“If You Can’t Love Yourself, How in the Hell You Gonna Love Somebody Else?” Drag TV and Self-Love Discourse

This chapter examines the way that RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR), as a parody of reality TV can at once, reinforce neoliberal ideals, and destabilize cultural norms. Drag culture has a history of confronting the mainstream in physical, underground spaces. This chapter examines whether or not the shift of drag subcultures into television and online media spaces removes the political potential of that confrontation. Through a comparison of these three spaces and a discussion of the key term “mimicry” (as defined by Homi Bhabha), Daggett concludes that the relationship between these spaces is more entwined and complex than previously assumed in media research. The political potential of RPDR appears in all these spaces and has some correlation with the show’s growing mainstream popularity.