drag

Krisis covers RuPaul's Drag Race, international Drag Race, Dragula, and more in their incredibly in-depth essays and recaps on Drag.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 5

December 2, 2017 by krisis

It’s week five of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This week’s episode went totally girly and campy by challenging the queens to be in a horror movie. They weren’t starring as a scary monster, but as the typical slutty girl who makes for an obvious first victim.

While a few of Dragula’s Exterminations have been hard to watch, this episode marked the first time I was unsettled by the main challenge of an episode – and I think that might have been part of the point.

There was something particularly shocking in watching a man act out these purposefully-exaggerated, somewhat sexualized acts of violence against someone doing her best to present as a woman but who we know to be a man.

Seeing the violence play-acted by two men really drove home the amount of degradation we put female characters through just for having the temerity to walk alone at night or dress provocatively.

With that realization comes the ultimate chicken-or-egg question: is this violence in our movies because being a woman is an inherently dangerous act, or do we expect and accept violence against women because the media normalizes it constantly in trope after trope, from the slutty girl dying first to the love interest getting fridged?

So far this season we have seen drag as torture and death, been reminded that rock’n’roll is simple socially-acceptable drag, and seen the queens in their most outlandish outfits while giving birth. The Boulet Brothers have unquestionably amped up the unspoken commentary in their challenges compared to the zombies and sea monsters of the first Season. I think that’s a big part of why the show is so much more compelling this time around.

Clever commentary aside, it’s shocking to see all six of the remaining queens deliver straight-up feminine performances for the first time this season. It emphasizes just how strong the remaining half of these girls are. This week’s weakest queens are weak for choices rather than faults.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s fifth episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.

Crushing Comics S01E30 – The start of Bendis’s New Avengers (and Drag Queens as Strong Female Characters)

November 30, 2017 by krisis

It’s my 30th video in 30 straight days! Another obscenely productive November here at Crushing Krisis.

In this episode I tackle the beginning of Brian Bendis’s New Avengers run, but not before I share my love for the art of drag and why Emma Frost used to look more like a man.

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 30 features Avengers Disassembled (Amazon), New Avengers, Vol. 1 (Amazon), New Avengers, Vol. 2 (Amazon), which are all included in New Avengers by Brian Bendis Omnibus (Amazon), and Avengers Disassembled: Iron Man, Thor & Captain America (Amazon) – all of which are covered in the Guide to New Avengers.

Not a fan of watching videos – or just not able to watch right now? First, did you know you can speed up YouTube videos? Just click the little gear icon to change the speed settings. I know that makes me much more apt to watch.

Alternately, you can keep reading for the full transcript. Please keep in mind that this season of videos is shot off the cuff with no chance to review the books ahead of time, so I might occasionally fudge some facts (usually addressed in the video by subtitles).

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 4

November 25, 2017 by krisis

It’s week four of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This week’s episode totally took my breath away. The cast’s interpretation of alien life – complete with a live birth – is hilarious, stunning, and scary all at once.

It also stretches the boundaries our belief when it comes to reality editing. Clearly these looks were put together with a lot of resources on hand and more than one day of notice. The implication seems to be that everyone finds out what the theme was before they are dismissed from the previous week of shooting.

(If that’s the case, I’m not sure why the Boulets can’t just say, “As we told you last week…” when they explain the challenge.)

If it’s hard to suspend disbelief about the editing of the show, it’s not at all hard to imagine that the remaining seven contestants are really female alien life who really reproduce live on camera. Even the weakest performances goes above and beyond what I expected to see. The floor show is absolutely transfixing.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s fourth episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 3

November 18, 2017 by krisis

It’s week three of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

This episode is a little creaky, showing off not only the show’s lower-than-TV budget but also their somewhat remedial editing decisions.

We see a runway and performance obviously out of the order in which they were shot. And, the rock performances are both unedited full versions of a single song – so we have to listen to the whole thing twice! – rather than a slimmed down edit or a cross-cut version showing the two teams facing off.

Reader beware: I’m not only coming at critiquing this episode from my drag fandom, but as a semi-professional rocker who has played a lot of stage shows. Granted, none of them have been as a shock rock band, but I might be a little extra brutal on some areas of this challenge compared to one that’s more horror-based.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s third episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Power Rankings – Season 2, Episode 2

November 11, 2017 by krisis

It’s week two of Dragula, the search for a Drag Super-Monster who is equally gifted in the areas of glamour, horror, and filth.

If you were looking for an episode to sell you on Dragula, this is the one to watch. Last week’s episode emphasized bombastic special effect make-up in a way the first season never did, and this week continues that oneupmanship.

This week’s challenge? A high concept floor show of day-walking undead women in a small western town. It’s visually impressive and frequently unsettling. Plus, it again ends with an unexpected twist – the queens having a (paintball) shootout for their lives.

It also gives us a chance to get to know the nine remaining queens a bit better. I’ll admit, none of the girls feels as totally on-the-fringes and filthy as last year’s cast, aside from perhaps Monikkie. It’s a slightly more mainstream, more lovely crowd of competitors. Yet, they absolutely do not feel like glamour queens who just happen to have a penchant for the odd. They feel like something totally other – an aspect of drag we’re simply not seeing celebrated in media at this point. They’re just not as scrappy as last year’s cast – perhaps owing to the increased visibility of the show and this year’s casting process.

Enough talk – watch Dragula’s second episode, and then see if you agree with how I’ve ranked the queens below.