Drag As A "Celebration Of All That Is Female And Beautiful And Girly"

As a judge on the cult reality show RuPaul's Drag Race, Michelle Visage (aka Michelle Shupack) is a gay icon. But in the early '90s she was a house music star. Shupack was in Seduction, the girl group assembled by C+C Music Factory's Robert Clivilles and David Cole. They later had her sing The SOUL SYSTEM's interpretation of Bill Withers' Lovely Day on The Bodyguard — still the best-selling soundtrack ever.

"It was a time in my life that I'll never get back," Shupack recalls, walking down a street in Philadelphia with her drag pals. "I don't know if we'll ever see a movement like that again. I did not make a penny, unfortunately — C+C made all the money. But what I did take away from it was a great experience: getting to tour the world, getting to play huge venues by opening up for Milli Vanilli for nine months, seeing what it's like to do an actual arena tour — which is mind-blowing…"

"My role as host is much more than host — the glue that holds these miserable little bitches together!"

The New Jersey girl's "first love" was the theatre, Broadway her dream. However, she was eventually "sidetracked" by presenting opportunities in radio and television. Shupack co-hosted RuPaul's VH1 talk show. She then joined RuPaul's Drag Race, in which participants compete to become "America's next drag superstar", as a judge from season three. Shupack, who as a teen initially encountered RuPaul clubbing in New York, describes their bond as "a real-life friendship/love affair". Last year she published The Diva Rules — part self-help book, part memoir.

Shupack is bound for Australia to host Battle Of The Seasons — a spectacular featuring fan faves from RuPaul's Drag Race, including past winner Violet Chachki. "My role as host is much more than host — the glue that holds these miserable little bitches together!" she quips. "I perform as well… The thing about the show, the Battle Of The Seasons tour, is people think in their head, 'Oh, I've seen so many drag queens — it's just like another bar drag show.' It is the opposite of that — it's fully choreographed, fully executed with video elements, there's some duets, there's lots of solos, lots of performing… It's like going to the theatre."

Some feminists charge drag culture with mocking women (a position occasionally linked to transphobic feminism). Viewing a promo for RuPaul's Drag Race, Mary Cheney — daughter of Dick and both a lesbian and Republican supporter — compared it to blackface in a Facebook post. Yet Shupack feels that they're misreading the art form. "I know all about the controversy — and I couldn't disagree more," she says passionately. "I consider myself a feminist of sorts — and I'm pro-women. I've been involved in the drag community since I'm 17 years old, and the trans community, and I've never seen anything misogynistic about drag. For me, it's a full-on celebration of all that is female and beautiful and girly. Even the fun, really tacky, ratchet, ugly drag, it takes the piss — it's to have fun. It's to celebrate all the things that we're not supposed to be doing. It's never meant to be misogynistic or putting women down or trying to make fun of who we are as a gender. It's more to celebrate the things that are obnoxious, crazy or glamorous and beautiful. So it's all the way you look at it."