The co-producer of MTV’s hit reality show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” told an audience of New School students that he believes we are living through a “media revolution.”
“This media revolution … it has changed who we are. I’m so personally optimistic about it, because I think the way we share information and share ideas is through telling stories. And there’s all these screens and opportunities to tell different stories,” said Fenton Bailey during a Monday discussion at 65 W11th Street.
This was among the many topics Fenton discussed during a 90-minute long discussion moderated by Assistant Journalism & Design Professor Liesl Schillinger. He also touched on his time as a film student, his stint as a band member of “The Fabulous Pop Tarts,” and the role television plays in the ever-changing media landscape.
Bailey revealed that he believes his career has been affected by this evolution of technology. He felt that initially, television was given a poor reputation when compared to movies, despite television being produced more authentically. “Whereas Hollywood and the movies put people on a pedestal, you get this glamor beaming at you, what TV does is it takes you behind the scenes, and reveals things,” he said. “It is inherently, as a medium, best-suited to [be] unscripted, it’s almost the DNA of its invention.”
On top of being the co-producer of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” Bailey is also the co-founder of the Reality TV production company World of Wonder, and most recently the author of the 2022 book “ScreenAge: How TV shaped our reality, from Tammy Faye to RuPaul’s Drag Race.” His talk was partially dedicated to “ScreenAge,” as well as to “discuss the power, the practice and the potential of this evolving, influential medium,” according to New School’s event announcement.
Bailey’s decades-long career started at New York University, where he studied film at their graduate program. While at NYU, he met his partner, Randy Barbato, and the two formed their rock band “The Fabulous Pop Tarts”. Bailey believes that it was while touring with his band in Atlanta, Georgia, that he first met RuPaul Andre Charles, the drag queen who would later host “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “[RuPaul] just knew he was a star,” Bailey said.
In the 1990s, though “The Fabulous Pop Tarts” came to an end, the pair of bandmates found success through their involvement in the famous 1993 pop-hit: RuPaul’s “Supermodel (You Better Work).” Soon after, their relationship with RuPaul would evolve into “The RuPaul Show,” and in 2009, “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
While Bailey’s most well-known projects surround RuPaul, he is also known for his work directing documentaries. These films often feature the lives of other pop-culture icons like “Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures” (2017), “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” (2000), and “Party Monster” (1998).
The influence of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has extended to the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts curriculum, as a course was created in 2019 called “Rupaul’s Drag Race & Its Impact.” The professor, Joe E. Jeffreys, was in attendance at Bailey’s discussion.
“It’s great to see Fenton. This is an important book about the entire career of the World of Wonder. ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is perhaps the best-known element of their universe, but there’s so much more,” said Jeffreys. “So much fantastic work. It’s great that he was here at The New School and able to talk about this book to share with everybody.”