RuPaul realness: the neoliberal resignification of ballroom discourse

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the semiotic phenomenon of “realness,” specifically its meaning and usage in the US ballroom scene versus popular media texts including RuPaul’s Drag Race and extending to entertainment and social media. Realness names a theatrical act wherein queer performers of Color mimic heteronormative esthetics. This term operates as a significant in-community discourse about marginalization and social injustice, as well as how queer people can performatively manipulate public perceptions about themselves. In many popular media texts though, realness is used to convey neoliberal ideologies such as that publicly embracing and utilizing one’s minority differences is a sure path to cultural and economic success. I trace the nuances of this semiotic shift by conducting a content and textual analysis of realness across seven seasons of Drag Race as well as in limited-character Twitter posts. I argue that realness has been resignified into a polemical discourse that delegitimizes the lived realities of the individuals that created the term.