The Neoliberal 'Ru-presentation' of Drag as Key to Success and Acceptance

This chapter examines RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR), one of the most iconic queer-themed reality TV shows – whose contestants are drag queens – to understand its role as a cultural artifact and its contribution to shaping the contemporary societal response to drag identities. Drawing on a Foucauldian theoretical framework that views reality TV as a governmental device, the study employs a qualitative approach, making use of corpus-based critical discourse analysis applied to the show's dialogues. The findings reveal that neoliberal governmentality shapes RPDR’s discursive structure, highlighting values such as individualism, self-confidence, and condemnation of idleness as essential for success, and fostering a “self-governance” aligned with neoliberal ideals. RPDR thus merges the non-conformity of drag with the (re)production of neoliberal citizenship, normalizing queer identities while appealing to mainstream audiences through shared values like competitiveness and self-entrepreneurship. In this way, by framing identity differences as cultural capital, RPDR tempers drag’s subversive potential, aligning it with market-oriented narratives.