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Article published In: Journal of Language and Sexuality
Vol. 12:1 (2023) ► pp.73–97

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“Haute couture? More like haute glue!”

The discourse of the ‘reading challenge’ in RuPaul’s Drag Race

 | University of Rijeka, Croatia
Published online: 2 February 2023
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.21013.pod
Abstract
Reading is a unique interactional practice in the drag queen community. It refers to leveling witty and often cutthroat mock insults at fellow drag queens, with an aim of throwing shade. In this paper, I examine the discourse of the ‘reading challenge’, a staple of RuPaul’s Drag Race (Seasons 1–13), Netflix (RPDR), an internationally popular drag queen reality TV show (2009–). In the first part, I review central concepts surrounding drag performance and the phenomenon of RPDR and summarize relevant sociolinguistic literature about drag queen speech and the practice of reading. In the second part, I describe the RPDR reading challenge as a unique discursive genre and analyse its performative structure, themes, and most prominent strategies that queens use to construct felicitous reads and throw shade. The analysis demonstrates that this genre relies on camp language and highly ritualized, repetitive, and recontextualized performance of reading, framed by requirements of mass-consumed reality TV.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining and analysing drag
  • 3.Drag queen speech and linguistic practices of RuPaul’s Drag Race
  • 4.Defining reading and throwing shade
  • 5.Data and research objectives
  • 6.The reading challenge in RuPaul’s Drag Race
  • 7.Positioning the reading challenge as a discursive genre
  • 8.Structural features of reads
  • 9.Thematic features of reads
  • 10.Strategies of reading and throwing shade
    • 10.1Intensification
    • 10.2Mitigation
    • 10.3Predication
  • 11.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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Sources
RuPaul’s Drag Race (Seasons 1–13), Netflix
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (Seasons 2–6), Netflix
RuPaul’s Drag Race (2018a). Every Reading Challenge (Compilation Part 1) | The Library is Open | RuPaul’s Drag Race. Available at: [URL] (Accessed: 26 June 2021)
(2018b). Every Reading Challenge (Compilation Part 2) | The Library is Open | RuPaul’s Drag Race. Available at: [URL] (Accessed: 26 June, 2021)
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