DragCon Los Angeles 2018
This past weekend, May 11, 12, and 13, the largest gathering of the world's top Drag Queens took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Hosting more than 50,000 people in attendance beat out the previous years record, this drag celebration was hosted by RuPaul with Queens from this season and previous seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race. The fourth annual DragCon was the biggest it has ever been this year. The convention offered over 350 exhibitor booths, panels covering a wide variety of topics, photo ops replicating challenges and Drag Race references, and sponsors including Jeffree Star Cosmetics, VH1, WoW Presents Plus, and many more.
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| Replication of the Snatch Game panel featured in every season of Drag Race |
World of Wonder co-founder, Randy Barbato said, "The overwhelming success of this years DragCon is a testament to the talent and creative vision of the hundreds of drag artists who attended the convention. Drag has become a cultural force that is here to stay." This sentiment is certainly reflected in how much drag has infiltrated mainstream media. Drag Race recently made a big move from Logo TV to VH1, drawing a much broader scale of viewers. Along with that, The Simpsons is having an episode with RuPaul guest starring in it which also brought some of the voice actresses out to the panel "Drag and the Simpsons" at DragCon this year.
I got the honor of speaking to the lovely Monet X Change, contestant of the current airing 10th season of RuPaul's Drag Race, and asked how she would further these accomplishments if she were to win the crown this season. Excitedly, Monet replied, "With DragRace being on VH1, you get to see drag in your living room all the time. I feel like a way to step that up is to have more drag representation in sitcoms and late night talk shows. If I were to win the crown, I would be someone who would actively engage in that. It's one thing to see a drag queen on VH1 but to wake up at 10am on a Wednesday morning and see a drag queen on The View or Wendy Willams- well Wendy Williams already is a drag queen but- and to see a drag queen in that capacity is so different and so cool, I would work really hard to do that. I think it's really important."
DragCon also prides itself in being a safe, kid friendly, harassment free zone that enforces that "drag is not consent" with signs posted everywhere letting con goers know to ask drag queens permission before taking pictures. Drag is about beauty, femininity, and allowing others to feel confident no matter who they are. Bea Miller, guest performer at this years DragCon, said "I think anyone's means of expressing themselves is the most important thing. I think regardless of what it is that you do to express who you are on the inside and the way you want the world to see you, I think you should do it. I think if drag is your way of expressing yourself and showing the world what you are then hell yeah, I am the biggest fan ever of everyone doing what makes them feel the best about themselves." |
| Photo provided by Ricky Dillon's instagram |
Ricky Dillon, Youtuber and drag fan said, "I am new to [drag] but I love it. I think it's important because you can express yourself more than you usually can. This outfit for me, it's basic but I am expressing myself more than I usually ever do so its fun to open up and be yourself more." He later took to instagram to say: "I was so unsure of wearing this outfit today ... it's not something I would usually ever wear. I went from starting the day insecure to ending it full of confidence and it's all over some cheap clothes I just threw together. Point is, you don't always need expensive high end name brand clothes to stand out. Just get creative and be confident and have fun."
Along with this positivity, DragCon had a remarkable panel called "Everybody Tweet Love: Ending Online Hate" in which queens Aja, Milk, Ginger Minj, Blair St. Clair, and Jasmine Masters talk about why not allowing or encouraging a negative hateful online atmosphere is essential. Season 7 queen, Jasmine Masters said, "Overall, if you don't know someone personally I don't think you should say anything bad or harmful to them. You just never know where that person is at in life and what they're going through and you could be that one person or that one word away from making them do suicide or something harmful to that person. So always think about what you're saying to someone."
When the queens were asked if the comments have been different in the last year and a half due to our political climate, Aja, season 9 and All Stars 3 contestant replied: "Absolutely! Especially in the hate, it has become so much more political and racial. Like recently, The Vixen from Season 10 who, you know, is on a reality TV show. People can watch Flavor of Love... and you know that one crazy bitch, you're like Yaaas!! But why is it when a drag queen comes up, you hate her so much and people are calling her the n word... and I'm like trying to wrap my head around what it could be and I really just feel where our government is right now, where our country is right now, everyone is starting to release these opinions that they have been taught or learned from childhood that are not okay. I honestly can't even tell you how to stop it. All I can tell you is that we can continue to be educated in that way, be open minded, and hopefully somebody out there will lead by example and show it is not okay to take things to that hateful realm".
The Vixen, who was a brilliantly outspoken queen on Season 10 that let it be known on the show that she did not want to be edited as the angry black women that is often stereotyped in media and created a very important conversation amongst fans of the show. Vixen had this to say: "Yes, there are angry black women and that is a very valid thing to be. Black women have a lot of reasons to be angry. I don't think being an angry black woman is the problem, I think the things that make black women angry are the problem and that's what we need to be addressing as a country. People will willfully ignore- especially when the counterpart is white- they will willfully ignore the action but judge the reaction of the black woman especially. I am a complete person and on every episode I think you saw me smile when I walk through the door, you saw me laugh, you saw me cry, you saw me scream but you saw all of that but we only focus on the negative."
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| Photo provided by super fan Betty |
Tickets for the New York DragCon are on sale now, and if you want to attend Los Angeles DragCon next year, you can follow their Twitter. All pictures featured on this page not credited were taken by me and can be found on my instagram or website and may not be used without credit.
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