Core Response #5 by Marina Massidda

 Strings and Bui discussion of “realness” on RuPaul’s drag race reminds me how apparent authenticity is currently often leveraged as an avenue to commodify racial otherness, often under the guise of diversity or representation, and often having consequences such as essentializing, pigeonholing, tokenizing, etc. Public scrutiny of racial or cultural representation often focuses on the social positioning of the performers, which while relevant, doing so exclusively can divert attention from a closer reading of the work or product itself. This also suggests that there is a simple, socially sanctioned way to absolve a racial performance (and its rapt audience) so long as the performer satisfies a quotient of authenticity, with little attention given to the factors motivating the performance begin with, its context, and to what extent it may be subversive, parodic, original, etc. There is undeniable power, humor, and “personality” to the drag performances the authors describe, but they also identify how Black and brown performers are obligated to “race it up” regardless of their interests. The phenomenon brings to mind the way many minority creators across media must promote their legible identities or “resilience narratives” in order to garner attention from dominant audiences. Finally, the article reminded me of the TV series Glow—it’s not a reality show, but close enough. A women’s wrestling team must put on a series of partnered acts. I remember that a Black character was hugely successful in her over-the-top satirical (at least to us, the TV audience, to the diegetic wrestling audience less so) performance as the “Welfare Queen,” while at the same time faced with the same dearth of choices Strings and Bui describe for the “Boogers’” creative expression. Obviously, artists portraying their own race have expressive liberties that say appropriative white performers would not and should not. But if hyperbolizing racial performance is not really a choice, it calls into question the “realness” of that same creative freedom (which we all crave, which can provoke and break boundaries).