Since we are starting to look into what the topics of our final projects will be, my partner Maya and I wanted to add some needed representation into the course and address a few of my comments so far in the first half of the semester. First, I would like to acknowledge that I do understand the barriers of this survey-esque course and that there is not much time to dive into every sub-culture in Latin America, hence why we would like to add to the conversation in a meaningful, educational, and exciting way. The project will have the topic of Queer culture in Mexico, more specifically what is the drag culture of Mexico.

The first article we read, “Reception of Queer Content and Stereotypes Among Young People in Monterrey” has participants (five queer men, five straight men, and five straight women) watch two episodes of the popular reality-show “Rupaul’s Drag Race.” Important to note that all the participants were young university students, who had never seen the show. This article offers a lot of information regarding how drag is perceived in Mexico (Monterrey). We believe that the perception of popular culture is just as important as what it actually is, therefore the way that drag is viewed within the country is just as important as defining what it is.

One of the most interesting ideas that came out of this study is that the heterosexual groups were more emphatic to the show than the queer participants. The authors suggest that this is related to male chauvinism and how ingrained it is in Mexican culture, which may prevent the queer participants from enjoying the program. This exchange of the feminine and the masculine come out because I believe that the queer participants are socialized to reject femininity, or as stated in the article “the faggy” (the words used by the queer participants). However, the straight participants were a lot more receptive to the content, the straight men generally had their level of acceptance and understanding increase. This suggests the changing dynamics of how queer people are viewed in Mexico by the public, especially because all the participants are young university students. They did mention, however, that their parents and grandparents would not be as receptive to the show.

Our hopes for the project is that we will be able to make connections between the smaller drag culture in Mexico, the queer culture in Mexico, and the national Mexican culture, as well as create comparisons on the culture and its perception in Canada and the US.

Villarreal N.A…G., García C.V., Fernández G.K.R. (2017) Reception of Queer Content and Stereotypes Among Young People in Monterrey, Mexico: RuPaul’s Drag Race. In: Brennan N., Gudelunas D. (eds) RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Shifting Visibility of Drag Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1007/978-3-319-50618-0_13