RuPaul has turned RuPaul's Drag Race into a commodity

The Daily Beast

"RuPaul has made it clear time and time again that he’ll do just about anything for a check. It’s why there are no less than 17,000 Drag Race spinoff franchises airing at any one time in RuPaul’s Multiverse of Mama’dness," says Coleman Spilde. "It’s why he’ll cut the worst Charli XCX knockoff you could ever imagine. It’s why he’ll lease his Wyoming ranch to become America’s Next Frack Superstar. Your name does not become synonymous with an art form in 2022 unless you’re willing to sign it on a dotted line without hesitation. But in his quest to build his global empire, RuPaul has continually allowed the legacy of his subversive landmark reality show to be slowly chipped away at. The commercialization of drag under RuPaul’s guide is a sticky thing. On one hand, it’s a critical part of bringing empowering inclusivity to the forefront of mainstream culture, where it can be accessible to all who may need it. On the other, it invites the ire of its own ever-growing toxic fanbase and contributes to multimillion-dollar companies revving the engines of their Pride parade floats for an exhausting show of rainbow capitalism every summer. Maybe that’s the nature of the beast: one can’t exist without the other."