Identités en jeu, séduction en scène - Apolline Bazin

Apolline Bazin, journalist and author – talk

The case of Drag Race France, a triumph on the surface

A queer artistic practice that was once criminalized, drag is a flamboyant and fierce, multifaceted art form. The success of the show Drag Race in France has turned it into a popular cultural phenomenon. But what are we really celebrating today? Drag Race combines artistic performances, competition, and personal accounts, often connected to anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. As rarely before, many viewers praise the reality show's “educational” and even “public-interest” nature. Yet, in a context of a reactionary offensive in which the situation of LGBTQ people is constantly deteriorating, an immense gulf is widening between the glamorous image of the small screen, where a privileged few shine, and the drag celebrated by the majority of queer artists and audiences. What does this gap tell us? Straight, LGBT, queer: to each their own drag, and the freaks will be kept at bay?