Phi Phi O’Hara is Secretly a Superhero.
by Deven Stewart, Director of Pink Dollar Comics
Whether you love her or hate her, Phi Phi O’Hara is a household name thanks to Ru Paul’s Drag Race. However, What you may not know is that Phi Phi is bringing us all some serious cosplay realness. Check out a collection of her previous costumes over at gay-nerds.com or check her out onFacebook.
Lately a lot of celebrities have been coming out of the “geek closet” as blockbuster superhero and fantasy movies are releasing in tandem with star-studded comic con appearances. Learning that Phi Phi likes to cosplay may not seem like news at first, but I’m here to fill you in on why it matters.
Growing up as a gay kid for me was super awkward. Because of my mannerisms, people around me (including my family) treated me like I was gay far before I made the self-realization. Being “outed” at such a young age meant that I was subjected to social ostracism pretty much as soon as I started grade school. Every single day of my school life was a personal hell. Until finally, one day in high school, I accidentally got outed from a different sort of closet.
I had been discreetly trying to read borrowed copies of Love Hina on the bleachers when someone caught me “reading those weird backwards comics.” Before I could even consider how to respond, they were already doing their best to bring unwanted attention to me. “Great just another reason for people to avoid me,” I thought.
And yet, later that day, someone who I normally never talked to (who usually served me a daily dose of shade) approached me and asked if I was reading manga. For the first time in my life, something different about me had netted me a friend, and as I would find out in college, it would net me more friends than I would know what to do with.
This geek culture I had discovered was far more accepting of me than any other circle I had encountered, likely because they were all too familiar with the sting of social rejection. Even with this heartwarming support from my newfound friends, there was a significant lack of gay icons in the geek world at the time. So it makes me incredibly proud to know that, somewhere out there, there might be a gay youth who is looking for support, and will find Phi Phi’s cosplay and be reassured that being a gay-geek is actually incredibly cool.
Sadly, when I was a kid, I wasn’t able to witness Phi Phi rocking League of Legend cosplay like the best of them (watch your back, Ya Ya Han) so instead, I had to look for characters I could identify with. Naturally I fell in love with Disney villains, who are not only coded as gay, but — let’s face it — are practically animated drag queens. Because of their deliciously dark humor and theatrical personalities, it was only a matter of time before I discovered drag queens after I started college.
Ever since, my love for drag queens and strong female characters has influenced my own work, as you can likely tell by looking at some of the female characters in my queer shonen webcomic,Autumn Rose. Seeing a drag queen like O’Hara get influenced by the same geeky media that I love is not only intensely inspiring, but sort of feels like going full circle.
I can’t speak for any other LGBT youth out there, only a younger version of myself, but I definitely consider Phi Phi O’Hara as one of my new favorite superheroes.