Reality television as a political platform
Last November, LGBT+ ally and activist Michelle Visage, alongside partner Giovanni Pernice, became the eighth celebrity to be eliminated off the 2019 season of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing. The couple danced to Vogue by Madonna as a tribute to the New York drag community. For decades, voguing as an LGBT+ art-form has been hidden deep underground, and for it to be on a show as big as Strictly, currently the most viewed programme in the UK, is a big statement. The reach of programmes like this is so big — with just over 10 million viewers each week — that it has the necessary output to open up conversations, especially with older audiences.
On the 12th of November, PinkNews, an LGBT+ news outlet, published an article on the importance of representation as well as explaining how the Drag Race judge Michelle Visage has always been part of the movement and community. Clearly, voguing on Strictly was both a personal and community-wide cause for Visage. But still, she got voted off the show.
The couple was criticised for posing rather than dancing. In fact, it doesn’t take being a dance expert to be able to tell that the choreography wasn’t up to standard for what is expected on Strictly. But it isn’t about the quality of the routine: it’s about the fact they did it. Whilst many people wouldn’t consider voguing as a traditional form of dance, it is for the LGBT community, who also deserve mainstream visibility. Maybe it is time to change our preconception on what dancing is. It seems as though Michelle Visage and her partner decided to dance Vogue as a way to make a political statement. She has since released the following:
The celebrity has done a lot for the LGBT+ community by working on RuPaul’s Drag Race for over 12 seasons and spin-offs, but let’s not forget that, even though popular, the American reality is not — and might never be — as popular as Strictly. Visage’s last move on the dance competition got a lot of support from the online community, further highlighting the importance of representation.
Despite the disappointment of Michelle Visage’s elimination, we must applaud the fact that this year has seen Strictly Come Dancing in a season of firsts, having had their first-ever same-sex dance, and now becoming a platform for things that matter. Sharing culture on a wide-spread medium, in the most-watched show on television is important, and we shouldn’t be leaving any communities behind. Michelle Visage’s elimination from Strictly shows us just that: we can do more.
