Rampa at Raket : The Drag Queen Hustle in the Philippine Creative Scene
As part of its #PrideMonth2025 celebration, the UP ISSI Gender and Development Committee held a hybrid learning session titled “Rampa at Raket: The Drag Queen Hustle in the Philippine Creative Scene.” This event, under UP ISSI’s Communities of Practice for Entrepreneurship (COPE) Program, featured Mx. Joshua Arsenio V. Espiritu III, who shared insights from their master’s thesis at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan.
Mx. Joshua discussed how drag artists in the Philippines function as both brand and talent, positioning themselves as entrepreneurial entities in a creative economy that remains challenging and often precarious. Their paper prompted deep reflection on how drag, originally a subversive and expressive art form, is increasingly shaped by consumerism, meritocracy, and neoliberal values.
The discussion emphasized how most drag performers still pursue their art part-time, as the drag scene has yet to be self-sustaining or fully recognized as a legitimate art form. As a result, many are compelled to continually rebrand and conform to “drag that sells,” which may risk diluting the diversity and radical potential of drag.
What resonated most from the session was the realization of our own complicity in perpetuating this system. While we aim to support drag artists, we inevitably contribute to the consumerist structures they are forced to navigate. Mx. Joshua also raised a crucial point about how much of drag scholarship is rooted in Western frameworks, stressing the need to reframe such studies from a Global South perspective—one that speaks to Filipino experiences, contexts, and cultural nuances.
This reflection extends beyond drag and into how we approach knowledge production in the Philippines, which still often relies on foreign theories that may not fully represent our realities. Ultimately, the session underscored the importance of not just celebrating local drag culture but also pushing for its legitimacy as a profession, ensuring that drag artists are afforded both the respect and protections they deserve as creatives and cultural workers.