Call me mother´. Effective language strategies in Rupaul Charles Jones´s songs

Abstract

Many of RuPaul's songs are seen as active anthems of the drag queen culture. The lyrics of these songs contain catchy phrases, which are ideal for energetic singing and dancing, but they also present empowering messages addressed to all those that are listening or watching the singer's and/or the troupe's performance and feel identified. These messages may be sometimes political and social, and they may be supportive of a particular stance, often promoting hard work and determination as a means to achieve one's inner self, one's projected image, and one's place in life. All the messages communicated in the lyrics clearly represent the author's perspective conceming how things should be done in order to achieve what people wish and to make their rights to be the way they prevail. One way in which the lyricist(s) may signal these directions is by means of effective language strategies. The purpose ofthese strategies is to show the authors' ability, wants and needs to indicate perspective conceming the realisation of events, as well as the author's intentions and aspirations. The identification in the lyrics of effective language strategies follows Marín-Arrese's (2009) taxonomy of these strategies that include deontic and volitive rnodals, attitudinal expressions, the irnperative rnood, communicative evidentials, arnong others. Differing degrees of interpersonal distance may arise frorn the use ofthese effective devices.