Culture

Drag Race just proved to – well, RuPaul – that women can be sickening drag queens twice over

Drag Race season 12 Jaida Essence Hall and her makeover partner

Drag Race season 12 continued with a makeover challenge. (WOW)

Drag Race season 12 and its Celebrity sister gave us a sickening double helping of female drag, and fans are living for it.

Drag Race continued this week with the legendary makeover challenge.

Each year, towards the end of the competition, RuPaul tasks the queens with transforming a group of non-drag artists.

This time, he paired the top six with female super fans – a decision which sparked some controversy online.

A viral Twitter post suggested that the decision to bring in six women showed “how Drag Race‘s target audience has changed” – perhaps oblivious to the fact that season one’s makeover challenge featured a group of women (see also: season eight, All Stars 2 and Drag Race UK).

While it’s fair to say that the show has, over the years, broadened its appeal, many called out the sentiment behind the post for what it was: exclusion of women, especially queer women.

Many pointed out that RuPaul regularly welcomes straight cis men for the makeover challenges without controversy.

Any doubts that might have been harboured were swept away once season 12’s makeover episode aired.

As if that wasn’t enough, Celebrity Drag Race continued the theme of celebrating women by welcoming Vanessa Williams, Tami Roman and Loni Love to the werk room.

Although it wasn’t lost on anybody that the nine women who were invited onto both Proletariat and Celebrity Drag Race this week were all cisgender.

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