Ru Paul: The Reality Show Tiresias

In his latest book Workin’ It, Ru Paul defines his persona as “two parts Diana Ross, a pinch of Bugs Bunny, two heaping spoonfuls of Dolly Parton and a dash of Joseph Campbell.” Not surprisingly, the ingredient in the Ru Paul recipe that intrigues me most is Joseph Campbell, the revered mythologist and comparative religions scholar. By including Campbell in her construction of persona, Ru Paul harkens back to ancient cultures when shamans, witch doctors and drag queens openly reminded folks of the duality of their souls: the male and female in all of us. Which brings me to why this blog is called Cee Tiresias. Invoked by writers, poets and gender theorists alike, Tiresias is the classical figure most representative of bisexuality. Here’s why.

One day in the forest, Tiresias came upon two entwined snakes. Striking them with his staff he separated them only to be transformed into a woman. Seven years later, he came upon a pair of coupling snakes again, separated them as he had before and was transformed back into a man. Then Tiresias receives an invitation to Mt. Olympus where Hera questions him along with Zeus about which gender experiences the most pleasure in love making. Tiresias answers women, explaining we have multiple platforms for ecstasy whereas men just have “scepter and orbs,” so to speak. Hera goes through the roof over his response and blinds Tiresias; for ancient Greeks pleasure and work were antithetical, so to Hera’s mind Tiresias’s answer is a decidedly anti-feminist one. Zeus, feeling really bad about the whole thing, compensates Tiresias for his blindness by bestowing on him the gift of prophecy. And so one of the most important prophets in the classical tradition, a psychological hermaphrodite, was born into vision by darkness.

Now, Ru Paul may not be a prophet, but he certainly is male, female and black. In fact, on his show, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, he plays Tim Gunn from Project Runway beautifully. When consulting with contestants about their progress over the course of a challenge, Ru Paul, outside of drag, is as caring, firm, interested and earnest as he wants to be. However, once Ru Paul is in drag at the end of the show for the judging, Tim Gunn is gone and Tyra Banks from America’s Next Top Model sits in his place as a stilted, robotic glamazon in need of lithium. Because Ru Paul inhabits the two personalities and the two genders so seamlessly, he constitutes for me a more trustworthy sage than either Gunn or Banks. In the world of fashion/performance reality contests, Ru Paul is Tiresias.

We don't have to be drag queens to know the feeling of wearing layers of masks. What this site’s about is taking the masks off. That’s what Oedipus and Odysseus had to do in order to hear Tiresias’s messages for them. I am certainly no soothsayer, and if I find any readers at all I doubt many of you will be epic heroes. Nonetheless, removing a mask can be a powerful if not heroic act. I took off one of my masks, looked in the mirror and saw this blog.