RuPaul Lettin' It All Hang Out in 1995
Monday, March 7th is the premier of the eighth season, and 100th episode, of RuPaul’s Drag Race, a reality competition series to crown “America’s next drag superstar.” RuPaul’s media and merchandise empire, among a bevy of new TV and web series, now includes an annual drag convention and podcast.
In honor of this queen of queens, we look back to a 1995 interview, with Leonard Lopate, promoting her autobiography Lettin’ It All Hang Out.
RuPaul discussed her transformation from the child who used “every crayon in the box” to being named the first drag queen supermodel for MAC Cosmetics. Before moving to New York and becoming a glamazon, RuPaul started her career as a precocious teenage punk in Atlanta Georgia:
"My drag… was an extension of the punk rock that was a reaction to 80s Reagan era and it was social satire... making fun of our society and the things we held really dear to our hearts. Like the image of… this woman which wasn’t real but was like the image of Nancy Reagan which was this very coiffed, together a [doll-full] suit wearing thing. So we were making fun of that and it was called Gender-blank drag."
Anticipating this pressing rights movement, the topic of gender fluidity comes up frequently in the interview, “I think those formalities are becoming obsolete…It’s not important anymore. Just so long as you call me baby, that’s all I ask.” When asked about the newly elected conservative dominance in the 1995 house and senate, RuPaul is optimistic. She sees it as a clearing a path for a "massive revolution." Perhaps that revolution has come and gone in light of current Republican control in congress. However, in a 2015 interview with Variety magazine on marriage equality, she speaks to the cyclical nature of politics. ”These windows of openness are literally that: They open and they close.”
This interview was recorded at a tipping point that lead to bigger success, bigger productions and of course bigger hair. From the uncomfortable ad lib insults between RuPaul and Milton Berle at the 1993 MTV Awards to breaking into acting and her three hour transformation process into drag, RuPaul presents her philosophy that hasn't changed much in 21 years: "We're all born naked and the rest is drag."
Listen to RuPaul's return appearance to The Leonard Lopate Show in 2010 to promote her second book, Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style.
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