America Has A New National Pastime

And it involves wigs, tucking, and heavy makeup. The new celebrity economy of drag.

- Matthew Schneier

America loves its drag queens. Moms do, kids do, your local gay bars do. Even McDonald’s does. From the blockbuster remake of A Star Is Born to the Met Gala’s pink carpet—not to mention the millions around the globe who’ve tuned in to RuPaul’s Drag Race for the past decade—what was once a glittery camp subculture on the edge of gay culture has become one of humanity’s pop preoccupations, with its own hierarchy of stars and story lines for fans to get behind and fairly steady Billboard chart-toppers. In the process, it has become a global business with its own star-power machinery attached. This is what we’re describing here: the rise of Drag Inc. Ten years ago, it wouldn’t have been possible to make a list of the country’s most powerful drag queens. There were, of course, dozens of them scraping out a tinseled living all over the country, playing dance clubs and gay-pride events. RuPaul Andre Charles, the self-styled “Supermodel of the World” (as his 1993 debut album named him), had all but created the mainstream-famous drag queen for the modern era, but he was pretty much it. Then came