Why is the BBC so obsessed with drag queens?

May 10, 2024 by Jill

by Lauren Smith, spiked:

Every area of the Beeb’s output is saturated with content about men pretending to be women.

Alien visitors to Earth might be forgiven for thinking that something like 10 per cent of the UK population are drag queens. After all, how else could you explain the sheer amount of airtime and column inches that the BBC has devoted to this relatively niche ‘LGTBQ+’ subculture?

As former BBC journalist Cath Leng recently pointed out, the UK’s state broadcaster seems to be working overtime to produce as much drag content as possible. Currently, on BBC iPlayer, you can watch titles such as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Canada’s Drag Race, RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, Jamie: Drag Queen at 16 and God Shave the Queens, a behind-the-scenes spin-off of Drag Race.

The drag obsession has even infected the BBC’s news output. Last month, the BBC News website published seven articles about drag artists. These are mostly human-interest-type stories, rather than factual news reports. One is a video interview with a South Asian drag queen named Lady Bushra, who talks about the trials and tribulations of growing up gay in Bradford. Another article describes a Hull drag queen’s reunion with his long-lost son. There were also two separate articles about two different drag queens who planned to run this year’s London Marathon.

Countless articles of dubious news value now chronicle the lives and experiences of various drag artists. This year, the BBC has reported on working-class drag queens, Northern Irish drag queens and a drag-queen Taylor Swift. It has also provided coverage of drag shows from Derby to Felixstowe.

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