Friday, March 13, 2009

Do All Drag Queens Look Alike To Straight People? The LA Times mistakes the unmistakable RuPaul for Ongina, a different drag diva!

Really, it's too ridiculous.

In this Monday's Los Angeles Times, on page D9, in an article about the Logo reality TV series "Ru Paul's Drag Race", they ran this photo:



The caption reads:
JAUNTY: RuPaul is two-thirds through the run of "Drag Race" on Logo, but previous episodes are on the website.


The article's first line reads
"RuPaul, the 6-foot-4 to 6-foot-7 (by his own varying accounts) African American drag queen who sashayed his way into mass consciousness in the 1990s with the club hit "Supermodel" and a VH1 talk show, is back on TV with "RuPaul's Drag Race."


I guess "mass consciousness" didn't include the LA Times' editors, photo editors, proofreaders, or even the article's author, Robert Lloyd, TV critic, when they ran a photo of the considerably shorter and, um, Asian American drag queen "Ongina" as Ru.

I mean really, look again. Think of it as a test. Can YOU tell them apart?









Okay, the LA Times did publish a "correction" on Tuesday, but it was a stunner that no one caught it before they went to press. I know mistakes happen (I'm sure I've made a number) but this cracked me up, and I had to share!

The show itself is fascinating - watching these guys transform to "women" is an amazing exploration of how we construct gender... and it's lots of fun. Check out more about the show (and you can even watch the episodes!) here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

And remember, as RuPaul says at the end of every episode,

"If you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?

Can I get an Amen in the house?"



Amen, Ru. Amen.

6 comments:

Kyle said...

I admit I love this show, but boy did the LA Times really f****d that one up!

Hayden Thorne said...

It could've been worse. They could've mistaken Ann Coulter for a drag queen, which would be a major slap in the face of drag queens everywhere.

fairyhedgehog said...

I wanted to see how they transform themselves because I'm fascinated by how we construct gender. The other day I was shopping and looked at people in their jeans and jackets and wondered if an alien would be able to tell the men from the women yet it seems so important to us to be able to do that.

Sadly, the video won't work outside the US "for copyright reasons". Oh well.

Anonymous said...

How absurd. I feel like Ru Paul has very distinctive facial features. It's almost work NOT to distinguish Ru from anyone else!

Cuppa Jolie said...

I could tell that's not Ru in one bat of a fake eyelash!

And, yes! Amen, Ru!

Cuppa Jolie said...

I could tell that wasn't Ru with one bat of a fake eyelash!

And, yes! Amen, Ru!