'RuPaul's Drag Race' Finale Shows the Massive Impact of the Show

Rarely has a show had as big of an impact on pop culture as RuPaul's Drag Race has had. Think about it, terms like "throwing shade" or "spill the tea" are commonplace on social media, from both people who watch Drag Race but also from people who don't. And when a reality competition show has that level of an impact on how we communicate, you know it's reach is far and wide. And now that the season 16 finale of Drag Race is upon us, another queen is about to start her reign and have her own impact on pop culture.

The top three finalists for season 16 of Drag Race, Plane Jane, Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál, stopped by the Parting Shot podcast to talk about the impact of the show, pop culture and the role social media has had on drag. You can listen to the conversation wherever you get podcasts or watch on YouTube.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARTING SHOT WITH H. ALAN SCOTT
ON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY

"I feel like this experience of being on Drag Race, it really platforms you like no other reality television show," Plane Jane told Newsweek. "The phenomenon of Drag Race is that, more so than any other reality television show, in my opinion, the contestants become stars. They gain a very massive following."

Case in point, contestants from the reality series have followings in the millions and travel the world. Former contestants like Trixie Mattel, Kim Chi, Bob the Drag Queen, Naomi Smalls, Monét X Change, Alaska Thunderf**k, among others, all are influencers in their own right, with some having cosmetic companies, podcasts and lives shows that reach consumers internationally. That's all because of the platform Drag Race provided them.

1 of 6

"I think drag is a perfect medium to really feel a fantasy that you've never maybe experienced throughout your life," Nymphia Wind said. "I feel like when you feel confident in yourself, it opens so much in what you see in the world. You feel more free and more brave and courageous to really go out there and show yourself and do stuff that you wouldn't normally want to do."

There's one moment from season 16 of Drag Race that personifies the impact of the show. It was an exchange between Plane Jane and Q, who came in 4th place in the competition. In this exchange, Q reveals they're HIV positive, and Plane Jane says, "Mama, kudos for saying that, for spilling." Unbelievably, that line somehow became a viral meme. The fact that it did just shows that Drag Race can somehow have a moment be both socially impactful but also humorous, a rarity for any show, reality or scripted.

1 of 7

"I don't think anybody could have predicted that going viral or becoming a meme," Plane Jane said. "We were like, 'There's no way that anything could possibly come out of that.' But lo and behold, honey, where we least expected it, the memeification struck. I think the internet just is a beast of its own and people take certain things in certain moments and just run with it. It's very fun, though. It's great. It contributes to this whole pop culture soup. Queer people like ourselves, we use it as fuel for our bizarre queer lingo. 'Planes,' if you will."

For Q, they're seeing the impact of that viral meme in real life.

"People come up to me in person on my touring gigs about how much opening up about it [Q's HIV status] has meant to them, and how it's helped them open up about it to their friends or their family or how much it meant to see someone living with HIV on TV," Q said.

But with increased recognition comes the critics, particularly on social media. And that criticism can be even more intense for queens of color.

1 of 7

"Being a queen of color is different from being a Black queen," Sapphira Cristál said. "I love the fact that I was raised to love who I am, no matter what. I was raised not only to be proud of being Black, but I'm also a Christian, and if it weren't for that, I probably would be having a really hard time right now. Being a Black person, you get looked over a lot, and it's okay, because the people who love you, they love you really hard. And the fact that I was able to show my love and caring spirit and my heart on the show endears more people to me for a different reason beyond my skin color, beyond my drag, beyond my talents, it's because of my heart they see."

"It's hard to initially navigate that sort of fan discourse," Plane Jane said. "Having so many people talk about you and have opinions about you all at once. Despite the mainstream success of Drag Race, it remains a niche, queer art form. So to have all these people who have nothing to do with drag, no knowledge of drag and what it takes to do what we do have opinions about us all at once and share those opinions on public forums online, it's a lot. So it's a bit of an adjustment for sure. But experienced and learned queens, such as myself, we have grown to have a thick skin because we don't just deal with faceless people on social media, we deal with real hate in real life, honey."

The real-life hate Plane Jane is referring to has been seen in recent years with protests and anti-drag laws and ordinances being passed throughout the United States. Despite these set backs, Drag Race continues to have massive ratings and win countless Emmys. So, clearly there's a disconnect between how mainstream audiences view drag and how some niche—albeit loud and occasionally powerful—voices react to drag. With that said, Sapphira Cristál reminds us of an important motto RuPaul frequently cites.

"If they're not paying my bills, I'm not paying them no mind," Sapphira said. Not a bad motto to live by.

RuPaul's Drag Race airs on MTV and can be streamed on Paramount+. The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts. Subscribe to the For the Culture newsletter for all the entertainment news you need delivered directly to your inbox.