Written by Clem Atkins
Hiya babs! On Thursday the 20th of February, The College of Arts and Law was thrilled to welcome local legend Ginny Lemon to campus. As part of LGBTQ+ History month and its theme ‘Activism and Social Change’, this event aimed shine a light on the importance of LGBTQ+ representation as well as forms of queer joy and resistance enacted through performance art.
Hailing from the West Midlands, Ginny Lemon is a songwriter and recording artist. They are well known for their appearance on the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and, more importantly (as Ginny stresses) a 2022 episode of Celebrity Coach Trip. Arriving in the Arts Main Lecture theatre last Thursday in cat-print trousers and pair of crocs in their signature yellow, they were greeted by a room full of eager students excited to gain insights into their career.
Ginny was in conversation with CAL’s own Dr Rachel Sykes, whose academic work focuses on digital and popular cultures and their intersections with gender and queer theory. Following the conversations with Rachel, the floor was opened to students to ask their own questions.
Ginny candidly shared with us their story about their journey as a performer and how they came to embrace their gender identity. Whilst they explained their own preference to avoid labels, they expressed finding comfort amongst the non-binary community. They also described their relationship to the queer community in the West Midlands. Growing up, there was a pressure, they explained, for young queer individuals to fly the nest to larger, ostensibly more accepting cities with active LGBTQ+ scenes (like Bristol or Manchester). However, the Worcester-born star has declared that they love the West Midlands and never wish to leave. As they grew, they found that when events were missing in a small town – they took it upon themselves to help make them happen.
Though conversation and the follow Q&A from students, Ginny also expressed their complex relationship with drag. Ginny’s story of how she became involved in the drag scene was deeply touching. They highlighted how, for them, drag was an important tool for processing grief, noting that their outfits were inspired by the colour yellow often being symbolic of emotional healing. At the same time, Ginny shared openly about some of the divisions that held back the drag scene and the LGBTQ+ community more widely, including speaking openly on their experiencing witnessing body-shaming, ageism, racism and misogyny within the performance industry. Here, Ginny stressed the important of entertainment run both by queer performers for queer audiences, noting the pitfalls of reality television and its often-exploitative relationship with queer performers for mainstream entertainment. They also highlighted the importance of sustainability, half-joking that at the end of the day, much of drag is just “landfill”, opting instead to create their looks from vintage and upcycled clothing.
It was an absolute delight to have Ginny with us and wonderful to have so many students in attendance. The talk featured highs and lows, sausage rolls and a bar of a song about crisps. Despite sharing so openly about many difficult topics, the evening still proved to be a barrel of laughs. We managed to share a quick word before they departed. Ginny was disappointed that no students during the Q&A questioned what they were planning to have for tea after the event (It was a Chinese, if you were wondering).