Legendary Children: The First Decade of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Last Century of Queer Life

by Tom Fitzgerald, Lorenzo Marquez

Legendary Children centers itself around the idea that not only is Drag Race the queerest show in the history of television, but that RuPaul and company devised a show that serves as an actual museum of queer cultural and social history, drawing on queer traditions and the work of legendary figures going back nearly a century. In doing so, Drag Race became not only a repository of queer history and culture, but an examination and illustration of queer life in the modern age. It is a snapshot of how LGBTQ folks live, struggle, work and reach out to each other – and how they always have.

Genres: Nonfiction, LGBT, History, Queer, Audiobook, Pop Culture, Historical

274 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2020

Reviews

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very breezy, chatty tour through 100 years of LGBTQ++ history. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot.

But I also question it because I do know my RPDR:

Ru did not design the lipstick message, Shangela did it in S2 and production decided they liked it.

Alyssa and Coco were on season 5, not 4.

The 9021-Ho! challenge was season 9, not 7. It included Sasha Velour, who performed her "So Emotional" lipsync at the season 9 finale, not season 10.

And, most egregious of all, during the "Natural Woman" lipsync Latrice did NOT "use the natural shape of her body" to mime pregnancy; it was a maternity challenge and both Latrice and Kenya were wearing fake baby bumps.

If the research and editing are so sloppy on the most easily fact-checked sections, how can I trust the rest of it?

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giveaway win!

4.5 Stars

I loved this book!

I would have given it 5 stars, had it been longer. This book was simply too short.

Legendary Children is about the history of Queer culture told through the prism of RuPaul's Drag Race. RuPaul is a legend. He was one of the first Drag Queens I ever saw on tv. I can't remember if I saw Divine in Hairspray or RuPaul's Supermodel music video first. I was fortunate enough to have grown up knowing several Drag Queens. My mom's best friend from high school Bobby was a Drag Queen and he used to tell me and my sister that he was our real mom. Bobby was fabulous and when I was a kid I wanted to be a Drag Queen when I was older. Of course I'm a girl so I can never be a Drag Queen but I like to think that I live my life like a female Drag Queen.

Legendary Children felt more like an appetizer. I wrote down a couple names so I could do further research and in the introduction the authors say as much. They want the reader to Google these amazing and brave trailblazers.

Here are the names of people I either already have researched on plan on researching.

- Crystal LeBeija
- Venus Xtravaganza
- Jackie Shane
- Gladys Bentley

And so many more.

I learned so much about Queer culture and like all things cool and revolutionary Black and Latinx people were on the front lines. Let's just be honest Black and Latinx people make everything cooler.

Legendary Children made me laugh and it made me shake with rage at how brutally some of these beautiful and brave people were treated. AIDS is an asshole and so were the world leaders and medical "professionals" who ignored it because it was "only killing those people". Culture has come along way but we still have an extremely long way to go. Transgender people (mostly of color)are being murdered at an alarming rate. In most states its still legal to discriminate against Queer people in various ways. We've made progress but we still have lots of work to do and we as Cis-gendered people need to do more.

A must read!
I highly recommend it!
Drop everything and read this book!

[Mara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Could this book have been more up my alley? I guess if it had also somehow included Agatha Christie, perhaps, but oh man, this was exactly the kind of niche social history I adore about a topic I love. I learned so much in this book about the history of queer performance communities in the last hundred years (BTW, so thankful to discover I am alive in the same time of history as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence), and I appreciated how the book used Drag Race as a jumping off point to explore its roots in earlier queer media traditions. The only thing that would have taken this up to 11 for me would have been to get even more specific or analytical about the Drag Race element that served as the entry point into the topic being discussed- I would have liked a little more Drag Race, basically. Like I thought the section analyzing Latrice's performance really drove home the bigger picture the authors were painting about the function of lip sync in drag communities. More of that would have made the book amazing... still HIGHLY recommend this as a fun, inspiring type of social history that gave me a new level of respect & appreciation for the art of drag

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the beginning of this, the authors say they expect you to read it with one hand always googling the folks they write about to get a deeper knowledge than they can give. Let me tell you: they are right. Much like a great oral history (I’m thinking of EDIE or MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM), Tom and Lorenzo’s book is catnip for people wanting an entry into a world they think they know, but have barely scratched the surface on. LEGENDARY CHILDREN is sneaky af in getting you to pick it up for the Drag Race component - yes, don’t worry, that’s in there, but this is really an entry point for people to learn the (I’m gonna say it) herstory of queer, trans, and non-binary artists and performers of the past century and a half. It’s pretty remarkable and so very very well done.

[J. (Better Off Read) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐

I waffled so hard between 2 and 3 stars, but in the end messing up dates and facts of Drag Race and collapsing/yass-ifying queer history the way this book did can't go unmentioned. There were 4 ⭐ moments to be sure, but overall it still felt like it was rushed to print at best and like a cash grab at worst. It's too bad because there is definitely potential here. This book needed a fact checker and another round of edits in the worst way!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher as a part of a Goodreads giveaway.

I'll start with the good. The voice of this book was fun--usually breezy but with the ability to dig its claws in when necessary--and it was genuinely a delight to read. Were this a blog, I'd be happy to settle down with a post once a week as a quick read. It also has a great set of suggestions for further reading and viewing with regard to queer history, ball culture and drag, and I've put several of its suggestions on hold at the library.

However, it's the structure of this book that fundamentally did not work for me. The loosely connected essays are, taken individually, bite-sized bits of LGBTQ+ history, but when they are sorted into categories based on the segments of Drag Race and placed in an order that makes sense for those segments but not for the essays I am left asking who this book is for.

Is it for people unconnected with queer history and culture but familiar with Drag Race? If so, the fractured nature of the structure could leave them just as lost as they were before. After all, do the early references to Paris Is Burning really make sense when the book doesn't touch ball culture until near the end? Does the interwoven history of "queens" give them the vocabulary and context to differentiate drag as gender presentation or performance from trans identities when the book breezes back and forth between the two so quickly? Will the rapid fire, non-chronological mentions of media properties, figures in queer history, and historical events make any more sense in this context than they do merely referenced in Drag Race itself?

Is it for people who are familiar with these references? For people who have seen Paris Is Burning and can keep that thread in their minds as they pop from Dorian Corey to a list of ball scene figures, back and forth through history? If it is for these people, can it also expect its audience to accept things like the absolute briefest mention and subsequent in-text absolution of the criticisms against RuPaul or the odd assertion that Rocky Horror connected with a mainstream audience upon its release? Is merely explaining the reference going to be enough for this audience?

In the end, I was left ambivalent about this book. The voice was fun and I enjoyed the process of reading its individual pieces, but the whole is ultimately weaker than the sum of those parts.

[Thomas Brassington · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book with promise which turned out to be more like a tedious collection of undercooked and under researched blog posts hastily smacked together. Not so much a loving record of queer cultural history using drag race as a thematic lens as a cash grab exploiting the popularity of one of the largest reality shows on tv

[Sasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was something cheesy about this but also I learned so much that it didn't really matter. It had a really logical structure, with each chapter connecting an area of Drag Race (lip syncing, runway, acting, etc.) to a larger part of queer/trans history. It's much more about that LGBTQ history than about Drag Race itself. It really is a great read if your main introduction to or knowledge of drag comes from the show, because it gives an incredible amount of context and breadth to the world and history of drag. If you already know a lot about drag ancestors you probably don't need to read this book! I love that it encourages you to do more research and to always be looking up the people they're talking about. It would have been nice if this book had a visual component! The cover is so incredible it makes me wish it was a graphic novel (specifically illustrated by the artist Cheyne Gallard) or even a coffee table book (I looked at so many incredible photos of different queens and performers while reading this). My main gripe is that I think they could've been a lot more critical while still maintaining the nuance they were striving for. Overall, I am just so pleased with how much I learned!

[Renata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really fun and informative! In the introduction, they say that they hope you'll read this book one-handed because you'll want to look up photos and videos as you read, and that was definitely the case for me. It took me awhile to get through this book because of that but it was a good time. I think the authors (GoodReads is showing this as by Tom Fitzgerald but it's by both Tom & Lorenzo from the blog of the same name) did a good job balancing their obvious fandom of RuPaul and Drag Race with critiques of RuPaul and the show. It's still ultimately something that's for fans of the show but that might give you a new perspective. (No mention of RuPaul's fracking tho.)

[Elizabeth☮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've recently begun watching Drag Race with my girls and we LOVE it. This book taught me so much about LGBTQ herstory and I found myself going to the internet to look up images, pages and videos of the many people discussed in this one. There is a great list of movies, books and video clips to watch listed in the back.

Fitzgerald and Marquez obviously love their subject matter here and it comes through in the tone. I love knowing that there is a long history of drag and not any one way to do it. The background on lip-synching is so good.

I just loved everything about this one.

[Jessica Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a hard time deciding what to rate this book because i appreciated a few things but overall i had a lot of trouble with the tone the book is written in - the authors seemed to try to gloss over harsh realities that queer people lived through (and continue to live through) to try to tie random things to Drag Race.

The tone of the Stonewall part is just odd and a lot of the other discussions could’ve benefited by interviewing drag queens. Some of the connections made between drag practices of the past and things on Drag Race just don’t make sense and there are several errors in the book about Drag Race itself.

Overall it’s an easy read and it has a great cover.

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there’s any book to listen to on audio I think this is definitely it! It was such a fun and entertaining read and it made an eight hour drive so much more pleasant than it would have been otherwise. I’m obsessed with Drag Race and will gladly devour anything to do with it across all franchises and listening to this was such a treat! I liked that we got stories about queer culture not involving drag race as well because as much as drag race is a part of queer culture it’s not the ONLY part. I highly recommend this book and that it be listened to in audio, it really fits the book so well and makes it a blast to read!

[Book · Rating 3 out of 5]

Legendary children was a great overview of LGBTQ* history and culture. It made me really appreciate being a part of a community with such a rich and diverse past & present. Although I don’t think the rupaul’s drag race element really added much.

[Daisy May Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've had Legendary Children on my TBR for a long while, driven not only by my love of Tom and Lorenzo whom I've read since their 'Project Rungay' days but also because of my increasing enjoyment of RuPaul's Drag Race. Though I'm not as familiar with the US series as I'd like to be (but I will be!), I have loved the UK version and have happily bing-bang-bonged my way through every second.

Using RuPaul's Drag Race as a springboard to discuss queer culture was always going to be of interest to me and Legendary Children does it with a lot of style. There were certain elements that I felt were a little lightly handled and a little too 'bloggy' for the book; essentially, they could have done with just a bit more time and depth, but overall? Legendary Children is a fascinating, educational, and well put together thing. Pair this with the stunning Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide and you'll not go far wrong.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have watched every season of Drag Race (even the blurry first one). However, I never fully understood the history of drag before reading Legendary Children. This book adds context to Rupaul’s Drag Race that I was completely missing.

Each chapter starts with some section of the show and explains how it fits into drag, and sometimes LGBTQ+, culture. From the Pit Crew to Untucked to the lipstick on the mirror, it’s all here.

I learned a bunch of history by reading Legendary Children. Important history that needs to be kept alive—especially outside of the LGBTQ+ community. This book is great for fans of Drag Race that want to dig a little deeper. 5 stars! Now it’s off to watch Dragula to see if it has hidden drag meaning too.

Thanks to Penguin Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Queerness asks for, if not demands, a level of presentation higher than that of straight or cisgender folks, who don’t, after all, have to come out about their straightness or cisness. There’s no reveal, so there’s no need to present. Queer folks never stop coming out, which means the desire or need to present as queer always exists in our lives in ways big and small.

This book is a thoughtful and extremely well-researched meditation on the queer experience through American history using the framing of Drag Race. It makes underrepresented (and honestly, sometimes kind of depressing) histories accessible to a broader audience, just as the show has. Granted, I’m a huge fan of Drag Race, so take this endorsement with a grain of salt if you will; but this book is really the best kind of media critique, which allows the reader to see the shaping forces on the shows we watch and how those shows (at least the uber-successful ones) have shaped society in return. The structure of the chapters each addressing an aspect of drag performance does make it easy to skim over the aspects that are less interesting to the individual reader — I took EXTENSIVE notes on the chapters on language and family, but left the fashion chapters largely untouched — but I find that a strength in any history that claims to encompass all of a topic. The common threads of history, identity, and culture are woven throughout, making each section well-balanced on its own as well as a coherent part of the whole. LOOK, I LOVED IT. I CAN GUSH SOMETIMES.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. (You can bet I’m buying myself & every Drag Race fan I know a copy when it comes out in March.)

[Alison Hardtmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and entertaining book that uses the popular reality tv show, RuPaul's Drag Race, to give an introduction to LGBTQ history. The show is not the focus of this book, but the scaffolding for a fast-paced primer to how queer entertainers have been able to make their mark in a society where what they did and even who they were was grounds for arrest and social opprobrium. This is a hopeful book, with powerful examples of what happens when people come together to support each other and to demand that civil rights apply to every American, with a basic who's who, from Marsha P. Johnson all the way to Pete Buttigeig.

If you're looking for more than a survey-level understanding of gay culture, or just want to enjoy a book about a popular tv program, this isn't going to be for you. The authors, Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez, run a popular celebrity-focused website and there's more than a hint of that style being used here, with the book set up in short sections. But despite it's format and writing style, there's a fair amount of substance and the authors emphasize trans culture and the importance roles that transgender people have played in LGBTQ history. It's a lot of fun to read, and I spent a lot of time amplifying what is in this book by looking up specific performances on YouTube or learning more about the ground-breaking entertainers and activists mentioned.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

How you feel about this book will likely be determined by two things: how much you know about queer historical figures and movements, and how much you picked this up because you wanted to read a book about RuPaul's Drag Race.

Because this is not a book about Drag Race. It uses the show as a framework (only sometimes successfully), but it's not about the show. There are no profiles of queens, no backstage gossip, no production secrets. This is a guide to important people throughout queer and shared history. And that's fine!

But for me, this book also somewhat failed in that regard because the figures written of tend to be mostly basic, well-known ones (Divine, Cleve Jones, Sylvester, Lypsinka), like this is a beginner's guide to queer history. I didn't need that, though it could be helpful and new for many, many readers.

But to relate this back to the show, as the book always does, this kind of feels like what Drag Race has turned into since it moved to VH1: a pleasant diversion that's inoffensively but proudly queer and mostly for an audience of straight people.

[Shalin · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's giving: yassss mawma the house down boots hunty okurrrt 🥴

Take a shot every time they mention "charisma uniqueness nerve and talent" or "lewks"...

In all seriousness, it was an easy read and I did learn a lot about the culture™, it's just that it felt very tone deaf at times—like comparing the hardships that Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera went through to support themselves and their community to them showcasing their charisma uniqueness nerve and talent...that's a yikes from me. It would have been better if it was just short essays on queer culture, not having to be tied back to RPDR...maybe then this book would be saved from its excessive, out place, and appropriated drag vernacular...cringe

Also, if you're going to write a book about rooples dr*g r*ce, make sure you check your facts lol

[Kyle Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned lots. Easy read.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve done a little bit of advocacy lately and I’ve discovered you need a few things.
1. patience - it takes time to change big things
2. A purpose which is bigger than your impatience
3. Compassion - for yourself and others
4. Inspiration to help you regroup and keep going

This book ticked the inspiration box.
It’s an enjoyable look at the LGBTQ journey to belonging through advocacy and entertainment through the lense of drag. I was here for the whole thing henny! 🙌🏻

Henny - urban slang for gay friend.

You will want to Google everything in this book, in fact it would make a great coffee table book. Warning!! Be careful NOT to Google “Tom of Finland” on your work computer or when there are kids near you! 😂

This book inspired, entertained and made me proud that I stood for my gay friends when I could by campaigning for equal rights to marriage.

[Margery Osborne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! Loved the way the authors hit my sweet spot between intelligent, witty commentary and truly empathetic cultural analysis. For me, as a person trying to understand drag and Drag Race from a social and historical dimension (rather than as a fangirl) this book is invaluable. Other reviewers commented on having problems with the structure of the book in which the authors move between the history of drag told through short stories and discussions of what occurs on Drag Race (also often told through stories). I personally love this sort of way of constructing a narrative but I am not totally unfamiliar with many of the names mentioned in the stories. I do think, for future editions of the book I would have a list of 'characters' at the start kinda like you see in more complicated novels and biographies. That would help the neophyte as much as the one handed reading the authors suggest :-) For me this was a great read and I learned a lot especially (and most importantly I think) about this aspect of the LGBTQ culture and, I think, our larger culture!

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very informative, entertaining look at the past century of queer American history as seen through the lens of RuPaul’s Drag Race. I initially suspected that this would be more focused on the show and written for fans, but was pleasantly surprised at the depth and sheer volume of significant LGBT leaders and figures discussed. 4/5

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought framing each chapter around an element of Drag Race, and using that as a jumping off point into history was interesting and effective.

However, there are several Drag Race-related errors in this book; errors that a read through by a Drag Race fan or fact checker should have caught easily. These errors make me a bit nervous about trusting the other historical details in the book, especially given that (as noted by the authors) a lot of the history they cover is undocumented. The errors I remember include the following (ordered from most minor to most glaring):
1. The 9021-Ho challenge appeared on season 9 (not on season 7 as noted in one of several mentions).
2. Coco Montrese and Alyssa Edwards appeared on season 5 (not on season 4).
3. Sasha Velour's jaw-dropping lip-sync featuring rose petals was during the season 9 (not season 10) finale.
4. They quote Ru as saying "I don't want to hear any more goddamn excuses! Fucking make it happen!" but say that this was directed to Kennedy Davenport. In fact, Ru prefaced these comments with "FYI to all you queens up there:", so this comment was direct to the whole stage, not just Kennedy.
5. There is a section where they discuss producers being particularly harsh and critical with the queens during music recording sessions, and sight a situation on season 8 involving Lucian Piane arguing with Bob the Drag Queen as an example. But Lucian wasn't harsh or arguing with Bob during that session; rather Bob was acting like a jerk - a fact he admitted when he apologized to Lucian during the runway the next day.
6. They quote Ru as saying "You have to make the character work with what you have in your wheelhouse" to Asia O'Hara (which is correct), but they state Ru said this to Asia "after her disappointing Sarah Palin spoof in 'Breastworld'" (which is not correct). Ru said this to Asia in the workroom during the Breastworld episode, but it was in relation to her disappointing (to put it mildly) impersonation of Beyonce in the previous episode's Snatch Game. Asia's performance in Breastworld was hardly disappointing given that she won the challenge.
7. The authors state that during Latrice Royale's lip-sync to Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" on season 4 she "used the natural shape of her body combined with acting and mimicry to get the audience to see her as a pregnant woman singing to her unborn child". In fact, Latrice looked pregnant because the runway category for that week was maternity! This was a makeover challenge where the queens turned themselves (as well as straight dads) into pregnant drag divas. Thus all of the queens on the runway sported pregnant bellies.

[MargaretDH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using RuPaul's Drag Race as a framing device, this book explores queer history and queer figures, trailblazers and icons of the twentieth century in the United States. Tom and Lorenzo (they of the fashion blog) take us on a witty and moving journey through some events, but mostly people. What they lack in depth and analysis, they make up for in celebration.

This is very readable, and you should really go through this with a phone or a computer so you can look up photos and youtube clips of people and performances. Don't read this one on the bus! Save it for somewhere you can dig into some of the folks they introduce you to.

[Alaina Cyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

[ARC review] This book is a wonderful read! It serves as an intro to gay (American) history framed through familiar and common aspects of RuPaul's Drag Race. The book is at it's best when using RPDR as a starting point to trace back and contextualize the show within the history of oscillating gay rights (or more often, lack thereof) and the plague, and the role drag and drag performers played in affecting change. The lesser parts are those when the authors uncritically idolize RuPaul. The knockout chapters - Chapter 6: For Every Tuck There Must Be A Bulge, Chapter 7: The Category Is... Serving Sickening Lewks! and Chapter 9: Untucking the Queer Family - more than make up for the downsides.

[Michi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorpresivamente me ha gustado mucho, no tanto el punto de vista enlazado con el programa, que entiendo su existencia porque ya en el propio título te alerta de esa relación, pero me gustó sobre todo la historia y todos los artistas del colectivo que nombra. Evidentemente hay muchos nombres que ya conocía, pero me sorprendió el trasfondo de ciertas cosas como el simple hecho de demostrar el deseo en una época en la cual eso era inaceptable, a través de novelas o ilustraciones. Pensaba que iba a ser más cuestionable en algunos términos o definiciones pero está muy bien.

[Missy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a longtime reader of Tom and Lorenzo's blog and the writing in this book is similarly conversational and just as delightful to read. The deep dive details and cultural context they deliver build upon the work they do on their blog.

I do not watch RuPaul's Drag Race (I do not watch much TV right now in this phase of my life- it took me a year to read the book, ha!), but that did not matter at all-- the book was first and foremost the history of drag. The lens of RuPaul's Drag Race, and other recent drag and ballroom pop culture offerings, helped show how that history formed the roots and inspires drag today.

I was watching Pose when I started the book, and they sure pair well together. The book gave cultural detail that Pose cannot deliver in that TV drama venue.

In the intro to the book, the authors share that they hope you will be setting down the book to google for more information or watch some YouTube of what they are describing. That need to pause and dig for more is real. The book has an outstanding cover art homage to the legends that they introduce you to, but there are not photos in the book. One needs the wealth of the internet to view performance footage and see the photos. This is NOT a weakness of the book, I think it is a strength. No one book can give you the full experience of any life event; Tom and Lorenzo give you a solid introduction and encourage you to experience more first hand. The information is presented in a way that doing this is not disruptive to the reading- chapters are divided into sections that give the reader an opportunity to pause and come back.

I walked away with much respect, awe, sadness, and joy for the burdensome path and rise to mainstream of drag. This book ensures you know why things like RuPaul's Drag Race or drag story hour are triumphs that came from great struggle, not just novel ideas that came from the ether to entertain.

I encourage you to read this book, and, if you can, buy it from a LGBTQI+ owned or ally book shop. As you will learn in this book, that support and representation matters. Message me for ideas if you need some.

[Aj · Rating 5 out of 5]

So very glad to have this book recommended to me. As a big fan of queer history and Rupaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) this was a fantastic read.

I’m used to reading about queer history either generally (eg Out of the Past, Neil Miller; Gay LA, Lillian Faderman) or specifically (How to Survive a Plague, David France; Conduct Unbecoming, Randy Shilts). And I’m used to learning about queer art and its history from film (Paris is Burning; Wig; The Celluloid Closet). But I don’t believe I’ve read a book that addresses the history of queer art and certainly not one that ties that history so clearly to its influence on RPDR.

I believe it is important that we educate ourselves about our history. Many of of us grow up in families without queer family members when most underrepresented groups learn their history from their family (family of origin, not chosen family in this context). Further we suffered the unimaginable loss of nearly a generation to the AIDS epidemic and with it those who would have been our elders. Our history is important and it informs who we are as a community today and where we want to go in the future.

I appreciate that this book does not gloss over the more problematic elements of RPDR and it acknowledges the authors’ own relative privilege. It further acknowledges that the drag performed on RPDR is one vision of drag and it is not inclusive of all of the drag community. However for fans of drag and queer folks everywhere, this book provides a vital lesson in art history and has a place on my shelf among other queer history books.

[Louise Hindal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through the first five chapters, I think mostly due to the fact that I hadn’t seen Drag Race and wasn’t looking things up. Once I started looking more up, and once I got used to the authors’ style, I enjoyed it more. I learned lots. I liked the premise that Drag Race is really based on a lot of history.

Reading the book, one thing I thought about a lot was the interplay between sex, gender, and drag. Some thoughts/questions it brought up for me:
- Does drag position gender as an act rather than an identity? If so, does it hamper the acceptance of trans folks because gender is being positioned as an act?
- Who can acceptably perform in drag? Can straight, cis men?
- Will drag always be acceptable? Is it acceptable now to make a show of being a women? Does it reinforce the gender hierarchy where being a women is less desirable and less powerful? Isn’t the gender hierarchy why drag was so defiant an act to begin with? If being a woman is just as good as being a man does drag lose its power of making a statement?
- How many of the historic drag figures would have chosen to transition to living as a woman or living as non-binary individuals rather than performing in drag if they could have?
- Will drag ever change to be more like the ball scene where it is less about presenting as female and more about performing as your full self?