Why more straight men should watch RuPaul’s Drag Race-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

I keep up with every episode (Picture: Dave J Hogan/ Getty Images)

I’ve a confession to make – I’m a straight guy who loves RuPaul’s Drag Race.

No need to applaud… 

The long-running talent show, which started in America in 2009 and now has several international versions, was always on my radar. 

Not just through the dozens of LGBT+ friends I have, but through social media algorithms that often served me content from the iconic show. 

I procrastinated initially. Unfortunately, Drag Race entered my orbit during my peak anti-talent show years. It was a phase, thankfully, that I got over in my mid-20s.

The launch of the UK series changed things. My fiancée insisted that it would bring me even closer to our best friends who also enjoyed it, and the continuing Covid-19 lockdown gave me the space to appreciate something new.

Pretty soon, I was a convert. 

Nowadays, I keep up with every episode – whether it’s the queens competing in comedy, musical, acting, sewing challenges, or the infamous Snatch Game.

I love the communal competition that’s uplifting rather than ruthless. I love finishing each season feeling like I’ve discovered several things about the LGBT+ world that I didn’t know before. 

Thanks to Drag Race, I feel like I have a greater appreciation for what makes my friends who they are. Things I don’t usually see or have access to. I’m definitely closer to my fiancée as well – it’s given us yet another thing to watch, share, and talk about with each other.

Even my mum now watches it every week and I love gossiping about it with her as much as I do with my LGBT+ friends, who are always encouraging and welcoming of my enjoyment.

I’d happily recount all the wonderful conversations I’ve had about Drag Race with my straight male friends but, the truth is, I don’t think it’s ever come up. In fact, sitting here and thinking about it, I think I could count all my close straight male friends on one hand.

My fiancée insisted that watching Drag Race would bring me even closer to our best friends who also enjoyed it (Picture: Rob Oliver)

I’d never previously thought too deeply about my love for the show, but after watching a recent episode of UK season six – titled Glam Your Fam, which involved contestants dressing up their family members in drag for a runway guest appearance – something struck me.

Stealing the show was Richard, the dad of contestant La Voix. 

An elderly straight man, Richard was gleefully dolled up in drag for hours and reduced thousands of viewers to tears with a heartfelt monologue.

‘All the hard work and effort people go through in this world is tremendous,’ he said to the show’s host RuPaul. ‘I give praise to everybody. I’m 78 years old and I hope I’m setting an example for other parents who should equally love their child irrespective of gender or anything.’ 

The cast of this season (Picture: Ian West/PA Wire)

But, as lovely as Richard’s monologue was, his words also saddened me. His heartwarming appearance was so special because it was so unexpected. As a straight man, I feel like we often don’t show up enough for our LGBT+ friends and family. 

That’s also when I realised that there are literally no other straight men in my life who also watch RuPaul’s Drag Race. I’m the only one I know. 

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t watch Drag Race for altruistic reasons. I watch it for the same reasons as any other TV show: because it’s downright entertaining. 

But with that being said, I feel as though Drag Race does enrich my life, and does improve me as a person – especially as a cisgender heterosexual member of society. 

Drag queen and host of Drag Race, RuPaul (Picture: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)

I value my curiosity and empathy as personality traits, and Drag Race rewards those parts of me. But after seeing Richard’s episode, the fact that I’d never encountered another straight man in the show’s fandom left me disheartened.

To try and make myself feel better, I reached out to the UK show’s Reddit and asked whether any other viewers were also straight men.

And there were a number of serious responses, which were eye-opening and encouraging. 

‘I’m the father of a trans female daughter,’ one viewer told me. ‘My wife and I have always cried at the family-focused episodes.’

Another straight male user argued that Drag Race was ‘the only TV show that depicts men actively loving and supporting each other in a genuinely positive and healthy way. Queer culture is very different to hetero male culture, but I think that’s something we need more of.’

RuPaul’s Drag Race US season 15 cast (Picture: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

But, one thing I noticed, barring one or two exceptions, was that almost none of the straight men who responded watched Drag Race with their other straight male friends. 

It was almost always with their wives or daughters. 

Of course, Drag Race isn’t designed to appeal to a straight male market, but this is why I want more people like me to look beyond how media is presented to them. 

I’m not much of a traditional guy’s guy – don’t ever ask me to do anything that involves the words ‘build’ or ‘assemble’ or ‘put up’ – but I am still a straight man with some conventional straight male interests. Football and other sports, violent films and TV, those sorts of things.

And I did still need my LGBT+ friends and my fiancée to give me a nudge. 

Thus, the world of Drag Race was still something that was once foreign to me – but after a few episodes, that didn’t matter anymore. It does dampen my spirits to know just how many men could improve their lives via Drag Race but are reluctant – or just never likely – to take the first step.

I pray that another man reading this has had their curiosity piqued, just a little. 

Because the world needs more straight icons like Richard, to stand firmly and say that our LGBT+ loved ones need our support, and that we should always encourage them to be unapologetically who they are. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

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