Shipping drag queens

[stormkeeper_lovedoris]

 
I guess there's a gene for shipping drag queen couples, and I have it.

So here is where I will reflect a bit on this. 

Background:



The couple's names are Lydia and Kori. I first took notice of Lydia because out of drag, she looks like Wylan on Shadow and Bone. Kori never really struck me, especially not her drag, and in fact I think looks better out of drag. The show was filmed a year ago, and in last episode they said that they liked each other. Then a few days ago, Kori said in an interview that they are still together and have been together since the show. 

12 years ago I was obsessed with another drag couple (Alaska and Sharon), and I was probably more obsessed with them than any other fandom I've been in. I said to myself more than once that I cannot have another 2013. 

Other stuff:

- Shipping real couples is not a great idea. They can't do what Malec on Shadowhunters did: get married in the last episode and ride off into the sunset together, forever. Lydia and Kori are so young, just 23 and 24. How many people aged 30+ do you know who are still with the person they dated when they were 23? (A rhetorical question, but I can say that Doris's sister and brother-in-law were about 22 when they met and they stayed together till his death 30 years later. Still, this is not the usual thing).

 - 12 years ago, Alaska and Sharon had a lot of attention and a lot of 'content'. It would take an entire essay to explain why, but we'll never get that much content on Lydia and Kori. For one thing, Alaska and Sharon were together before either one got on the show, Sharon had previously won Drag Race, Alaska entered it the following season, there was so much buzz around them. 12 years later, the show is on its 17th season, fans are not as "gagged" at a drag queen couple, and most importantly - neither Lydia nor Kori is going to be as successful or popular as Alaska or Sharon. No shade, and I won't go into a tons of detail, but neither member of my current ship is going to win any season of Drag Race. 

- Buuuut not having a bright spotlight on them might work to their advantage? Less hecticness. Less "men throwing themselves at them", as a friend of Alaska's once described the situation for Alaska and Sharon in 2013. Lydia and Kori been together over a year now, so they've had  time to figure out what being on Drag Race means to them, and what a relationship might mean. The current season will be done airing in a month or so, and then Lydia and Kori might have 6-10 months or so of traveling and of working lots of gigs, some together, many in different cities. That can tank a new relationship.  But the fact that they won't be as busy as Alaska and Sharon were 12 years ago might help.

- I will have less content to fangirl over though. Kori has posted some great vids, many of which include Lydia, and they have such a cute domestic vibe that I love. I might get almost no content on them apart from whatever they post on their social meds, but that might be nice since I spent way too much time checking every possible fan source in 2013.

- The fandom has been pretty warm towards Lydia/Kori. The comments on the Reddit posts about them still being together have been very nice. There's some content on Tumblr. Some on TikTok so I might have to get on that. A few fanfics have been posted. So I do have some material to work with.

- In the recent interview with Kori, the interviewer said that Kori and Lydia are the only Drag Race couple that is still together. There was another couple who met during their season and basically said it was just a "situation-ship" and neither expected it to last. It didn't. 

About that...

- Is this all just a ploy to get more camera time? Are they just friends, did they just hook up once and decide to milk it to get attention? It's possible. But I did mention all those vids Kori made, over a period of time, and it's clear they are together. It'd be a pretty big commitment to faking all of this. On the other hand, if you're an entertainer and desperate, who knows what lengths you might go to, to get people talking about you?

Anyway. I'm gonna try to keep this low-key. I can find them cute together without getting obsessed. Right? Yeah.

(Those last two words are to be sung like in the Outspring song "Self Esteem")