GINGER

All hail the queen!!! 

Ginger Johnson has been crowned the winner of the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. I had known of Ginger for some time, and hoped to catch one of her shows sometime if I ever got over across the pond sometime. Ginger already had a blossoming drag career and was pretty well known among the queens in the Northeast. I so frankly surprised she went on Drag Race. My second thought was, she is going to take this crown. There is definitely a stigma starting with drag queens. Either to go on drag race or run far from it. Some girls now view the queens on the show as nothing more than a highly polished, media driven creation...and when the show is over, the queens are never heard from again, unless they have a real schtick, talent, and what it really takes. I think Ginger is one of them...granted she didn't even really need the show.  Ginger was originally inspired by all these amazing redheaded women from the Golden Age, like Lucille Ball, Rita Hayworth, Carol Channing and Kay Thompson, and then put her own silly spin on them. With Ginger's club kid days and her experience in theater shows. Ginger started with drag in the 2000's and was Newcastle's answer to Elaine Strich, where she cut her teeth on the alt-drag scene and cabaret scenes of East London, where her unique retro style, blend of camp, laughs, and bareknuckle confessional earned her a reputation for a risk-taking performer with a big heart and an even bigger mouth. In 2018 she collaborated with 68-year-old drag queen legend Lavina Co-op to present a show called Up Yours!, a tender refection on queer life over the last half century.  I love that Ginger embraces the future yet holds on and educates the past. And she definitely has a sweet tooth for the ridiculous.