Not on the Pulse

I was watching some analysis of season 7 of RPDR today, a season often criticized for being boring and rigged. Most of this is due to the confirmed theory that the producers wanted to appeal to a younger demographic, as the last several winners had been older, seasoned queens and there was worry the show would fade into cancelation.

During season 7, it was decided ahead of time the winner would be a younger, more fashionable queen who connected with the younger population. Various rules and outcomes were bent to achieve this outcome. And in a way, it worked. If you ask most young people who their favorite queens are, two that will always be mentioned DID come from that season. These two queens have an extremely popular Youtube show. One has a podcast that has been nominated for several awards. The other has best selling albums, a documentary, and a makeup line. Both have soldout one-woman shows.

And in another more profound way, the plan of the producers did NOT work, because I am not talking about the queen who won the season or the young queen who was standing next to her when she was crowned. I'm talking about Trixie and Katya, neither of whom even placed in the top 4.

The problem is, when you're older, you look at things from your perspective and can only make educated guesses about what will appeal to younger people. You've not lived their lives or grown up in their culture. As much as you want to put yourself in their shows, you really can't.

I will never deny the skills of the 'beautiful young queens' on season 7. Some of them are aesthetically the best in the business. But that isn't what struck a chord with people. Turns out, what younger people (and even a lot of us older people) took away from that season and loved about it was Katya's dark humor, intelligence, and crushing self-doubt. We also loved how Trixie wore outlandish makeup, an illusion of awful skills done with superb skills, quick wit, and unwillingness to accept loserdom. Most of all, we love their honesty and weirdness.

Do I have a point here? Actually, yes. It's good to have an outcome in mind. Goals are nice. However, you do everyone, including yourself, a disservice if you stick so strictly to what you think you want that you miss the amazing things you have right in front of you. Oh and of course, never assume you know what someone else will love about a situation. That whole 'making an ass of you and me' thing is always true.