Lesbians Gone Wild!

In RuPaul's "Drag U" season 2 episode, “Lesbians Gone Wild”, three butch lesbians enroll to get in touch with their feminine side (as well as vie for jewelry, a cash prize, and vacation for two). What I found the most amusing were the genuine unfamiliarity and discomfort the contestants held toward feminine conventions ranging from bra fittings to walking in heels and dancing. While the women are female by biological fact, their apparent oblivion, or disregard for these practices suggest that they have, in many ways, transgressed set binary rules. Embodying the vigor of Camp, these lesbian contestants point to Sontag’s point 51. “Homosexuals, by and large, constitute the vanguard — and the most articulate audience — of Camp.” While the gay contestants have, by no means, assimilated to mainstream society, they have clearly transitioned from marginalization to relative acceptance. In their group performance of “Bootylicious”, or at least their valiant attempt to keep up with their dazzling drag professors, the women embody another one of Sontag's crucial thesis 44, “Camp proposes a comic vision of the world. But not a bitter or polemical comedy. If tragedy is an experience of hyperinvolvement, Camp is a solvent of morality. It neutralizes moral indignation, sponsors playfulness”. Even as "Drag U" deals with deeply ingrained stereotypes and social complexities, it maintains a light-hearted approach to “dethrone the serious”. And while there is a competitive factor, the smiles on the contestants' faces during their final runway walks and their self-confident, fierce smiles make it clear that winning wasn't as important as proving something to themselves and ultimately uncovering a new, more complex relation to "the serious”. Then, of course is Sontag’s last camp statement, “it’s good because it’s awful…” that reels watchers in to watch the ridiculousness unfold. As outlandish as the show can get in its absolute ludicrous presentation of the truth, I only wanted to keep watching, and fortunately too because there is truly something we can all learn from watching.