There was a big room full of bad bitches at last Sunday's 2011 Video Music Awards. Everyone showed up, from Beyonce to Adele, Britney, and Katy Perry. Each carried their own signature swag into the VMAs, hoping to nab Moonmen... but the baddest bitch of them all turned out to be a Man - Lady Gaga's drag alter ego, the handsome and talented Joe Calderone.
Drag culture produces bad bitches, because each trans-superstar is required to channel their inner diva, and to access that divine spirit within themselves that exists beyond judgement.
Drag performance also requires costume. Gaga's included the barest of essentials -- a greased up white tee and black jacket. For some Queens it gets a bit more complicated: breastplates, cosmetics, hosiery, duct tape.
Drag also requires a bravery unmatched by any other profession, because it involves investigating whatever residual fears you harbor and then exorcising them, rendering them beautiful and offering them for the world to see... and to learn from.
Drag culture produces bad bitches, because each trans-superstar is required to channel their inner diva, and to access that divine spirit within themselves that exists beyond judgement.
Drag performance also requires costume. Gaga's included the barest of essentials -- a greased up white tee and black jacket. For some Queens it gets a bit more complicated: breastplates, cosmetics, hosiery, duct tape.
Drag also requires a bravery unmatched by any other profession, because it involves investigating whatever residual fears you harbor and then exorcising them, rendering them beautiful and offering them for the world to see... and to learn from.
But drag doesn't just exist in entire personas. The queens of RuPaul's drag race know this and call their shoes by name. A voluptuous green wig becomes "she". In a world of treating everything as a resource, drag requires a re-enchanting of what otherwise might go unnoticed -- old bird feathers become crowns, and sequined jackets inspire alter ego super-heroines.
While shaking designer handbags at taxis in New York's Union Square, rising pop phenom Neon Hitch manages do her own re-enchanting of VMA Best New Artist nominee Kreayshawn's hit, 'Gucci Gucci'.
'Gucci Gucci' was already a bad bitch anthem, offering up an unyielding female bravado for audiences worldwide (the original has 15.5 million views and counting...) but Neon's cover elevates the track be something more than a demonstration of swag. The first few seconds include an interplay between Neon and a passerby, he hits on her and she giggles and in that instant Neon becomes accessible in a way Kreayshawn can not.
Neon's swag isn't confined to a matching crew; Neon's 'Bad Bitches' are her clothes - a collection of moccasins, boa-ed jackets, and a bejeweled boxing robe; in other words, Her bad bitches are herself.
Ultimately drag and pop music is performance art, and the threshold between the pretty divas and the legends lies in what they engender with their music.
Neon Hitch's 'Gucci Gucci' shows the potential to do just that, offer up the vision of what bad bitches can become.
The remaining question is, will it exhume the bad bitch in its viewers?
With attention from MTV's Buzzworthy, and 60,000 views and counting... All signs point to
Yes.
