Netflix premiered a new show co-created by drag queen RuPaul, titled AJ and the Queen where a ten-year-old accompanies a drag queen to perform in mostly gay clubs around the country. In one scene, the prepubescent child is referred to as a ‘top’ which means the person who penetrates during gay intercourse.
The show is co-created by RuPaul, who is the host of the popular show RuPaul’s Drag Race. RuPaul has been subject of much controversy, especially concerning underage drag queens, such as ‘Desmond is Amazing,’ exposing children to performances of a sexual nature.
In the show, the child, who is the 10-year-old daughter of a drug-addicted prostitute, says she wants to be a boy “because people leave boys alone.”
According to Newsbusters, the young girl does everything in her power to superficially cover any feminine features such as her long hair and tries to act like a boy.
During the show, in which the drag queen co-protagonist and the young girl bond, traveling the country, the child is exposed to several highly sexualized themes throughout.
The scene which caused controversy was taken from episode 2, titled Pittsburgh, where the unlikely pair arrive at a gay club in the Pennsylvania city and undertake the following discussion:
Magda: Well, look what the pussy dragged in. And you have a child. I knew closing those Planned Parenthood clinics would create a problem. [Laughs.]
Magda and Robert: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: Girl, this is AJ. AJ, this is Magda. One of Pittsburgh’s finest queens.
Edie: Which tells you a lot about the Pittsburg scene.
Robert: Uh, maybe don’t tuck in your junk in front of a minor.
Edie: There are no miners in Pennsylvania, no matter what the president promised.
Robert and Edie: Mwah. Mwah.
Robert: AJ, this is Edie. She used to be pretty.
Magda: I’m still pretty thought, right?
Robert: Well…
Alma Joy: Wait till you…
AJ: What’s his problem?
Robert: That’s Alma Joy and, trust me, she may have a couple of nuts, but there is no joy…
Robert: Good to see you, Alma.
Alma Joy: Have we met?
Robert: Oh, okay. No high road. Michelle Obama taught us nothing?
Alma Joy: Surprised to see you all the way out here in the sticks, Ruby. Wasn’t that what you called us? I guess she’d know all about sticks. She has that big one stuck up her ass.
Magda: You say that like that’s a bad thing.
Alma Joy: What are you even doing in Pittsburgh? I thought you were opening your own New York club.
Robert: Oh, I am. We’re in the middle of huge renovations and it is going to be major.
Man: Here you go, Edie.
Edie: Oh, Ruby, girl, there are burgers at the bar. Are you hungy?
AJ: I am. Take me. Come on. Let’s go.
Edie: Okay. Follow me. First kid I ever met that’s a top.
Although the line is in jest, the joke about a ten-year-old girl identifying as a boy–not because she apparently suffered from gender dysphoria, but because she witnessed her drug-addled mother’s suffering as a prostitute–who would act as the penetrating party during gay intercourse is seemingly considered acceptable.
Other episodes of the show continue to immerse the girl in sexually-charged themes.
