RuPaul’s Drag Race: Queer authenticity and strategic Westernness

Abstract We analyze RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs The World (UKVTW), part of the larger RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise—one of the most popular current media representations of queerness. UKVTW features participants from different countries competing to be “Queen of the Mother-Tucking World.” We examine the intersection of queerness and whiteness, exploring the tension between national identity, racialization, and drag performance. Building on scholarship about reality TV and authenticity, we argue the series queers conventional notions of authenticity in reality TV by privileging fluid gender identities. Developing the notion of “strategic Westernness” we examine how the series presents a postracial imaginary that obfuscates race by foregrounding nationality: seemingly progressive representations of gender ultimately privilege white and Western participants.