RuPaul Charles, the host of VH1's
RuPaul's Drag Race, told PEOPLE that drag is a way for
him to mock society.
“As a kid, I knew this whole world
was an illusion and everyone's playing a role,” RuPaul told the
outlet. “And I thought, 'I can do that.' And then when I found
drag, I thought: 'Oh, this is a way that I can play that role and
sort of mock society at the same time.”
“What appealed to me about it wasn’t
just dresses and whatever – what appealed to me was that it’s so
punk rock,” he said. “It’s so counter to what society wanted me
to do. ‘Oh, they want me to be this way? I’ll be the opposite.
It’s really a big F-U to the masculine, systematic dominance. For a
black man, too, it is like: ‘F— you!'”
RuPaul is currently promoting his new
memoir GuRu.
RuPaul described the book as a tool to
teach a new generation how to “experience humanity and side-step
the emotional land mines.”
“There is a way to get through this,
and it doesn't have to be the old, traditional ways of doing it, of
getting a 9-to-5 job and 2.2 children and that thing,” he
said. “There's a way to live life on your own terms.”