Drag Race: "Tap that App" and swiping left on Vixen/Aquaria
Monday, April 9, 2018 at 5:30PM From the desk of sick bed of Nathaniel R
I'm totally sick and two days late so I'm racing through typing up this Race. Please excuse possible incoherency ahead. The mini-challenge was a sleazy commercial in front of wood panelling (very 1990s Calvin Klein) where the queens had to make RuPaul laugh while talking to or um... embodying or seducing a chocolate bar. The winners were the exploitable primness of Blair St Clair, Monique Heart's lusty-busty thirst, and Monet X Change's "Irish" jig. Eureka, totally back on her game, mimed an invisible wall while lustily self-narrating. Weird but also "WERK!".
Winners and losers and drama-creators are after the jump...
Backstories & Personal Dramas & A Big Long Rant
This week's episode was short on good quotes and excellent performances (though the runway soared) but both the peak and nadir of the episode was the personal drama. Blair, Monet, Aquaria, and Dusty's disparate reactions to the subject of churchgoing represented quite a wide sampling of what LGBT people go through with that: you have incongruous 'look the other way' acceptance in Blair's conservative family embracing her career in drag and still going to church with her; you had full progressive congregational support with Monet going to choir practice in full drag; you had the horror story via Dusty's conservative family's attempts to exorcize the "gay demon" out of her ; and the 'no thanks not for me' dismissal with Aquaria opting out of a suggested drag queen sunday at Church ('meet you at brunch later') which might be the most relatable for the widest swath of LGBT viewers who have of course been treated horribly by churches / religious communities over the years. We already suspect that Monique Heart's situation is closer to Dusty's since she said in a previous episode that her family thinks that "this," pointing to her drag, is "blasphemy."
Monique and Dusty and Cracker displaying my moods during Vixen vs Aquaria round #3 (??? I've lost count of the arguments)
That was all very interesting but unfortunately the bulk of Untucked was a replay of the animosity between Aquaria and The Vixen. The Vixen feels like Aquaria leaving the room or crying when they fight makes the camera, and thus the audience, see The Vixen as "the angry person of color" while it paints Aquaria as "the victim" even when she started the fight. She is correct. But The Vixen doesn't, to my mind, win the argument because she seems delusional about her own behavior and even the argument itself. If Aquaria is playing the victim for the camera to further this narrative isn't she by the same logic, playing the angry person of color to further the same narrative. And then, like Aquaria actually, balking at her role after the fact. It takes two to fight.
I am surely in the minority but I find both of them insufferable. Aquaria, for the reasons Vixen points out (dishes it but can't take it) and The Vixen for her negativity* and, much worse, taking pride in escalating contentious situations. She even wants to fight when the fight doesn't involve her (as with the Miz Cracker vs Aquaria which you'll note ended very swiftly because Miz Cracker isn't negative and just moved on rather than escalating it.) And it's also telling that the shady comment about Vixen's red wig did not originate with Aquaria but Vixen doesn't go after the originator (I forget who -- was it Asia?) and goes straight for Aquaria. We can't know why but it further reveals that it takes two and this is not all Aquaria's engineering but that both Vixen and Aquaria are to blame for the fight.
* Being called "negative" by Aquaria obviously upsets The Vixen but why? Is it because she didn't choose the adjective for herself? The Vixen repeatedly excuses her own bad behavior by naming it -- she keeps referring back to her opening line "I'm here to fight" as an 'I warned you!' moment and also to reiterate the warning. By her own admission she takes pride in her combative nature. When the others suggest she take it down from a ten to a five, even after basically showing her that they're sympathetic to her point of view, she's not having it. And this is where I have the disconnect with The Vixen. Being asked to modulate your own anger is not a bad or an unjust thing or even a race thing -- human beings should all always be doing that, and for multiple reasons. Here are just three of many: life is hard enough without being nasty to other people, anger is not always productive (though it can be in some situations), and because you should save your total fury for the big battles and this particular fight over the casual use of a red wig couldn't possibly be considered one of 'the big ones.'
Plus warning someone of bad behavior does not actually make that same behavior good. It's still bad. You've just named it, is all. Even when The Vixen has a moment that at first appears to be praise for someone else (an impulse you could safely call the opposite of negative -- I literally was suddenly all "maybe I was wrong about her?!" and ready to change my tune) it turns out to be a red herring because by the time The Vixen has finished her speech she's negated the compliment entirely by reversing it and indicating that all the success was actually hers all along, reducing her team to mere props rather than contributors to her success. Blech!
That said, I want to say something positive about both Vixen and Aquaria since I would like to avoid the wholehearted embrace of negativity that I'm complaining about and to counter the feeling that I'll be glad to see them both sashay away whenever that is: They both looked amazing on the runway giving their best looks thus far, with Vixen serving a great walk and fun swoosh of her peacock gown, and Aquaria mixing Saint Sebastian imagery with the feather theme.
You're a winner, baby
Asia O'Hara's million dollar smile (and wittily performed hair blowing), elevated an already stellar pop art tweety-bird look and her one-expression mugging was the highlight of her team's buttrface commercial.
Sashay away
Though the judging has been incoherent in many ways, they've been spot on with the bottom two choices each episode. This week Mayhem Miller, who utterly receded, and Yuhua who just tanked were the correct choices to lipsync. (The runway SHOULD count for something, though it doesn't always, and Kameron Michaels, who like Yuhua tanked in her performance obviously has her runway look to thank for missing the bottom two). On to the lipsynch. Yuhua Hamasaki couldn't come up with something more engaging than playing the air-guitar while Mayhem Miller did total justice to Hole's "Celebrity Skin". That great song was a rather atypical one for this show but Courtney Love was a guest judge so there you go. Mayhem's use of one key phrase "have you ever felt so used up as this" to deliciously shade her opponent with a simple hand gesture, followed by the ferocity of tearing into her own feather dress as climax just slayed.
Shantay you stay! OBVIOUSLY.
Quotable Bitches
"Drag is a contact sport." - Miz Cracker
"I'm cutting up all your wigs... All of them." - Monique Heart
Name dropping
Pop culture references this episode: Twin Peaks, Lucy the missing link, Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, Clue, Bob Mackie, Cruella de Vill, Moschino, Snow White, Mother Goose, Mae West, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, NeNe Leakes, The Little Mermaid, Tweety-Bird, Alexander McQueen, Saint Sebastian, Maleficent, Cher, two different Prince songs (!), Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, and Amy Adams.
Rankings
Shifts from last week indicated with arrows...
| Prediction | Preference |
 |
 |
| Extremely subject to change as we get to know them | |
| 1. Asia O'Hara | 1. 🔺 Asia O'Hara |
| 2. Miz Cracker | 2. Dusty Ray Bottoms |
| 3. 🔺Blair St Clair (haven't yet grasped why the judges are so into her) | 3. 🔺Eureka |
| 4. Monét X Change | 4. 🔺 Monique Heart (haven't yet grasped why the judges aren't into her) |
| 5. Mayhem Miller | 5. Monét X Change |
| 6. 🔺 Eureka | 6. Miz Cracker |
| 7. Dusty Ray Bottoms | 7. 🔺Blair St Clair |
| 8. Aquaria | 8. 🔻 Mayhem Miller |
| 9. The Vixen | 9. 🔻 Kameron Michaels |
| 10. 🔻 Monique Heart | 10. 🔻 Yuhua Hamasaki OUT |
| 11. Kameron Michaels | 11. Aquaria |
| 12.🔻Yuhua Hamasaki OUT | 12. The Vixen |
| 13. Kalorie Karbdashian Williams OUT | 13. Kalorie Karbdashian Williams OUT |
| 14. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo OUT | 14. Vanessa Vanjie Mateo OUT |
Due to my sickness there is no gif as episode grade because I didnt make my own gifs this week.
So which app would you download first: fibstr, end of days, or buttrface?
Reader Comments (23)
Feel better
Nathaniel -- I hope you feel better. I'll excuse the tone deaf way you are interpreting the Vixen/Aquaria drama because your sickness is like the spider. But I'm going to need you to stop hating on black queens who aren't "respectable" (Vixen and Shangela), or I'm going to have to snatch you up real quick.
Feel better.
I've known of The Vixen longer than I've known about Aquaria but I can see your side here. :)
Ooooof Nathaniel. Best wishes, hoping for a speedy recovery and for you to feel better soon.
I will leave a reply to your very very tone deaf view on this episode for later because I think you're missing the mark and with it, what Vixen was actually talking about.
I agree with Nathaniel on the The Vixen/Aquaria drama (Aquaria is insufferable and Vixen has a point, but being a combative asshole irregardless of the circumstance hurts her argument) and I hope one of them gets eliminated soon so I can watch the show without worrying about anxiety.
And were people really bitching about Season 9 being too friendly? One of the things I loved about it was the lack of interpersonal drama - the stakes are much larger when someone is crashing and burning on a challenge as opposed to watching the same argument play out multiple episodes in a row.
I don't dislike Blair St. Clair, but it does feel weird that she has 3 top finishes in 3 episodes. I feel like she might be a Valentina-type shocking boot at the midway point. But who knows, maybe she stomps her way to the crown.
I was sad to see Yuhua go - she was an initial fave - but I can't argue with her elimination. She bombed the challenge and was outdone in the lip sync.
My current faves are Monique Heart, Monet X Change, and Miz Cracker, with Eureka and Kameron on the outside. But this is a good group of queens, so that could change very easily.
Tone Policing: A Review. I agree with beyaccount and AlexD. Hope you feel better soon!
A few thoughts of my own:
I love Yuhua, but I can't really find fault with the decision to send her off this week. She completely missed the mark in the challenge, didn't stand out on the runaway, and resorted to air guitar while Mayhem Miller completely slayed her during the lipsynch.
I do find fault with some of the others decisions, though. As in: Blair St. Effing Clair in the Top 3? Again? Although I really loved what she did in the mini challenge, her main challenge and runway wasn't exceptional enough to warrant this compared to some of the other queens' work. And Kameron Michaels, who was rocking the best look on the runway (for the second week in a row!) in the bottom? As next week seems to be a design challenge, I have high hopes for Kameron this time around, though.
This week's near-MIA: Dusty Ray Bottoms, who didn't figure at all before his big confessional moment. This week's even bigger MIA: The entire Aquaria-Cracker rivalry, which should just be skipped for the entire rest of the run. I find its replacement, the Aquaria-Vixen rivalry, somehow much less annoying - mainly because it actually developed on the show, and is not something we have to accept as just being there.
LVP of the episode: Courtney Love. If a Snatch Game impersonation of her was this clichéd and one-note, it would probably end up in the bottom.
Not doing a list of my own this week, as these queens are just too good across the board, so any effort to rank them seems arbitrary. At the moment, I identify as #teamcracker, but at this point, I could probably make a good point for nearly every one of them winning the season.
The first time the wig borrowing was brought up, it was in the context of good-natured group interaction. Then Aquaria decides to make it into a genuine passive aggressive bitchy comment. Vixen could tell the difference - the girls were having fun, Aquaria came from a place of resentment and bitterness. So she clapped back at Aquaria, Aquaria was clearly at fault and can’t seem to figure out this game at all
This felt like a redeeming week for Vixen to me. She has annoyed me up to now (I just can’t with the “I did it all on my own” style of “leadership” and then a win last week for a so-so skit performance) but this week we finally saw some delivery on her promised political consciousness. Not to mention a killer runway. Her politics haven’t come across in her drag (yet) but she was dead on viz. Aquaria. It’s no coincidence that all drama has circled around her—first with Cracker and now with Vixen. Vixen put it right when she said that Aquaria pokes the bear and then runs away. She tried to do it with Cracker, too. The moment of the exchange was (with apologies to Cracker’s drink slam) Dusty’s “you are cunty to me” to Aquaria when she was already crying. Way to kick a bitch while she’s down, lol. (That said I don’t blame her for crying because even though she was dead wrong I’m sure in that moment it felt like everyone was circling for the kill).
It’s a shame to lose Yuhua so soon because she’s a delight on the runway and was also a delight in last week’s skit—but it’s unfortunate that she needs Alyssa Edwards-level direction to get there. One unfair moment was Ru’s dismissal of Kameron as not much of an actor because last week she deserved the challenge win, in my opinion, for her scene-stealing interpretation. As soon as she suggested that she be the narrator I knew it would be bad for her. As a “character” she can excel but as the “straight man” she reads as dull.
Agree with your sentiment that Monique is being unfairly judged. I fear this is getting to her. We need another cards dress now!
Agree with the sentiment that these queens are strong across the board. Hurrah!
I would love to know what Bey, AlexD, and catbaskets found so objectionable in this review. They seem to think the article doesn't understand The Vixen's perspective...? I'm pretty sure it understood her point just fine.
Before I say what I'm about to say, I just want to make one thing clear: in the Vixen vs. Aquaria fight, I agree with The Vixen that Aquaria can dish it out but cannot take it. The Vixen did not start this latest fight and she was right to point out Aquaria's hypocrisy. However...
This appears to have turned into a race thing quite quickly and I don't think it's fair to make it such. The Vixen has, from the moment she entered the workroom, reveled in her confrontational nature. "I just want to fight," she says. She holds up a sign to the camera saying "The Vixen will fight you." (Note that she breaks the fourth wall to make this admission to the camera. Not only does she want to be confrontational, she wants everyone to know it at home.) In choosing roles for the PharmaRusial, she smarts off "I might agree with y'all [and let you be what you want to be] but I might not and just be a b*tch." She has taken the low road at every opportunity, all in a mission to create her character as a complete and total b*tch.
Suddenly though, when Aquaria is annoyingly crying on the couch, The Vixen decides that this cannot stand since it creates a narrative of her as an "angry black woman." Huh? That is not the narrative that has been created and her attempts at playing the victim are not some form of "political consciousness" as catbaskets calls it above. The Vixen has created her own narrative as the angry queen--period. Her being black and getting in a fight with a white queen has nothing to do with it. It's the same path to attention that other queens of all races have created over the years-- Phi Phi O'Hara, Acid Betty, and especially Morgan McMichaels come to mind. This drama is exactly the waves that that The Vixen wanted to make and she has gotten exactly the reputation that she wanted to achieve.
To quote Monique Heart in Untucked: "Imma just let you know that you pick and choose when you want to be vulnerable." (And The Vixen's response to that? "I do.")
what is tone deaf about this? I love how no one explains. this article was super spot on.
to beyaccount -- give me a break with the "respectable"... sourness, bitchiness, needless pot-stirring, pettiness... are what I can often be found hating on. Those are character traits, not races! I prefer drag queens (and real people) to have a wider range of personality traits and less of those particular ones. Life is hard enough without embracing toxic feelings.
To everyone calling this tone deaf -- I figured this was coming even though I stated up front that I agreed with The Vixen. But it's easy to throw out the term "tone deaf" (the new most common insult online... it used to be "irrelevant") but what does it actually mean in this circumstance?
Which part do you object to -- that i believe human beings should learn to modulate their anger? my description of her negativity (one example: refusing to congratulate her team -- a positive action that seems relatively easy for other queens in multiple seasons). Which part?
Correct me if I'm wrong but I honsetly believe the only way you would think I wasn't 'tone deaf' is if i agreed with the Vixen (which, again, I do) AND I let that agreement excuse her of everything and this is where we have to part ways.
We are all responsible for the way we move through this world. You can be 100% correct in an argument AND still be an asshole. It doesn't make you less right but it also doesn't mean that people calling you out on your behavior are out of bounds or "tone deaf"
Haven't you ever had a friend who you had to calm down to deescalate a bad situation? If so this stance shouldn't actually be hard to understand.
catbaskets -- agreed on Yuhua. She obviously had to go this episode but there's so much potential there and she seems fun. I wonder if maybe she hasn't fully formed her drag persona yet?
mrw -- that's so true about the rankings. Please know that mine are kinda arbitrary too. At this point (still very early) I'm just in love with so many of them: ASIA, MONIQUE, DUSTY, EUREKA (she won me back but if she brings up the leg again my eyes might leave my head from the rolling), MIZ CRACKER... curiously my favorite in the first episode MONET X CHANGE seems to be receding but I'm hoping she roars back so that I can six whole queens I'd be okay with taking the crown.
You’re totally right about The Vixen. And the fact that her drag is horrible (except for this week’s runway) only makes it worse. No need for her to stay except to create drama.
Kameron Michaels with a bad runway still deserved to be safe over Mayhem. At least Kameron had lines and showed up in the commercia.
Asia deserved her win. Monique and Monet are quickly becoming favorites too along with Cracker.
Saying this is tone deaf but NOT saying where or when Nat was tone deaf is as automatic as defending yourself with “you’re making it seem like I’m the angry black woman” and turning the argument into race to quickly win it, because you know that will shut everyone up and make them back off.
It’s nice that even though the other black contestants agree that this would be a problem, they didn’t really agree with with Vixen and still went after her. Not defending Aquaria, but finding a lot of fault in the way The Vixen behaves too.
And it’s nice that @evan found non-black examples of angry girls on this show from past seasons, behaving just like Vixen now.
The person here making hersef an angry black woman is the person who announced herself as such from the start of the show, has said it to the camera herself and even after accusing others of making her look that way said f*ck yeah I’ll fight everybody and always react at a 10. I will never react at a 5.
The one part where I 100% agree with Vixen is when she said “leave me alone”. People like this (and Morgan, PhiPhi and others) are exactly the people that need to be left alone. Except in this case Vixen came for Aquaria first with the whole Cracker drama. But of course everybody forgets that and pretends that Aquaria can’t find a tiny litte place like a wig situation to get back at her, even if as stated here already, she wasn’t the one who said it first.
And finally, this has been long, who comes for Nat for being tone deaf about the “angry black woman” issue but ends with “or I’m gonna have to snatch you up real soon? Isn’t that a stereotypical angry black person (whatever race that may be) response?
The way I see it is if you are The Vixen and your literal first words on Drag Race are "I'm here to fight" and you then proceed to write "The Vixen will fight you" on a piece of paper by the second episode, it's a little rich to then make a fuss about people potentially perceiving you as an angry black woman.
There is 100% an issue of racism in the Drag Race fandom, and it's an ugly problem. I think The Vixen raises an important issue. But she is no angel in all of this. As RuPaul has once alluded...you earn your edit.
Feel better, Nat. I feel like you've been sick often. Please take care of yourself and boost your intake of vitamins!
Re: episode
The Vixen was mostly correct in the argument. I completely disagree with the notion that she is, in some measure, an angry black woman who cannot contain herself, and here is why:
She spent a large segment of the episode holding back her frustrations, despite being irritated as hell by Eureka's behavior. She kept her cool and was professional and carried herself well through the group exercise, without a single bleep.
What was the difference between Aquaria and Eureka? Aquaria came for her. Eureka never did (she was just being her loud overbearing self).
So, yes, she can keep her cool, she absolutely can take a situation of friction and not crank it to 11. To pretend that she cannot is to deny what happened on the very episode.
That said, if you come FOR her, she will cut you.
One could say oh, cool, well done, gurl, stand up for yourself. It could be perceived as a positive. That gurl is tough and courageous and can stand up for herself. Her problem is, of course, people DON'T see it that way. People don't listen to arguments, they react to tone and perception. If your tone is aggressive, it puts people on the edge and it makes them dislike you, even if, as The Vixen, you happen to be 100% right.
Which is why she needed to listen to Cracker's advice and scale it back, or at least bring some humor to it (as Monique Heart does). Still stand up for herself, but in a fashion that does not alienate the audience, and does not intimidate potential patrons.
Once drag race is over, she'll need bookings and gigs, and it does not help her career prospects to be, fairly or unfairly, labeled as hard to manage. If I recall correctly, Shanel, Phi Phi, etc., were often very much right in their arguments too. It did not come as consolation when they were having a hard time dealing with the aftermath of being portrayed as unreasonable bitches on the show.
On the race thing, specifically, as a non-resident of the US, I can't really opine, except to say that I wish you guys were able to discuss the subject without hyperventilating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The rest of the episode was mostly bad or unmemorable, except the runway that was a delight, especially Asia, Kameron (OMG!!) and Monique's cape (if not her dress underneath). And Mayhem won the lip-synch handily. So far, all LPFYLs have been easy calls.
Just as an exercise, though, rewatch that untucked in mute and think of it as a silent movie.
Poor little sobbing Aquaria, dressed like a feathered Medieval angel, with flowing white dress and wavy blonde hair, with added arrows and bloody tears.
Uncompromising, combative The Vixen in a dark gown, heavily adorned with peacock feathers, the symbol of angry jealous Greek Goddess Hera, one of the all time best known villainesses of world literature (12 Labors of Heracles).
What would be the plot and who would play what role?
It doesn't matter that pretty much everyone agrees that The Vixen was mostly right.
It doesn't matter that DRB was saying Aquaria has been a bitch since forever and was never a real friend (pre-Drag race in the NYC drag scene).
Perception is what actually matters, and so The Vixen is damned.
Carmen, nice post. But I think you neglect to mention the times that she was confrontational without someone coming for her. She interjected herself in the Aquaria / Cracker feud just to get a rise. She told her Rusical group that she'd make all the decisions. She reminds us constantly like she likes to fight.
If you come for her, she will come for you. But if you don't come for her, she'll do whatever she feels like doing. She's a difficult person and it's not because of race and it's not because Aquaria couldn't take the heat.
I think the racial bias The Vixen brings up is absolutely spot on, but do I think she's the ideal proponent of change for the issue? Absolutely not. Her outbursts are so unjustified and unlikeable, it's clear she's doing the Phi Phi O'Hara "let's fill the villain role so I can go far" even tho it's clearly disingenuous and that never works if you actually want to win the competition.
But that peacock look was everything.
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RuPaul's Drag Race is a reality TV competition show that has been airing since 2009. The show is hosted by RuPaul, a drag queen and actor, who also serves as the head judge and executive producer. The format of the show typically involves a group of drag queens competing in various challenges, such as lip syncing, acting, and runway modeling. Each episode, one or more contestants are eliminated, until a final winner is crowned at the end of the season. More news here https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2023-03-21/reserve-de-wolinak/l-ex-chef-veut-faire-fermer-le-casino.php RuPaul's Drag Race has gained a significant following for its celebration of drag culture and its promotion of acceptance and diversity. The show has also been praised for its impact on mainstream culture, helping to bring drag and LGBTQ+ issues into the mainstream