RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered on Logo in 2009, and featured 12-13 drag queens competing for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar.” The show started out modestly, with mostly a cult following. After season four however, the show heightened in popularity. The iconic fights, drag lingo, and influential queens like Sharon Needles, Alyssa Edwards, and Katya transcended the show from a cult favorite to an Emmy-winning phenomenon. Recently, the show was taken to VH1, instead of Logo, which is major because VH1 is a network with an extremely larger reach than Logo. This signified the fact that drag has become mainstream. Additionally, in the past year since moving to a different network, the show is the number one non-sports related show in its
Hashtag MeToo. Does that sound familiar? The MeToo movement is one of the most influential movements of our time. According to cbsnews.com a movement that reached over 12 million posts on Facebook in just 24 hours. Most of you know the power of Me Too and some participants in it, such as Ashley Judd, Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne, Lupita Nyong’o, Lindsay Lohan, and many more according to CNN. However, you probably do not know who began this powerful movement. Her name is Tarana Burke. Tarana Burke is a sexual assault survivor herself and began the Me Too Movement in 2006 when she was having trouble with comforting a young girl, who had confided in Burke about her sexual assault experience according to brown.edu.
Many RnB singers rank among the highest paid celebrities in the world. This isn’t a surprise, as RnB and its various sub-genres have been leading the popular music charts for decades. Big voices and slick dance moves often translate into successful careers and big paychecks. Here is a list of the 10 richest RnB singers in the world, who have earned extensive success through their music, tours and other various ventures.
Cultural Analysis Queen Latifah played a big role in the hip hop industry as a female MC, and still is relevant to this day. She influenced millions of people especially in the black community for equality between women and men. She’s an American song-writer, actress, fashion producer, model, female MC, feminist, television producer, record producer, and talk show hostess. The Hip-hop culture began around the 1970’s in Bronx, New York and it was mostly amongst the Black and Latino community at that time. Hip Hop emerged out of an atmosphere of disappointment, anger, hate, discrimination, and disillusionment which; made it easy for the audience to comprehend and enjoy the music not as a song, but as a public personal message for each person to understand.
Fashion designer Katherine Noel Brosnahan now known as Kate Spade was born on December 24, 1962 in Kansas City, Missouri. Her father was the owner of a construction company and her mother was a housewife. Growing up Kate was not interested in high fashion she preferred a more vintage style and preferred to pick up items that her mother would have worn in the 50s or 60s. She graduated from St. Teresa's Academy, an all girl Catholic High School and later attended the University of Kansas, then decided to transfer to Arizona State University and graduated with a degree in journalism in 1985.After graduating from college Kate got offered a job at the Mademoiselle magazine in New York City, she was with the magazine for five years and later became a senior fashion editor and also the head of accessories. While she was at college she met Andy Spade who also attended the same university as her, they both worked at a men’s clothing store few months after they knew each other they began dating and became a couple and is now her husband. Andy had a major influence in Kate’s career, when Kate moved to New York he also came along and found a
“You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try”-Dolly Parton. Most people only know her because of her music, which is very inspirational, however she has done so much more. She is always looking for ways to give back because she knows what it like to not have much. She loves to help kids in need. Dolly Parton is one of the most inspirational people in the world, and her influence has affected so many people that her legacy will live on long after she's gone.
Drag culture utilizes forms of communication through performances, social media, and television broadcasting. Maintaining social relationships within the LGBTQIA community allows drag performers to have an additional culture to belong to. Due to the close connection between the LGBTQIA community and the drag community, losing this relationship would be detrimental for drag performers. When disputes arise between cultures, it is extremely important for there to be communication so that the situation can be resolved. If no effective communication is executed, this could lead to potential intercultural misunderstandings due to being misinformed from no communication, furthermore, resulting in a loss of a social relationship. Social media can control the way people perceive and judge cultures, for example, if a popular media article was demoting drag performers and giving this culture a bad reputation, many individuals would be influenced by this and would further stigmatise drag culture. This is why social control is essential in maintaining a positive reputation and expanding social knowledge and acceptance for drag performers. Maintaining social control can be achieved through the previously mentioned television show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. This show projects the acceptance for all drag performers and shares knowledge about drag queens to inform society and dismiss common misconceptions. Many drag
Drag exploded in the 1990s, which was very different from how it was look at in the 70s (Brinkley). Drag had become more popular in LGBT+ community and in American culture (Miller). RuPaul was in high interest in the early 1990’s because his album “Supermodel of the World” that came out in 1993.He was the first drag queen ever to get onto the pop charts. When asked to comment about being a drag queen he said, “Drag Queens are like the Shamans of our society, reminding people of what’s funny and what’s a stereotype”. Many drag movies also got national attention. Some of these movies were “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” in 1994 and “Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar” in 1995 (Miller). One of the most famous drag movies to come out of the 1990’s is Jenny Livingston’s “Paris is Burning” which features African American drag ball culture and showed what goes into transforming into drag
Reality programs have dominated television networks since their rise in popularity began in the early 1990s with MTV’s The Real World. The reality genre quickly gained viewership as it redefined the formulaic set up of televisions shows from the past. Reality television has infiltrated television because networks prefer lower budgets for their programs that will also generate high ratings (Hasinoff, 2008). People watch reality shows because they are intrigued by the seemingly “real” drama with ordinary people as characters (Dubrofsky, 2006). Now at its peak of growth, reality television evokes ideas of social order and cultural norms to its audiences, while renewing racial stereotypes in modern society (Mendible, 2004). My purpose of the review of literature is to examine and analyze reality television’s influence on people’s perceptions of cultural roles and racial stereotypes.
This documentary is a brilliant time capsule of the "ball" culture of the late eighties drag culture. It shows the performance aspect of these intricate and flawless drag shows, and the AIDS fueled madness of the time, discrimination against gay people, and the fears and doubts of this one of a kind people. The subjects of this two-year documentary are fascinating, because of their candor and reverence for their craft.
Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous, making it hard for the average African American woman to relate to. Black television has done well with having different shapes and sizes for women of color to relate to, but that only includes one or two channels on all of television. For example, even though BET was founded by Robert Johnson, a black man, BET is now predominantly owned by white people. “"Day after day, in all forms of media -- print, radio, and television -- we see, hear, and read the perspectives of non-Black women and women of color who are not actively involved in the struggles of Black women -- especially on so-called 'women's issues'.”(Women’s Health Weekly, 546) Large television networks must choose to show things that will not only keep ratings up but also keep people interested in watching their shows. Unfortunately in today’s age and day drama and negativity is what most Americans look to watch. Even though many people feel that these negative things are wrong, we still find ourselves watching and reading about it. The...
Most media mainly focus their attention on violence, drug use, and crime. They only show what they feel will give them the most ratings by the end of the episode. Producers and directors do not really care about what they are making the African American community look like they only care about the money. It seems as if every reality show has to have a crazy black person, a black woman with an attitude or a thug like male role. Shaunie O’Neal, producer of hit reality show Basketball Wives, as well as an African American herself, continuously says the drama is too much and she wants a successful show, but by having people who do not really have much going for themselves or having people drama seekers on her show, what she says means nothing. She can fire whoever she would like to make her show how she would like it, but she keeps the cast the same for the ratings and the money. Shows that even African Americans do not care about how they are shown on television.
You must first examine the stereotypes projected by popular culture, such as BET, VHI, MTV. African-American Actress Kerry Washington stars in Scandal, a primetime network television drama. Scandal, is the first drama in decades that has been on primetime television and staring an African-American Woman. The character Olivia Pope, reflects what most African-American Women, do not want to be exemplified as “Mammy” “Jezebel”. “One of the unique central themes in Scandal is the portrayal of African-American women as the successful manager of a firm, employing a racially diverse group of people, but without using the potential racial dynamic as a central trope” (Mcknight,2014, p.184) Unlike most African -American women seen today on television the character of Kerry Washington is considered dark- skinned and beautiful. Being a woman of her skin toned, you will find a lot of cultures frowning upon. They often make comments that their “not beautiful” “she’s too dark for TV”. While also romantically and sexually desirable, some consider Olivia Pope from being like the typical African-American woman. She’s considered as being like Claire Huxtable on The Cosby Show who was another one that was an empowered and strong African -American woman on TV. Stereotypes simultaneously reflect and distort the ways in which African-American women view themselves, individually and
began, there were hardly any female rappers well known. She is a quite recent rapper but it did
As an older man, I find these behaviors take away from the beauty of these young girls but sex sales and that’s what most people want to see. According to Nielsen ratings, Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta: is the most watched show among black women in the 18 to 49 age demographic. Sil Lai Abrams is a NABJ award-winning New York City based writer, inspirational speaker, and domestic violence awareness activist; stated in theGrio article “L&HH is an opportunity for us to be entertained and feel morally/intellectually superior all in one shot.” I agree but this doesn’t pertain to children with developing and influential minds. “What I see now on television for the most part is a disgrace, as far as how we’re depicted,” says Diahann Carroll, the first African-American woman to star in her own television show, Julia, in 1968. Phylicia Rashad, the actress who played Bill Cosby’s lawyer wife in the 1980s comedy The Cosby Show, recalls what the late NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff told her after the show went off the air. “He said it was going to get much worse before it got better in terms of diversity,” she says. “He was
Information was a crucial role in this presentation. I wanted my audience to actually learn from my speech. Drag racing is a very complex topic. I knew my listeners would be lost if I didn’t explain what it was. I used credible, up to date sources to engage my listeners. It helped a lot for me to have a lot of knowledge on the topic. Having knowledge on the topic helped me feel confident in giving my presentation. It is actually intimidating being a girl with knowledge of drag racing. I feel like people underestimate women who take interest in drag racing and cars. Many feel drag racing is such a masculine sport that girls can’t compete with guys. I chose to include facts