There's a mythological trope among so many cultures of a male god fathering a son who is his pride and joy until the son grows up and suddenly appears to be a threat to the father, and the father tries to kill him preemptively, which makes the father's fear a self-fulfilling prophesy. It's probably an archetypal, deeply embedded fear that men have of being rendered obsolete by their own progeny.
Not to suggest RuPaul is any kind of god, but I find that this career is playing out in accordance with those myths in many ways.
To my knowledge, drag as a performing art that made it to the mainstream used to be primarily comic celebrity impersonation, with men playing Bette Davis and Joan Rivers and Judy Garland, or else people like Dame Edna. And then in gay media, there was Divine, and we all know that type of drag queen.
Today it seems like the only commentary from among LGBT people about RuPaul is about how horrible he is in every way, and celebrating his 'progeny.' It's really interesting to me.
All drag queens who are famous now were made in RuPaul's image in many ways. RuPaul was different from all those old female impersonators by being younger and glamorous, aiming for pretty instead of mocking the appearances and mannerisms of famous women. He had a strong wit that made him great for TV appearances, but his wit was uniquely a kind of wise-cracking camp wit, and mixed with Oprah-esque platitudes. And of course, he has released a lot of music and although few of his songs have gotten mainstream radio play—all of his songs being campy in one way or another and part of his drag package—they've sold well enough to have supported him and made it worthwhile for him to keep doing it.
All the drag queens we know from Drag Race are made in RuPaul's image. Most of them aim for pretty and glam, not for Bette Davis. Some are edgy and regard themselves as punk and political as RuPaul did when he first showed up on talk shows. There are the Divine types who are less inspired by RuPaul's look, but they tend to emulate his persona closely. And all these goddamned drag queens churn out factory-made music to make a quick buck. I don't think almost any of them would have done any of this without emulating RuPaul.
I'm not writing this to praise RuPaul. I just think it's really fascinating that he really did create his own influential persona as an amalgamation of many different aspects of gay and camp and fashion and music culture, and then created a televised factory to produce new versions of himself and reward the best, and then as they've come along, just like in the myths, the progeny have become threats to the originator and now there's so much dramatic tension between them. The kids loathe RuPaul because he's not a loving, gushing parent to all 150 of them, and that loathing has turned into criticizing veritably every aspect of his life, and at the same time, they are still auditioning for him, still begging him weekly for his praise, still asking him for cash prizes and gigs. And RuPaul at first seemed to resent their resentments, and now he seems to have (scorpion-like! He's a scorpio.) retreated into a dark cave when not making public appearances. He scrubbed all his social media of authentically personal sentiments last year and now seems to be all business publicly. And the relationship with his needy progeny has never felt less personal, and their resentment never stronger.
I can't help thinking of Cronus giving life to Zeus and then becoming so paranoid of Zeus's growing power that Zeus had to kill Cronus to escape being killed by him.
