Drag queens started the riots at Stonewall which launched the gay rights movement, yet over the years they’ve been marginalized by the “mainstream” gay movement and turned into glamorized dolls that lip-sync for tips. While an edgy queen pops up from time to time (and of course there are the genderqueer and radical faerie movements), it’s quite heartening to find someone use the power of drag (and dance music) to call attention for political action.? With its ’90s eurotrash disco beats and earworm of a chorus, “Google Google Apps Apps” is the most entertaining treatise imaginable about the gentrification of the Bay Area. You’ve probably heard about the problem, a distressed area of a town has low rents, which attracts low income people who build it up over time. As things get nicer (or trendier), wealthier people come in to be part of the action and make the area unaffordable to the original people who made it cool.? What happened to Williamsburg, Long Island City, and Astoria in New York is happening in the Bay Area.? Using biting satire, Drag Queen Persia and visual artist collective Daddies Plastik repeat throughout the clip “I Wanna Be White” leading to a reworking of Madonna’s “Justify My Love” to “Gentrify My Love” for a parody which ranks up with Lady Bunny’s classic medleys.? Even the title is a play on the oft-used Google Maps.? While issues of gentrification and race might be a lot for?Sunday?Funday, it’s all about offending some people and making the laugh while getting a point across – so this NSFW clip has been on repeat for me since I first heard about it on Popbitch earlier this week.
Image courtesy of Persia.