It’s Time For You To Have A Strongly-Held Opinion About RuPaul and The Emmy Awards

Let’s not fight. Instead, for your consideration…

You either care about the Emmy Awards or you think they’re as meaningless and self-congratulatory as the Oscars and the Cable Aces.

On a secondary cultural front, you’re most likely of the opinion that either drag is amazing and “fierce” or that it’s a played-out relic of whenever older gays say was the greatest, most meaningful time ever to be a homosexual. Or maybe you’re one of those “it’s bad for the gays blahblahmeowblah” people.

Then there’s reality TV. You’re on board for housewife-instigated brawls at christenings and contests of skill like extreme-cupcake-baking or you’re fed up with everything except Mad Men and Nurse Jackie.

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So your level of concern for the following issue will depend on those complicated feelings. That issue involves Logo and the RuPaul Emmy campaign. There is one. They want RuPaul’s Drag Race to be nominated in the Outstanding Reality Program category and for RuPaul to win Outstanding Host for A Reality Program. Go look at that video up there. It’s about how RuPaul deserves an Emmy, which brings up another First World Issue to ponder—does anyone actually ever deserve an Emmy? Ricky Martin and Andy Cohen and Jennifer Hudson and at least thirteen other celebrities believe he does. Judith Light thinks everyone should give RuPaul an Emmy, a good-hearted if logistically unfeasible wish.

Here’s a good way to think about it if you don’t want to spend any time thinking about it: RuPaul’s been a drag ambassador for decades now. And while he comes from a different, somewhat more mass media-friendly tradition than, say, art terrorists like Vaginal Davis or the late Leigh Bowery and Divine, he learned how to cross over without sacrificing his realness.

His show is really entertaining, better than most stupid reality shows and unquestionably groundbreaking and—on a personal note—I once was blocking an entire aisle of my local supermarket with my cart and my big dumb fat body and RuPaul walked up behind me and politely, softly, said, “Excuse me, may I pass?” and I looked up and saw him and thought, “Wow, that is a supertall, superskinny dude that looks just like RuPaul.” Then I said, “Oh, yeah, sorry,” and I shoved over a bit but not much at all because, like I said, he’s got this 22-inch waist or something. And he said, “Thank you.” Then I realized it was RuPaul and not just some Ru-alike. Fascinating story, I know. So if they count nice manners in the Emmy judging process then he absolutely should get one.

Okay, now start fighting.