This work has not been peer reviewed by the University of the Philippines Rainbow Research Hub or its project members. The views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Hub or its project members.
2026 Philippine Queer Studies Conference
POSTER PRESENTATION
“Ganyan dito sa Manila, girl”: The linguistic performativity of othering of provincial queens in selected episodes of Drag Race Philippines Season 3
Rommel Mocorro
Drag has become one of the most visible and consumed queer art forms in recent years, largely due to the global Drag Race brand. As its localized iteration, Drag Race Philippines (DRPH) has become one of the mainstream stages for local drag performers, which has afforded them new forms of visibility and mobility. However, it has also reinforced a homonormative understanding of drag as polished, glamorous, and metro/cosmopolitan, which configures Manila-coded drag aesthetics, affect, and narratives as the dominant standard. This study examines how the linguistic practices in DRPH Season 3 reproduce these hegemonic ideals through a Manila-centric lens that discursively constructs provincial queens as the “Other”. It asks: How does the linguistic performativity of othering in selected episodes of Drag Race Philippines Season 3 contribute to the discursive position of provincial queens as the Other?
The study is guided by Judith Butler’s theory of performativity and Teun van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. Data were drawn from the first four episodes of DRPH Season 3 and its companion show Untucked as the discursive marking of provincial identity is most apparent in the earlier episodes, with particular focus on the experiences of the provincial queens of the season: Khianna from Cagayan de Oro and Yudipota from Bacolod. Spoken interactions, including confessionals, peer conversations, and judges’ critiques, were manually transcribed and analyzed for linguistic strategies of othering such as pronoun use, evaluative language, hedging, profanity, and indexicality. Findings reveal that the show maintains a Manila-centric gaze: provincial queens are often framed as either excessive, lacking, surprising, or in need of refinement, which reinforces a symbolic and material hierarchy that privileges Manila-coded drag. At the same time, provincial queens actively resisted these framings by asserting and (re)signifying their provinciality through runways, performances, and sisterhood to mobilize a pluriversal drag aesthetic as an alternative praxis that challenges the franchise’s neoliberal and homonormative ideals.