Life in Plastic, It's Fantastic!

“Wait, it gets cold in Wisconsin?”

I sat there dumbfounded in my badger sandals as I had to explain to a friend from Maine that yes, it does get cold in Wisconsin. In the course of my one year in New York City studying at Columbia University, I have had to answer all sorts of questions about my apparently unknown homeland of Wisconsin.

“Yes, it gets hot here too.”

“Yes, I like cheese, but no, we do eat more than just cheese.”

“No, the town where That 70’s Show took place isn’t real.”

That last one I googled because of the sheer number of people who asked me. For how prestigious Columbia appears to be with its 5.5% acceptance rate this year, their students knew nothing about the middle of their own country. This ignorance inspired within me a kind of pride for my home I never felt before, a righteous pride. But, as much as I could try to educate the entire city on why cheese curds are objectively the best way to consume your daily intake of lactose, I felt like my voice was unheard. Well, until I found Trixie Mattel.

Trixie Mattel really has done it all. In just 2018, this Northern Wisconsin native has been nominated for a James Beard award, won a Queerties award for her web show which became a TV show on Viceland, and released her second album, One Stone, which topped the iTunes charts. Yes, despite the Barbie doll aesthetic and humor so dry it makes California jealous, this University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee graduate has released two country/folk albums. And as if that weren’t enough, she just recently kicked off her international tour, TRIXIE MATTEL: Now With Moving Parts, which after having seen in New York I can personally tell you is the best live performance I have ever seen. From actress, to singer songwriter, to touring comedian, Trixie Mattel has been everything. Well, Trixie Mattel has been everything except one key thing: a woman.

Meet Brian Firkus, the man behind the curtain, or rather, the man behind the hip pads, high heels, and metric ton of makeup. Yes, Trixie Mattel is a drag queen, and a damn good one, having just won the third season of Rupaul’s Drag Race All Stars this January. Off the stage and the screen, Firkus looks like your typical Wisconsinite decked out in a baseball cap, jeans, and flannel who probably, and obviously does, listen to country.

“But wait, a drag queen that plays country? How does that overlap at all? And how does that represent Wisconsin?”

I’m getting there, strawman, slow down. But this strawman is right. Listen to a country song, and it’s all about love, trucks, and how your girlfriend broke your heart and your truck. And Trixie’s songs don’t stray too far from these feelings. In her most recent album, she sings about heartbreak ("Break Your Heart"), growing up in a small town and feeling trapped by that ("Little Sister"), and how life gets complicated as we grow old ("Moving Parts"). These songs come from a place of sincerity in her heart, yet so does her drag, representing Firkus’ femininity and acceptance of that. In this way, Trixie didn’t create the overlap, but she showed us these two groups of people weren’t so different. And by doing so, she made country fans out of drag fans, and introduced country fans to the world of drag. By staying true to herself and her rural roots, she has opened the doors for thousands to experience a world they wouldn’t have in the first place.

And as if all her achievements weren’t enough to give her a key to the capital, this opening up to experiences is exactly what us Wisconsinites need more. We need to show the rest of the world that we’re not so different from them. She showed me that my pride didn’t have to be an angry self-righteous pride, but rather an invitation to learn about something new. Every ridiculous question I got asked or time I had to point Wisconsin out on the map became an opportunity to create a new cheesehead. They may start the conversation, but we have the gift of being able to reply.