Taffy and I bonded over the fact that Shane and I worked for the same company, although, at different times, and even at the same home. Small world, right? Taffy and I share a self-deprecating sense of humor...although, hers is decidedly much sharper than mine. Because I try not to embrace my inner "Rose Nyland". I'm often the butt of a joke, but I don't want to admit it. I would like to say that Taffy actually inspires me to be me. The fact that she can go from one show, as a Spoon, to the next as Stevie Nicks, to the next with Gaga's beer can hair. She's not afraid. She even ran for city council! And, this is why I love her.
Taffy's RuPaul's Drag Race show opened my eyes a bit to all the intricacies of drag, and that what most people consider to be drag is just a small portion of what real drag is. (This is also a lesson that Dan and Shaunna Rai have been impressing on me for as long as I've known them.) I mean, when I first started getting involved in the world of drag, my understanding of it, was what I got from movies like Mrs. Doubtfire, and Trick, or the posters for movies like Priscilla, Queen of the Desert or To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. In other words, drag was about attractive-ish men, who make really ugly women, but the world loves them anyway.
Over time, I've come to the realization, as I usually do, that it's not like that at all. Sometimes in drag, the end result is much more beautiful than the beginning. Sometimes, the whole thing looks like a mess, but it's planned out, that it's going to be a mess, and that's what's amazing about it. Sometimes, queens border on scary. Sometimes they're raunchy as hell. Sometimes, they're as prim and proper as a Victorian corset. Drag is a culture all of it's own. And, there are just as many subcultures as you can imagine.
And, above it all, I've learned, through keeping this blog, that more than looking pretty, or getting attention (which are two reasons people actually do drag) the biggest thing with drag, is that you learn something about yourself. You learn how to be better at what you're doing, if you're doing it. You learn what you need to do to get the response you want from an audience. And, if you're in the audience, you learn that there's nothing more interesting than a man in a dress (or a woman in men's clothing) because it will throw everything you know about people up in the air, and jumble all the pieces when they hit the ground.
And, what have I learned? So much about myself. I get jealous. I get frustrated. I wish some days, that I had the balls to get someone to "drag me up," and parade me around town, because nobody will know it's me. I'm surprised every time someone tells me that they love my blog, because I don't stop to think that people actually read it. I still have so much to learn. About drag. About life. About myself. I have so many questions that I need to have answered. And, I'm a moron. Who loves drag, and the entire community. Who is going to miss Taffy's first show of this season, and is going to have to watch RuPaul's Drag Race in reruns tonight, after work, to see the other half of the first episode that they didn't show online.
Tonight starts two shows that I like a lot. Two shows that, as a blogger of things drag, should have made me specifically ask for the night off. What am I talking about? Honey, if you haven't heard, then you must be living under a rock. Tonight starts both RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 6, AND Watch RuPaul's Drag Race with Taffy Pulls. Both star drag queens. Both make me very happy. AND, both are going to be unavailable to me, because I didn't realize that I should have asked for the time off...So, I'm stuck working tonight. I get out of work after both shows will be over. It's depressing.
This was the Taffy Pulls I first met, when I moved to Portland. I knew of her, before I moved here, because she and my ex knew of each other through Facebook. Coming from a small town, where drag consisted of what essentially boiled down to the literal sense of it, "Boys in dresses, sometimes with full beards," this particular look was not something I was at all familiar with. Then again, I also believe that the first time I met this Taffy person, it happened to be a Harbor Masters night at Blackstones...thus the look, and my extreme discomfort. I actually spent the following couple of days wondering if I had actually made the right decision to move...Flash forward two years, and (where did the time go? Has it really been that long?) I consider Taffy to be one of my closest friends. Mostly, because I don't like to let people get close to me. Over time, I got to know Taffy as both Taffy and Shane. Taffy and I bonded over the fact that Shane and I worked for the same company, although, at different times, and even at the same home. Small world, right? Taffy and I share a self-deprecating sense of humor...although, hers is decidedly much sharper than mine. Because I try not to embrace my inner "Rose Nyland". I'm often the butt of a joke, but I don't want to admit it. I would like to say that Taffy actually inspires me to be me. The fact that she can go from one show, as a Spoon, to the next as Stevie Nicks, to the next with Gaga's beer can hair. She's not afraid. She even ran for city council! And, this is why I love her.
Over time, I've come to the realization, as I usually do, that it's not like that at all. Sometimes in drag, the end result is much more beautiful than the beginning. Sometimes, the whole thing looks like a mess, but it's planned out, that it's going to be a mess, and that's what's amazing about it. Sometimes, queens border on scary. Sometimes they're raunchy as hell. Sometimes, they're as prim and proper as a Victorian corset. Drag is a culture all of it's own. And, there are just as many subcultures as you can imagine.
And, above it all, I've learned, through keeping this blog, that more than looking pretty, or getting attention (which are two reasons people actually do drag) the biggest thing with drag, is that you learn something about yourself. You learn how to be better at what you're doing, if you're doing it. You learn what you need to do to get the response you want from an audience. And, if you're in the audience, you learn that there's nothing more interesting than a man in a dress (or a woman in men's clothing) because it will throw everything you know about people up in the air, and jumble all the pieces when they hit the ground.And, what have I learned? So much about myself. I get jealous. I get frustrated. I wish some days, that I had the balls to get someone to "drag me up," and parade me around town, because nobody will know it's me. I'm surprised every time someone tells me that they love my blog, because I don't stop to think that people actually read it. I still have so much to learn. About drag. About life. About myself. I have so many questions that I need to have answered. And, I'm a moron. Who loves drag, and the entire community. Who is going to miss Taffy's first show of this season, and is going to have to watch RuPaul's Drag Race in reruns tonight, after work, to see the other half of the first episode that they didn't show online.
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