Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand
I had the pleasure of sitting down with co-hosts Ian and Stephanie for this week’s episode of the Circuit 42 podcast!
I walked with a list of recent comics to discuss, but we wound up having a wide-ranging discussion that covered Drag Race, drag artists as superheroes and superheroes as drag, Bettie Page and Elvira in comic books, Rob Liefeld being a terrific “idea guy,” the unique power of Kickstarter as a marketing platform, the woes of international comic fans, and much more!
Welcome to my first recap of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7 – All Winners!
Wow, that’s a mouthful!
I’ve been recapping and commenting on Drag Race both here and on Reddit since Season 6 in 2014. It’s amazing how much the conversation around Drag Race (and drag, in general) has changed in that relatively short period of time.
When I first started talking about drag online there was an emphasis on “female illusion.” Drag queens who presented a more believable (or, “unclockable”) presentation of exaggerated femininity tended to be more revered. That included their hair and make-up as well as their body.
A term that was often used at that time was “fishy” or “fish,” in the context of “she is the fishiest queen in the cast” or “she is serving pure fish.”
(That term has rightfully been called out for its misogynist roots. Yes, even gay men dressed as women can be misogynists. You can find me using the term in older posts, but it’s not something I would say today.)
(Similarly, “unclockable” tends to be associated with trans people “passing” as their gender and isn’t a term we need to use for drag artists – nor should folks outside of the trans community be using it to talk about trans folk.)
Linked to that emphasis on femininity, Drag Race had a perverse stance of devaluing or even barring woman contestants, whether they were cis or trans. The perspective that RuPaul espoused at the time was that having breasts or a more-traditionally feminine face or figure provided too much of an advantage compared to male-bodied contestants who ostensibly had to work to create that illusion.
That’s not the conversation we’ve having around Drag Race anymore.
The change has come from boundary-shattering Drag Race contestants; from other shows like Dragula and We’re Here; and from the Drag Race fandom itself. We have now seen trans women compete and win across multiple Drag Race franchises, as well as the first cis woman compete on Drag Race UK. Dozens of queens have come out as trans, non-binary, and/or gender-fluid, some on camera during the run of their seasons. And, the fandom and the judges are no longer demanding breasts and padding as a baseline requirement for “good drag.”
That doesn’t mean Drag Race is now a perfect platform. It still relies on the performance of womanhood, which has inherent problems. While to some queens that equates to a celebration of womanhood, for others it remains an exaggeration or caricature. Drag Race still has trouble appreciating drag artists who aren’t presenting glamorous feminine drag. It still has a homogenizing effect on drag around the world, to which it has now added an element of colonization with its vast set of international franchises. And, RuPaul and Michelle Visage still come from a set of pop culture and style references primarily rooted in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s – before many of today’s drag artists were born!
Despite all of those detractions, the juggernaut of Drag Race is still elevating the work of dozens of queer artists around the world every year. I watch because I revere them and their talents. I love that the show has transformed into a celebration of their artistry rather than a catty, drama-filled reality show.
Of course, drag artists still come with some catty, drama-filled moments. That’s part of the proud herstory of drag! The show just isn’t as obsessed with manufacturing them anymore.
If Drag Race has increasingly become more celebration than competition, All Stars is it’s biggest annual bash. That makes this first-ever All Stars “All Winners” series a “Platinum Jubilee” of drag (or a “Quarter Quell,” depending on your perspective).
This new season features a decade’s worth of winners: eight artists who were originally crowned from 2011 through 2020.
That’s not every winner, nor is it every fan favorite winner, and some folks are grouchy about the heavy-hitting queens who abstained or were passed over. Yet, it’s a stellar cast of artists at the height of their craft, and it becomes evident very early in this episode why only eight of them are competing.
(The missing winners are Chad Michaels, Bianca del Rio, Violet Chachki, Bob the Drag Queen, Alaska Thunderfuck, Sasha Velour, Trixie Mattel, and Aquaria. Note that James FKA Tyra no longer performs in drag and Sharon Needles has been accused of some racist and predatory behavior that will probably keep her away from the brand for some time. Meanwhile, Lawrence Chaney, Kita Mean, Kylie Sonique, Symone, & Krystal Versacé were all either newly-crowned or not-yet-crowned when this was shot. Plus, reportedly, queens Ru did not personally crown are not yet eligible for this franchise, which knocks out English-speaking international winners like Angele Anang, Priyanka, Envy Peru.)
With all of that out of the way, it’s time to recap Drag Race All Stars Season 7, Episode 1 – “Legends”!
Whether you are a Drag Race veteran or you’ve never seen the show, I’ll cover every step of the episode in detail. In this premiere, the queens have to write a verse for a brand new Ru song, and I dare you to find another recapper who is a songwriter who has written more than 400 songs!
Plus, at the end of the recap I’ll update my pre-Season power rankings to reflect Episode 1! (Want to skip the recap and head right to the rankings? Go for it!)
Racers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen… win!
Yes, my dear readers of all ages and genders, you read that title correctly: Drag Race coverage is back for a limited time only, to cover this senses-shattering All-Winners series!
Honestly, I’m still watching every episode of every iteration of Drag Race, but that has escalated from about 20 episodes a year five years ago to almost 100 a year today thanks to Drag Race, All-Stars, UK, Holland, Canada, Espana (Spain), Down Under (Australia + New Zealand), Italy, and vs. The World; already-shot debut seasons from France and the Philippines; pending franchises from Mexico, Belgique (Belgium), & Sverige (Sweden); and the oft-rumored Ru-turn of Thailand! Plus, Dragula!
That’s a lot of drag artists to consume every year and I love every single second of it, but this new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7 takes the crown because it features eight winners crowned by RuPaul herself over the past 11 years – starting with the incomparable legend Raja from Season 3 through All-Stars Season 5 winner Shea Couleé.
Who has the best chance to walk away as the QUEEN OF QUEENS in this 12-episode special event? I’m breaking down all eight of these queens based on their track records of Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent… plus, their Fashion sense and Lip Sync abilities, and what common Drag Race challenges they might actually win on this stacked cast!
Then, in two days, come back for my RuCap and Power Rankings of Episode 1 – “Legends”!
Readers, start your engines! And, may the best drag queen… win!
[Read more…] about RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Season 7 – All Winners Pre-Season Power Rankings
Another season of RuPaul’s Drag Race has come and gone.
Several, actually. We’re already on a third one this year, with Drag Race Espana giving us no chance to rest after the run of UK vs. The World and the final of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 14, with another one season starting later this month and more already shot and ready for announcement.
The series coming later this month is an All-Winners edition of All-Stars, and between the Season 14 finale this weekend and the upcoming parade of winners I’ve been thinking a lot about queens who do well on Drag Race versus queens who win.
If you look at the winners of all of the regular seasons of American Drag Race, I don’t think we could say any of them are solely a lip syncing, dancing, performing queen. That’s an important part of drag culture and drag performance, but often the winners of Drag Race aren’t the best lip syncer of the season – even now that each season culminates in a lip sync for the crown.
Bebé, James (fka Tyra), Raja, Sharon, Jinkx, Bianca, Violet, Bob, Sasha, Aquaria, Yvie, Jaida, Symone, and this weekend’s winner (no spoilers, here!) all share something in common, and that’s perspective. They each bring an eye for drag that is uniquely their own, and often talents along with it.
Not everyone can have Sharon’s spooky glamour or Bob’s killer comedy chops. Even if we zero in on the queens on that list that seem a little less unique in their skills, they brought something else to the table along with that. James had her unflappable confidence and her masterful seamstress skills. Aquaria had a depth of fashion knowledge and pop culture reference unheard of for a queen her age. Jaida brought pageantry alongside impeccable styling and a deadpan sense of humor that invited us to laugh with her and at her.
If other queens won those seasons, could we say the same for them? I don’t know. I think there’s a certain inevitability to the artists who win Drag Race because I understand now that RuPaul is looking for that perspective in her winner. Some of the runners-up had perspective (Kim-Chi especially stands out), but others don’t feel like the could bring what the winner brought in that moment even if they seemed neck-and-neck at the time and have blossomed afterward
(Courtney Act and Brooke, two of my all-time favorites, both illustrate this perfectly. They are both stunningly perfect drag queens, but neither of them were at the height of their powers at a potential winner. They had more to do. They had more perspective to form.)
This is why it’s almost a slur when RuPaul simply labels someone “professional.” Professionals don’t have perspective because they are adaptable. RuPaul is a professional now, but that’s not how she came up in the world of drag. She didn’t have a BFA or a background in professional theatre. She was a punk. She was a chameleon. She was not adaptable, but she hustled to make things work when she needed to.
She is looking for that same punk hustle in a regular season winner. It doesn’t mean you have to have a punk rock aesthetic. It means you’ve got to have a way that you see the world and reach out to demand things from it. [Read more…] about RuPaul’s Perspective & Lady Camden’s “I Don’t Need a Reason”
The speed limit in Wellington varies from 30 kilometers per hour to 100 kilometers per hour, depending on if you are on a residential street or a highway.
I spent all of March moving no faster than 8 KPH.
Not coincidentally, that was also the speed I had been moving in January and February, but for an entirely different reason: I ran over 80 kilometers the first 59 days of the year.
Image by Bernd Hildebrandt from Pixabay
When we lived in Philly proper over a decade ago I walked everywhere. Even home from work several days a week. I never ran.
I walked everywhere and it felt like I was capable of everything. I walked and got promoted, walked and composed songs in my head, walked and wrote whole blog posts.
That’s why I went on my first five kilometer walk the first week in January while E and the kid were off camping. Not for some New Year’s Resolution. I walked because it was a lovely evening. I walked because I wanted to relocate that powerful creative space in my brain.
Walking was easy. Too easy. Not enough resistance for my body or my brain. Walking quickly turned to running, which quickly turned into the fastest I’d ever ran. Not fast for a real runner, but a high speed for me. Eight kilometers an hour.
For my brain it was slow motion. It was the most cumulative time I got to spend alone with my thoughts away from my family and the internet in a long time. I was getting faster and faster with every incremental 5K and the acceleration was starting to bleed into my home life.
I was ready for a big March full of projects.
Nothing in specific, mind you. It was more a general thrum of positive, productive energy waiting to be unleashed.
That was how I felt the morning of Monday, February 28th. It was a bright, sunny morning at the tail end of summer, and I was going to have some long-put-off minor dental work done at 9am. That doesn’t sound like a good time, but it was one of those things that I had worried over for so long that it felt like it had been permanently tattooed onto a checklist of looming anxieties tallied by my brain. Finally having it done was going to free up many brain circuits for my big March.
That was the morning I woke up to discover that the minor kid’s weekend cold had now spread to E, and that the two of them were in miserable shape. COVID cases were spiking in Wellington, and while the kid is a masking pro she had also plucked a loose tooth out of her mouth on Friday at school lunch just before this cold hit.
Did they have COVID? If they did, I probably shouldn’t go to the dentist to let them spelunk around in my oral cavity for several hours.
Ah, but here was the rub. New Zealand was rolling out Rapid Antigen Tests on March 1.
The next day.
But, due to the spike in cases, all of our ample two drive-up testing locations in the city were completely overwhelmed. They weren’t even doing the shove-the-q-tip-up-the-nose PCR tests anymore. They were just slinging some special pre-sale RATs into your car window and calling it a day.
That was the official testing recommendation of the NZ COVID hotline: getting some RATs slung at you. Otherwise, the official recommendation was to wait two days and then try to buy a RAT at retail. Except, not if you thought you might have COVID. In that case, just isolate.
That was okay. It was fine. I’m good in a crisis. It wasn’t any worse than a long-awaited dental procedure. I called the dentist to cancel on account of my potential COVID exposure, grabbed my phone, my wallet, and a mask, and leapt into the car wearing the same too-small t-shirt I had slept in. This didn’t need a big plan, a water bottle, or packing up my laptop. I’d drive up to the testing center, get some tests thrown in my window, and be back in an hour. Two, tops.
Had I over-thought, over-packed, and over-prepared, would things have gone any differently? Was I moving too fast in that moment? I had all of March to think about it, and I still can’t say for sure. [Read more…] about slow mo(nth)