RuPaul Charles explains his iconic Drag Race phrase, “If you can’t love yourself, how can you love anyone else?” (YouTube/RuPaul’s Drag Race)
RuPaul Charles explained the iconic phrase heard at the end of every episode RuPaul’s Drag Race Episode: “If you can’t love yourself, how can you love someone else? Do you agree?”
The Emmy winner explained her mantra in a TikTok on Sept. 4. Drag Racing It even launched a franchise where the drag icon hosted a series of online masterclasses on self-love, confidence and drag makeup techniques.
“Simply put, you can’t give what you don’t have,” he told his fans, enlightening them. “Finding how to love yourself is a whole other thing,” the drag performer admitted.
“It’s a lifelong journey. I am constantly investing in myself and recognizing the child that lives inside of me who needs all the love and who hurts when I don’t acknowledge him.”
The Allstora co-founder acknowledged that while others may not “recognize” his most essential self, that doesn’t matter: “The only person who needs to recognize me is me.”
He continued, quoting himself: “‘If you can’t love yourself, how can you love someone else?’ I can’t remember where I first heard that.”
Charles speculated that this had something to do with Flip Wilson, an American comedian who appeared on television between 1960 and 1970. Wilson had a character called Reverend LeRoy. In a skit, Wilson’s character would say, “Can I say amen?”
“I don’t think he said that,” RuPaul continued, “but I think that sentiment came from that preacher.
“I learned the hard way that if you don’t have love in your heart anyway, you can’t express it. Georges and I are very interdependent,” he continued about his partner, Georges Lebar, with whom he is in an open marriage. “But because I met him much later, I had a head start on learning how to love myself, and a lot of therapy helped too.
“I think the first step in learning to love yourself starts with that child inside of you that is thirsty for love and needs lots of love, love from a parent, and you can give that love to that child,” he advised his fans. “That’s the place to start.”
Charles added: “It doesn’t end there. You have to continually fill that void and find out what you love. Find out what makes you happy and do that. I think that’s the starting point.”
He ended by leaving his fans with his famous line: “If you can’t love yourself, how can you love anyone else?”
Source: PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news – www.thepinknews.com
