vrocotamy

I'm pretty sure she was joking in the Entertainment Weekly review editorgrrl cited by saying she can't actually speak Russian (even if she may have learned have learned her excellent pronunciation through a cassette tape.) It's very hard to tell with Katya when she's pulling the interviewer's leg and when she's being serious. In other interviews (like her very extensive "Feast of Fun" podcast with Fausto Fernos and Marc Felion), she said she's fluent in Russian and was fluent (but is now rusty) in French. She exclusively listened to Russian pop music for five years, and is a dedicated "Russophile" who's very well-read in Russian literature and history - even if she is, by her own admission, delinquent in Russian slang due to having never traveled there. Katya actually intended to go on to graduate school to become a high school foreign language teacher, until one of her professors saw her "Katya" gig at her senior show at art school (she majored in video and performance art) and told her that she should be a character queen. In any case, she's hoping to travel to St. Petersburg soon to perform at a club there; she said she has a connection through a Russian emigre magazine in Chicago. I have more to say about this season - and the outcome of the show - but I was at the "live crowning" party in New York last night and thought I'd provide a few details. I'll start by saying I'm 5'3" on a good day and I had to illicitly stand on top of a sofa on the balcony to see the coronation and the performances at the end, and that I had to leave to see a trick (not literally in the Katya way) before the night ended, so I missed Ginger, Violet, and Pearl. Bianca and Shangela (a surprise) hosted, with Lady Bunny as the DJ (all three of them read each other through the night.) It was much more spontaneous and unfiltered than the filmed reunion in LA, so I'm glad I had the chance to attend. Bianca mostly did her schtick on the other queens (and a little on the audience and the staff at the club - she started speaking in Spanish to the sound guy during one of the many unfortunate AV accidents), but had some earnest moments of speaking as Roy and not Bianca. I suspected this might happen, since she's in town for The Vaudevillians, but Jinkx made a surprise appearance on stage with Bianca after the show ended and before Violet appeared and the audience gagged. She and Bianca started reading each other (Jinkx for Bianca's age and Bianca for Jinkx's recent mediocre review in The New York Times) and Jinkx started singing "I Wanna Be Popular" from Wicked, doing a good witch-bad witch act. Jinx also made reference to meeting Violet after wrestling practice (i.e. to her porno), which cracked everyone up and showed a saucier side of Jinkx than that on S5. Violet, Ginger, Pearl, and Shangela then appeared for Violet's coronation, and Violet seemed genuinely cowed by her win. She said Ginger and Pearl were just as deserving, if not moreso, and that she was flabbergasted by her victory. Her speech (and the glittering crown on her head) were actually quite beautiful - she dedicated it to all queer, bisexual, lesbian, gay, and transgender people, and then there were a series of photos with the other finalists and with her, Jinx, and Bianca. All the queens looked gorgeous, even moreso with the stage lighting than on TV.

My opinions on this matter are similar. In addition to the queens you mentioned (minus Shangela, although DJ is cute), I'd say Yara, Milk, Sahara, Dida, PhI Phi (minus the unfortunate personality), and April made very good-looking boys. Adore, Bianca, and Katya are all more "cute", with eccentrically attractive features (although I'd go with any three of them.) It's a truism that conventionally good-looking boys don't make attractive queens, but it falls apart in cases where the boys have more boyish than manly features (April, Manila, Phi Phi, Willam, etc.) It also falls apart in cases with conventionally attractive men with strongly defined cheekbones, and//or larger eyes, and/or smaller chins (Katya, Raven, Sahara, Nina), who can make strikingly beautiful but not especially fishy queens. Raven/David claimed to have only had lip enhancements at the time of Season 2 (in 2010), but I think he's had injections around his cheeks and eyes since then, in addition to a permanent fake tan and very manicured eyebrows. He's as much a drag king as a drag queen, in that his cosmetic enhancements work as much towards appearing better as a man and a woman (Detox should take notes). On Season 2, he said he wanted rhinoplasty, but he seems to have settled on rocking the stately Jewish nose (too few of us Jewish boys/girls wear it proudly.) I might be the only one gauche enough to say this, but I think Miss Fame is a very good-looking man who does not make a good-looking drag queen. Unless you get her in the absolute right lighting and at the absolute right angle, her face still reads man. Her brow ridge and chin are just too big, and her eyes are too close together. Thin lips, too. There aren't any feminine features like big eyes to offset the strong bone structure, like with Raven, to make her a "striking" but not masculine queen. I think Pearl is a cute, boyish-looking twink with puppy dog eyes. He's definitely not as good-looking as the average actor/model, as snakenax said, which shows up in pictures of him out of drag, but he's still mighty cute. All that said..he probably won't look as good in 5 or 10 years. Who knows, maybe it's just the bitterness in me speaking? I'm only a couple of years older, and I could never be the lithe, hairless, dreamy twink ideal he exemplifies.

Yep, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Adore. The under-25 "baby queens" this season are no match for her in terms of charm, charisma, humor, and talent; TPTB made a mistake in trying to replicate the Adore phenomenon cheaply. She's gotten alot of flak lately from fandom and other queens (notably Raven and Delta) for giving up on perfectionist glamor drag - she doesn't even attempt to corset or wear dresses anymore, and mostly shows up in a blue wig with a ripped T-shirt and tights. Her explanation is that she's a "drag rock singer", not a drag queen per se like Delta and Raven. I was still disappointed by Adore giving up the fantasy drag until I saw the clip show and her "Hey Qween" interview with Jonny McGovern, but I see now that she's expanding the territory of drag performance in an interesting way (even if she perpetually looks like Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.) Her T on "Hey Qween" with Jonny McGovern on the BOTS tour was fascinating, as were her opinions on the queens of the current season (there's a double-sized "Look at Huh" segment where she gives her opinions on a ton of present and past RPDR queens.) Notably, Adore reiterated how kind, talented, and welcoming Jasmine Masters is (apparently, Jasmine was one of the first queens Adore met working in and around LA) - and how nice to young and new queens she is, which definitely counters Jasmine's portrayal on the show (and makes me believe that there was more "Aryan Airlines" bitchery than we saw). She also voiced her opinion that Katya, based on her abilities, should have won the whole season - and, in essence, is the "real winner" of the season based on the fan reaction to both her personality and talent (she cited the ). I agree to some degree with the former statement and entirely with the latter. She had very kind words for Kennedy, Ginger, and Violet personally and as entertainers, but threw some shade at Pearl. When asked by Jonny McGovern about Pearl, she simply started laughing uncomfortably and said "She's gorgeous." Apparently, Pearl posted something about Adore being ugly on social media a couple of years ago. As for the other queens guesting on the reunion show...Alaska, Latrice, Raven, Raja, Alyssa, and Jujubee (and RuPaul) were hilarious and on point. I understand how posters like those above don't get Alaska's sense of humor - it's not for everyone and humor is very personal - but I think we saw her laconic, vaguely absurd sarcasm, to quote rozen, at its best. Sharon seemed a bit reserved (and unrecognizable). I know she's gotten quite a bit of work done, in particular around her jaw, but her nose looked different (and not in a good way.) I also think Jinkx fell flat - and yes, she looks different, but I'd just attribute that to three years age difference and maybe a little weight gain. She can be utterly hilarious, but she's not always great in situations where she's asked to be spontaneously witty. I might get read for saying this, but Bianca, to me, was inconsistent. Her jokes are tried and true (and very broad) and often verge on the obvious, and I think a lot of her humor depends on context and on the counterintuitive appeal of her personality. I thought she was consistently hilarious on her season, but without a supporting narrative I can find her blunt without being particularly funny or insightful. Her Kasha and Ginger reads, for one, fell flat, but I thought her Pearl read was superb. I was amused by the consternation and shock of Latrice, Alyssa, and even Sharon at Pearl and Violet's audacity through the season.

Yep, the only time the show has highlighted hosting skills has been in the introductions to the roast challenges, but hosting a revue seems like one of the benchmarks of success in the drag world. Chad and Raven have also arguably influenced drag in Southern California (and nationally) by hosting the two best-known drag shows around LA and San Diego. I suppose a reason RPDR doesn't highlight hosting skills is that it's trying to test the queens' skills as entertainers and artists beyond what's expected for a successful bar queen, with the professed purpose of selecting the next "drag superstar" who can cross over into the mainstream. That said, there seems to be almost as little room for the "fashion" drag queen in the wider performing arts and media, venturing even slightly beyond the confines of RuPaul's Drag Race fandom and World of Wonder's control, as for the "fashion" drag queen in the narrower drag world. The contestants who've gone far post show prove this, IMO. It's been the queens who are comedians or singers (Willam, Sharon, Jinkx, Shangela, Alaska, Bianca, Pandora, Adore, Courtney) - and a few with entertaining personalities who are fierce dancers/lip-syncers (Latrice, Alyssa) - who've made a mark outside the sphere of RPDR fandom. Jinkx is all three and she's been the most successful queen to come off the show, in terms of penetration outside queerdom. Even Manila and Raja, who are beloved by the fanbase, haven't successfully made a reputation outside of queerdom (although Raja arguably already had one from his appearances on America's Next Top Model.) I love Manila - she's fierce (and a fierce lip-syncer), witty, and has absolutely fantastic design skills/stylistic sensibility - but she doesn't have a sellable talent as a performer outside RPDR and the drag circuit. The one queen to truly have success in "fashion" - as a model and a muse - is Carmen Carrera, and she transitioned from living as a (beautiful) male drag performer to living openly as a beautiful woman, with a nose-job and enhanced breasts. Monica Beverly Hillz, another transwoman, has aso had some modeling success. I'm not counting Willam, Alaska, and Courtney's recent stint as American Apparel spokesmodels. Miss Fame and Bebe Zahara Benet (and maybe a few others I'm forgetting) were male models, but a dual-gender modeling career seems like a dubious proposition (tell me if I'm wrong.) The best way to profit from being a "fashion" (re: styling or design) queen, IMO, would be to use your appearance as a stunning vision of femininity to promote your skills as a designer or hair or makeup artist, or to sell a makeup line. Raja's success on RPDR probably furthered his already successful career as a makeup artist, but she never fully took advantage of the commercial opportunities it might have offered. I think Miss Fame (or maybe Pearl, more evolved) should try and use their drag to market their skills (or products), following on Raja's missed opportunity.

So...positives. Most of what I have to say has been said by someone else, so I'll go through it quickly: 1. Ross Matthews. I don't know him outside of his stint on RuPaul's Drag Race (and his judging of Snatch Game in S4 with Loretta Devine), but he provides a good counterweight to Michelle. 2. The challenges after Snatch Game were all original, complex, and produced engaging results. I enjoyed the concepts and outcomes of Conjoined Queens, Divine Inspiration, Prancing Queens, and Hello, Kitty Girls! I did think Divine Inspiration was very uneven - not only because of the uneven acting skills of the contestants, but because the sketch given to the glamour triplets (as steveac10 aptly titled them) diverged so much from the source material in Pink Flamingos. The scene where Divine eats dog shit in Pink Flamingos hardly even counts as a scene. It's basically a stunt tacked on to the end of the movie; there are no spoken lines, only a sound-track of "Who's That Doggy In the Window?" In any case, there's no indication of internal conflict (or great enthusiasm, either) on Divine's part over the shit-eating. I also know from Waters' DVD commentary that the crew followed the poodle in question around for three hours waiting for it to take a dump, so the scene given to the glamour triplets seemed even more asinine. But, keeping with the positive vibes of this thread...as bunnywithanaxe said, it's good that it paid homage to Divine and Waters, and to the illustrious herstory of drag. Glamazonian Airways was pretty nifty, too. 3. This is the season that introduced the world to the divine Katya Zamolodchikova, one of the most multi-talented, intelligent, and original queens to emerge from Drag Race and the queen that I've related to the most in the run of seven seasons, since she struggles as much as I do with self-doubt, anxiety, and low self-esteem (and her admissions to that effect always seemed genuine, rather than a cynical sympathy ploy.) 4. There were some hilarious mini-challenges (for example, the Real Housewives and Orange is the New Black take-offs). 5. Kennedy's Little Richard in Snatch Game. In a separate instance of drag manliness, I think the bearded runway may have been the best all season. I feel like Season 7 was one giant experiment by the producers to shake things up, defy expectations, and agitate and excite viewers, in response to the criticisms from some viewers that Season 6 was predictable and staid. Maybe 50% of the experiment of Season 7 landed, and 50% of it really, really, didn't land. More than the challenges themselves, IMO, Season 7's shortcomings originated in mistakes with casting (and with dubious eliminations in order to keep queens like Miss Fame around past their expectation date), in editing that didn't leave us time to get to know the queens or make sense of judging decisions, and in production shoving conflicts between cast members down our throats that left us cold or scratching our heads.

I'm about as cynical about that as I am about the fame of the Kardashians. If I remove my personal feelings about entirely constructed social media fame, I just don't think the audience for a queer art is broad enough to have it's own celebutantes. As I've said here, the worship of the fashion queens seems to stem entirely from free social media like Instagram, and - save Miss Fame - they don't market anything but T-shirts. These queens are models for their own designs, but unfortunately there are models and designers who are better at that. Now, I do think there are ways for Pearl and Miss Fame to monetize their senses of style, looks, and makeup skills, sans performance. Miss Fame could be a makeup maven who uses drag to promote her talents (or a small scale makeup line) and Pearl, if she improves her communication skills, could be a club promoter a la her club kid predecessor, James ST. James, or use her drag to promote a career as a makeup, hair, or costume stylist, probably for movies or theater most fittingly. But those are ultimately limited in staying power and market. I think the future of drag - in terms of profitability and popularity - lies with queens like Katya, Jinkx, Willam, and Bianca, who keep one foot in the gay bar scene, but have the business smarts, creativity, and bona fides as entertainers to move into more mainstream venues for performance and into film or TV. Of course, web presence is a HUGE opportunity to make a reputation outside the bar scene, and Katya's web series shows the potential of digital media to expand a DQ's career.

I really loved Cucumber and Banana. Cucumber and the portions of Banana having to deal with queer men actually achieved a cogent (and irreverent) look at the problems facing us today, and Banana expanded the focus to queer women and transpeople. They're both by Russell B. Davies, the creator of the original (and far superior) Queer as Folk and the popular remake of Dr. Who. Unfortunately, C and B don't offer formulas and easy answers, so they won't do well with an American basic cable audience. But watch them!

I think Ginger and Pearl both came out of the runway speeches and Untucked looking pretty bad. It was like a DO NOT manual for conflict resolution. Pearl kept raking Ginger over the coals and rather absurdly bemoaning the unfairness of competition, and Ginger kept demanding that Pearl be not mad at her, instead of either just letting her statement stand or apologizing for it. Some might disagree, but I think it was tacky that Ginger so explicitly called out her competitors' personal faults, especially if Pearl confided in her as a friend. I don't know what the standard is in pageants, but the classy, professional way to go about the runway speech would have been to give a pointed critique of Violet or Pearl's capacities as demonstrated by the show's challenges and runways, by comparison to her demonstrated strengths. At the same time, Pearl is just way too thin-skinned and clearly doesn't understand (or can't deal with) the trials and travails of competition. And, I'm sorry, Pearl (and Violet), but there's no such thing as an artist - especially a performing artist - who isn't in constant competition for professional opportunities. It comes with the territory.

I think Ginger's comment that no one "could sing or act like her on RuPaul's Drag Race" was clearly a defensive move, and not well thought-out. By that, I mean any viewer would immediately think of "Jinkx Monsoon" - if not "Adore Delano" or "Willam Belli" or "Alaska Thunderfuck" or "Courtney Act" and disprove her statement. Let's be clear, I think Ginger's great at comedy, acting, and singing, but she's one of many who's been good at dramatic skills and performance on the show in their own singular ways. I think Ginger's conducted herself with a mind towards her reception by viewers up until this episode, when she cracked and let her insecurities stream out. It's a good run under the extraordinary pressure - even Bianca cracked a little by the "Glitter Ball" last season with her overreaction to Ben's runway comment - but she certainly came out of this episode looking worse than when she came in. That said, she was under an immense amount of stress and no one is perfect, so I still don't agree with the "I Hate Ginger" crowd.

Yeah, I agree that I was a bit too harsh on Ginger there. She definitely inhabits a particular, mid-century Modern, Tracy Turnblad-cum-Elizabeth Taylor, "high hair for Jesus", aesthetic and it's always polished. I would like to see her push it further to its extremes, even if her body type (both short and heavy, with weight concentrated in the belly) makes a lot of silhouettes difficult or impossible. She's a great queen in virtually every aspect and very beautiful, so I'd simply like her to be even better. I stand by my stance, however, that Kennedy - in spite of her many talents and her beauty - has worn a few of the most abhorrent garments on RuPaul's Drag Race that were not made as part of a challenge. Her chicken outfit and the fluffy green gown make Santino's overstated criticisms of Pandora Boxx in Season 2 - or Alyssa Edwards in Season 5 - seem particularly ridiculous in comparison. I actually think Katya was the only queen this season to serve a wide variety of looks on the runway, even if she wore only one wig, essentially, the whole season. Her Slavic folk princess nude illusion outfit was very different from her '60s pill-box hat stewardess "jet set eleganza" look, which was very different from her "Britney at 40" leather and lace runway, which was very different from her campy "Baberaham Lincoln" and death-by-shark looks, which was very different from her shiny green Russian trophy wife gown. They're all unified by the 80% sexy, 20% disgusting sensibility, but were very varied. That aspect of her performance is not appreciated a whole lot in odes to Katya, and unfortunately didn't factor into the judges' decision to cut her at 5th.

When I heard the spoiler of Pearl, Ginger, and Violet as the final three, that was my conclusion - that Ru and her associates really want to crown a big girl, and they feel Ginger is their best chance, so they didn't want to put any meaty competition (e.g. Katya or Kennedy) in the final three with her. Even without the fan vote, which is only one factor in the ultimate results, it would make Ginger's win look very clear and rational. The only wrench in that plan is that I think production projected Ginger to be much more popular than she was, after the popularity of Bianca, another sharp-tongued Southern comedy queen, last season. Even if Ginger is much more popular with the broader viewership than with the Reddit fanatics, she's unpopular enough that I project Violet will win. I just looked at the Facebook fan vote and Violet is at 3,300 likes, Pearl is at 3,000, and Ginger is at 2,100. In all honesty...I've been a Ginger fan this season overall, but I think she and Pearl showed their asses (or at least, lapses in judgment) this episode, and that it might be enough to pull Violet over the top. It's something that's leaked, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily true. I can find the exact source later if you're interested. I don't want to pull the thread too off track towards Season 2 discussion - although it's surprisingly relevant since this is the most puzzling final three since then. Allegedly, a producer told Raven she was "the one", and Santino and Merle were also led to believe Raven was going to be crowned, so they were surprised when Ru "changed her mind" at the last minute. I always assumed Tyra was crowned for the reasons you mention above - I can easily see Ru and a corporate sponsor deciding in advance that Tyra was the right fit. Beautiful as a girl, handsome as a man, great on the runway, has a cute kid, and comes with a backstory about being homeless. And Ru was still all about the glamazons at that point - but I think those maybe were plus factors in awarding her the win over Raven, rather than reasons she was preordained to win. Tyra had a better reality TV arc and was more likely to elicit compassion than Raven - who had so many pricelessly bitchy confessionals she couldn't be redeemed by her show of that very compassion in the Drag Mothers episode - even if Raven proved in the spokesmodel challenge that she was better equipped to fulfill the duties of a winner than Tyra. I agree and disagree with different portions of this post. I'll start with what I agree with: 1.) This was the worst season ever. 2.) Ginger and Kennedy's looks were often dated, rather '80s/Dynasty, and repetitive. Ginger has always been polished, but her only really memorable outifts were the runways for Snatch Game and John Waters (leather and lace and ugly dress.) I think she could push her "Crossdresser for Christ" aesthetic even further. I liked Kennedy's finale pride dress - these are drag queens, after all! - and her leather and lace look. But Kennedy's weakest aspect is her runway presentation - and two of her outfits - the chicken/phoenix outfit from the "Death Becomes Her" runway and the furry gown in the green runway - are among the worst items to ever have been brought by a queen onto the show (not made there.) I really resent the notion promoted by some of the "fashion queens" and their acolytes this season that the "future of drag" is modeling outfits you make yourself, since there are models and designers for that, and they're better than virtually all queens at those tasks. But visual communication is an important part of drag, and it's neither Ginger nor Kennedy's strong suit.

You're right, it's Jason (as last night's episode proved.) I don't especially hope there are more videos, though. Joey Malone would have needed to eat a few sandwiches and age a few years to flood my basement.

THIS. For all the animosity that's been played up between the "Bitter Old Lady Brigade" and the young sylphs, they actually seem to like each other quite a bit off the show and all seem to be decent people. In exit interviews with Trixie and Jaidynn, they said the two queens with difficult personalities were Violet and Kennedy, but that they get along with both now. Jaidynn elaborated a bit more and basically said Kennedy was trying to work with and that Violet was very bitchy, moreso than shown on the show (something that's been corroborated by a few other queens).

I've heard that rumor...however, the infamous inside leaker at Reddit (illnevertellu) denied that was the case, but that the queens are contractually obligated to say they don't know who's in the top three. Kennedy's tears seemed real to me, at least. I also think that her speech would have been refilmed without the malapropism if TPTB were interested in promoting her to top three (although, of course, the editing monkeys could have used the original footage if the four-endings thesis is true.) The editing of the runway critiques really endeavored to make Kennedy's performance in the challenge look substantially worse than that of Violet or Pearl, so it's difficult to tell if TPTB had already decided to send her home that episode or if it was a decision made in the editing room while the season aired. I edited my post above to summarize the reasons why I think Pearl made top three over Kennedy. But, seeing the controversy on Reddit - I feel like 1/3 of the posters are "Go Pearl! Pearl for the win! Ding dong, the witch (Kennedy) is dead", 1/3 are shocked and offended Kennedy was cut over Pearl, and 1/3 are indifferent to either - the idea that production aimed to be polarizing by putting Pearl in the top 3 is especially salient. Production clearly wanted to shake everything up from the relatively staid (but excellent) season 6, and they succeeded. I think the producers are familiar with the bulk of the footage that's been filmed when they make the final cuts before airing, and they could have already projected painting Kennedy as the bitch (or Darienne last season) by the end of filming. IMO, it's the reason Ruduction pulled a last minute switch from Raven winning to Tyra winning in the last episode of S2 - they had enough footage to put a convincing villain edit on Raven and decided Tyra could be made sympathetic with fewer gymnastics. I think Pearl's comments on Facebook about the "real story" behind her argument with Ru are enough to ensure that she won't win. Painting Ru in an unflattering light or contradicting the edit that blatantly - and painting World of Wonder in a bad light - probably killed her chances of winning. World of Wonder, RuPaul, and the other interested parties choose a winner, in part, based on professionalism and heeding the contract. Even Sharon - for all her shenanigans - never revealed anything she was contractually obligated to conceal.

I knew Pearl was going to be in the final three since Voss Entertainment - the company that is managing the live crowning in New York and the "Night of 1000 Queens" during Pride weekend here - goofed and sent a poster for the Pride event, in the confirmation e-mail for the ticket I bought, featuring Pearl, Ginger, and Violet. But I at least expected Kennedy to really screw up egregiously in order for Pearl to be kept over her. If you scored the three components of the challenge - the runway look, the acting, and the dancing - Pearl did the worst overall of the queens this episode. Her runway look was good, but very expected (it didn't push her aesthetic to its limits the way it should have, it just reiterated the look she's been serving all season); her acting was decent; and her dancing was horrific. Like, it was the Elaine Benes terrible dancing from Seinfeld translated into the language of drag queens. Kennedy's acting portions were the worst of the four, but I think her gown was the best she's worn all season and her dancing portions were by far the best of the four queens. Her runway speech was unprofessional in its reference to Violet and she regrettably mixed up condone and conduct, but I think Pearl's journey should have ended here and Kennedy should have advanced to the final three. Who knows, maybe the runway speech was what screwed Kennedy over? Or, more likely, TPTB had already decided an aging, slightly bitter, slightly bald and slightly overweight black Texan pageant queen with a thick Southern drawl and a sharp mouth was not telegenic enough, or not the "look" the season was going for, or would not appeal to the teenybopper fans who they want to market towards. Pearl seems like a nice person by the post-show accounts of all the contestants, she's a talented makeup artist and has a defined (if very limited) aesthetic, and she's had what seems like a hard life. Her vague, tearful accounts of her childhood seemed to be dancing around child physical and/or sexual abuse, and she dropped out of high school at 16 to work as a hairstylist and/or spa attendant and support herself. But, end of the day, she was there for her value as an intriguing reality TV contestant, not for her value as an entertainer. I've said my piece about that on other threads here, but I'll sum it up: 1.) The whole "Pearl coming out of her shell" and finding her way redemption arc is classic reality television, and a classic Mama Ru fantasy dating back to Tyra; 2.) She's more "telegenic" than Kennedy by Ruduction's estimation, and appeals to the teenybopper fans who flocked to Adore last season for her heartthrob looks; and 3.) Her placement over Kennedy is polarizing, and keeps people talking about the show.

True. I have different opinions on each case that it's happened. Tatianna is, in my mind, the case that's the most similar to Pearl, if you replace "mall fish" with "'30s Hollywood-cum-1983 rocker." They each had certain spurts of wit and creativity (both Tatianna and Pearl did well in the Snatch Game), but didn't have the drag bona fides (or personal maturity) to make their instances of exceeding their limitations truly meaningful. Phi Phi, as the "baby queens" on the show have gone, was polished. That said, she was mostly an mostly unimaginative, rather run-of-the-mill urban bar queen of ca. 2011, emulating pop princesses of the time like Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga. Phi Phi had a big personality in terms of being, as you say, periodically psychotic and a cutthroat competitor, but she wasn't particularly intelligent and didn't have much (if any) appreciable humor or wit. Shangela was quite intelligent and clever, but had the most deficient "Drag 101" skills of any queen beginning S2 to make it as far as she did (yes, beating out Adore). TBC.

Yeah, the aquarium - the assemblage of different varieties of fish - really has dissipated this season, hasn't it? One commonality between all the queens this season (with Kandy Ho perhaps excepted, it being difficult to tell because we saw so little from her) is that they aren't trying to look like "real women" in any register. Both the "Bitter Old Lady Brigade" and the young runway queens wear highly constructed, artificial garments and don't wear naturalistic makeup, meaning they're not trying to hide the fact they're wearing makeup. Max had very light paint, but it gave him an androgynous look, not a feminine look. In previous seasons, queens have constantly said they're serving fish, even if fish meant slightly different things to each of them. There's the "chapstick and mascara" or "mall fish" look steveac10 referenced (which Tatianna, Courtney Act in her simpler looks, and Jiggly's ballgowns exemplified, and Dida Ritz, Rebecca Glasscock, Mystique and others tried to pull off.) This season, the only time we saw an attempt at "mall fish" was Kandy Ho's look when walking into the dressing room. Then there's "showgirl fish" or "pop princess fish", which to me comprises the queens who are trying to look like "real", non-campy female pop stars or Vegas showgirls (Courtney Act in her more elaborate looks, Gia Gunn, Joslyn Fox, Phi Phi O'Hara, Jade Jolie, Kenya Michaels, etc.) Then there are more ballroom fishy queens like Mariah or fishy "rich bitch" or body queens like Carmen Carrera or Willam. It's more of an aesthetic attitude about drag - in which the goal of costume, makeup, and hair is to look like a woman, not an exaggerated drag entertainer - than something that defines a queen's capacities as a performer. Both queens at the "high camp" and "low camp" end of the spectrum - think India Ferrah or Coco Montrese versus Sharon Needles and Milk - are not into appearing fishy. There are also queens, like Manila or Alyssa Edwards, who look very feminine in terms of facial structure but who don't go for a "fish" aesthetic in their makeup, hair, or costume. In response to blakeston also, I think Violet falls into the category of Manila or Alyssa. She's very naturally feminine looking - and genderfluid/genderqueer offstage to boot - but she's not trying to look like she stepped out of the Beverly Center or Rodeo Drive or like Nicki Minaj stepping off the stage at the Staples Center. Like Manila or Alyssa, she could pass as a conventionally attractive woman if she wanted to, but it's not her schtick as a drag performer. I also agree with blakeston that Violet has always ranged from slightly subpar to excellent in her performances on the runway and in challenges, and has deserved her placement. However, like you, I would probably feel Pearl and Miss Fame got a lot of breaks from the judges. Miss Fame has gotten more breaks from the judges, probably, than any queen in Drag Race history; I'm sure the producers knew she can't lip-sync and didn't want to give one to her until they were ready to cut her loose. I feel bad that I'm hard on Pearl - since she seems like a nice enough person in real life - but she's been graded on a steep curve by the judges in order to fulfill her storyline of "coming out of her shell." She's commended for showing enthusiasm and appearing to want to be there - or being moderately witty - when other queens are expected to actually give excellent performances. Based on what we saw of her stage performances, I don't think she and Max deserved the DESPY Awards win (Jaidynn and Kennedy did), and I think Trixie really overshadowed her in the Conjoined Queens challenge. I'll give Pearl her very good (but not great) performance as Big Ang in the Snatch Game. Honestly, if I were judging this past episode, I would have had a hard time deciding between putting Pearl and Katya in the bottom with Kennedy. Pearl's Madonna-esque Hello Kitty character was good, but it didn't do as good a job of taking an irreverent approach to the task as Katya's (which was hilarious.) Katya's second costume was an overdecorated, confused conceptual disaster (with terrible styling), but Pearl's second outfit - whatever the construction skills in the cowl-neck or hemline - looked faintly ridiculous on her, in my opinion, and would have looked even worse on anyone who didn't have her figure. Katya's outfit also demonstrated her skills as a seamstress, and it wasn't (and shouldn't have been) enough to save her. It isn't that hobble-skirts look bad on curvier or larger figures, it's that the whole silhouette could only not look ridiculous on a tall, lanky, slightly underweight frame like Pearl's. Arguably, you could apply my last statement to the great majority of avant-garde designer looks that appear in fashion editorials in Vogue, but it applies particularly egregiously to Pearl's outfit last week. As a fellow Jersey girl (or feminine gay boy), I appreciated Michelle Visage for keeping it real last episode. Santino's role for production last week was to give a haute couture justification for Pearl's outfit, which reminds me why I grew tired of him as a judge. I do, however, agree with zuleikha that Kennedy gave a great lip-sync and beat Katya (and would certainly have crushed Pearl to shreds had she been in the bottom two with her). I just think the problem is that "Roar" by Katy Perry is a vaguely crappy song, especially for a high energy, acrobatic lip-sync, and so any lip-sync a drag queen gave to it might seem a bit off. I wish they had reversed this week and last week's songs and given Kennedy and Katya - the season's strongest lip-sync artists - "Show Me Love" by Robin S. instead.

I'm somewhere in between your perspective on Ginger/Kennedy and that of steveac10 and snakenax. On one hand, I think that the overreaction to the fairly standard and often funny shade Ginger/Kennedy throw - particularly on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on Reddit - stems from their hero worship of the younger or more fashion-centered queens they skew (Pearl, Violet, Max, Miss Fame) and their bias against Ginger/Kennedy. The "runway queens" are themselves not terribly apt at the time-honored drag tradition of shade, and so they can't respond adequately in kind. Not to mention that, in the rare instance one of these queens gets a read or shade in, the peanut gallery resoundingly approves of their efforts, in an egregious application of a double-standard. Kennedy/Ginger aren't villains or even particularly nasty in their reads and shade, by any means, in comparison to many queens of past seasons who didn't get such a hard time. Their main sin, to a large portion of the fandom - is shading and reading while being fat and/or black and/or balding and/or 30 and up. I'm not accusing any posters here of it, since I don't think anyone is vilifying Ginger and Kennedy, but I think that to many so-called Drag Race fans, there's a double standard for queens who aren't young, conventionally attractive, or white or white-looking. Katya talked about this at length in her recent Feast of Fun interview. I really feel the need to defend Kennedy and Ginger since the hate thrown at them is so over the top, often clearly originates from racism or lookism, and they are often hilarious (and are quite talented to boot.) That said, I do find there's a certain bitterness or resentment (if not smugness, at least in Ginger's case) to some of what they say. Some of it comes from editing, no doubt, since I think Ginger and Kennedy were simply more interesting in confessionals or whatnot than the majority of the queens this season. In Ginger's case, I at times feel like she's trying very hard to play the role of the loveable bitch a la Bianca, but that it comes off as too calculated or staged (like her interaction with Pearl about "finding validity in her drag.") More significantly, I think she's clearly not as confident or secure in herself and her capabilities as Bianca was - or as far along and established in her drag career - so some of the bitchiness comes off as bitter, and not just fun. It became pretty clear that Ginger still harbors more insecurity about her weight than, say, Darienne, when she was very hurt by Ross Matthews' "white meat" comment during the leather and lace runway. I do think a comparison between say, Raven and Tatianna with Ginger or Kennedy and the fashion queens has some validity - although Raven was gratuitously nasty and cold to Tati (who was pretty bitchy herself), whereas Ginger and Kennedy just seem slightly bitter and they don't seem to personally dislike the queens personally they're a bit bitter about. I would probably be too if I were one of them and I were thrust into a competition with a number of half-formed, presumptuous young queens who don't have great bona fides but who the judges grade on a curve (and who, much to the chagrin of a more experienced competitor, occasionally do better at a challenge than their resume would suggest.) If I were a full-time drag entertainer threatened with irrelevance by queens who look good (or at the very least interesting) but are only questionable professional drag queens, I would be miffed, especially in a high stakes, high pressure atmosphere. As a mere viewer, I'm a bit miffed that judges (and fans) "lived" for the ultimately repetitive '20s-'50s Hollywood-cum-lingerie-and-corsetry schtick Violet, Fame, Max, and Pearl often served on the runway in different variations. I can't imagine what it would be like if I were a contestant who had more experience in drag than all of them put together. Raven's problems with Tatianna came from a similar place - she resented that the judges ate up Tati's rather effortless "mall fish" drag (a trend from the '00s that seems to have disappeared) even though Tati had very slim credentials as a real life queen. The difference is that Raven took it into a place of being really, truly mean and completely personally and professionally dismissive, where Ginger and Kennedy do not. What Ginger and Kennedy do is also very different from what Roxxxy and Coco did to Jinkx and Alaska in S5 or what Phi Phi did to Sharon in S4. Phi Phi, Coco, and Roxxxy preposterouly and offensively dismissed the entire careers of Sharon, Jinkx, and Alaska, who were very experienced (and in Jinkx's case, precociously experienced) drag entertainers working in established schools of drag very different from their own.

Michelle has seemed pissed off this season in both cases when former permanent members of the judging panel - Merle Ginsberg and Santino Rice - are brought back. I'm not sure if that's a coincidence. I'd also be curious about what she'll answer when she's inevitably posed the question in an interview. I could buy that Ginger's anxiety around dancing and sewing - even if she's not incapable of doing either and even capable of quite good choreography or design for others - stems around a lack of confidence around her own dancing or sewing for her own body. That said, this is a reality TV "competition" (a.k.a. a highly constructed representation of a competition), and Ginger is smart and a good actress, and I do think exaggeration for dramatic effect or fostering low expectations (as Blakeston said) play a part in how she presented her anxieties. If you're curious to see what the final four are like on stage, watch the videos from the Orlando Parliament House White Party of Pearl, Kennedy, Violet, and Ginger. Pearl slinks around to very low-energy club music in a robotic and repetitive, albeit occasionally sexy way. Violet does a fairly decent high-energy sensual lip-sync. Kennedy is an acrobatic lip-syncer (almost like a figure skater) who also does spoken word, and Ginger does a complicated and very humorous lip-sync to a mix and I believe sings live to a Broadway number. If I were choosing a final four for variety, I'd much rather have Katya in there than Pearl, since Violet (and Kennedy) in a different way cover sexy - and Katya can combine physically intense lip-sync spectacle with humor. I think what dashes Pearl's hopes of winning, even more than her (literally) debatable talent as an entertainer (since it's been debated here and elsewhere), is that she most likely broke her confidentiality contract with WoW and Logo by offering an alternate story about her altercation with Ru on social media to make herself look better. However many Instagram followers she has, that wouldn't endear her to the powers-that-be at WoW, Logo/Viacom, and Producers Entertainment, since they not only want a winner who will be popular, make them money, and increase the prestige of the brand, but not engage in unprofessional conduct - especially making the brand look bad. For all of Sharon's shenanigans and controversies, she never broke her confidentiality contract or painted her bosses in an unflattering light. I'd understand a Violet win, even if she's less of a talented entertainer than Ginger, to shake up expectations and keep things interesting after comedy queens of different varieties have won for three seasons. Violet is extremely charismatic and dedicated, has a strong sense of design and not simply styling (unlike Pearl, Fame, and Trixie) as proven by the last challenge, and knows how to hold an audience's attention. It would be Ru repeating the win of Tyra Sanchez - another cocky Southern baby queen with a sense of (her)story (albeit in a different sense than Violet) and clever competitor - but doing it better.

I skimmed through part of Violet/Brandon/Joey Malone's video, and it's 110% her five years ago or so (presuming she was her quoted age in the video, eighteen). It's a fairly standard twink solo (e.g. masturbation) video, in which here's a preceding racy interview with an unseen older interviewer, presumably to tantalize the viewer with accounts of her past sexual exploits and current sexual tastes. It really pales in comparison to Detox or Jade Jolie's porn pasts, which included multiple videos and explicit penetration. Jade Jolie even starred in Nazi porn! I don't think it will hurt Violet's chances at a win. Previous winners Raja and Sharon have unspecified criminal records, most likely for drugs, and Violet/Brandon/Joey didn't do anything illegal. Many drag queens come from "difficult" or troubled backgrounds at the social fringe, and experiment with activities outside the presumed social norm or have to look for ways to make ends meet. What makes me feel more bad for Violet is that it appears that there may have been self-harm scars on her inner thighs, and that she admits to having had sex at a rather young age in circumstances I'd consider emotionally abusive at worst and emotionally unhealthy at best.. One funny part of the video is that we learn her affinity for all things vintage extends to porn :). I'm going to spoiler tag the following, in case posters don't want to read anything explicit.

All true, all true. I shouldn't be so quick to jump to producer conspiracy theories (although I never put the conspiracy on Ginger's back or thought of her negatively for it), but I do think Ginger is at the very least exaggerating her inability to sew or dance for dramatic effect. Kennedy said Ginger was exaggerating about being completely unable to sew in the Conjoined Queens, and that she could sew to some degree (paraphrasing.) It's also possible Ginger can design for other people's bodies (including knowing measurements and whatnot), but lacks confidence to design for her own body. I'm a little more skeptical about the dancing. I've done theater with a low budget and most choreographers, can at least rehearse, memorize, and break down steps well, even if they're not as good dancers as those they're teaching. I can buy that Ginger has anxiety about dancing herself (again, body issues), but virtually all choreographers I've encountered can dance in order to teach the choreographed.

I'm not sure what the formula to "fix" Drag Race will be, but I do know World of Wonder listens to fans from season to season and tries to course correct based on their reactions. Hopefully, WoW will listen to the opinions of the mature fans who tend to gather here, not those on Reddit who think all the challenges should have been design-based this season to cater to 4 out of 14 queens. Someone else said on another thread that this whole season was like a giant experiment in shaking up Drag Race, which only partially landed. In response to the general criticisms of Season 6 - that RPDR had become formulaic and predictable, in part because it seemed more like a coronation for Bianca than a competition (she must be the Hillary Clinton of Drag Race, if Drag Race were the Democratic Party ;) - WoW did a lot of crazy things to agitate fans into excitement, many of which just failed. They eliminated a queen who, from editing, appeared to win the lip-sync (Trixie), and then brought her back like 5 episodes later, only to eliminate her again; they staged a few true surprise eliminations (Mrs. Kasha Davis and Max); they tried to revive the Heathers vs. Boogers from S3 with "The Old Lady Brigade" vs. "Aryan Airlines"; they made the queens wear nude body-suits and blurred out their fake breasts and genitals. I do think the cracked-out challenges after Snatch Game - conjoined drag twins, John Waters musical skits, half-man half-woman pairs dancing to nutty mash-ups, Hello Kitty costume reconstructions and cartoon character branding - produced interesting results. One change I hope they'll keep is getting rid of the makeover challenge with random guys, since those became incredibly redundant. I also think they made a mistake in casting, which is the heart of the problems of the season. They looked for "unknown queens from unknown places", apparently, whereas in S6 virtually all the queens cast who made it past the second or third episode were known commodities in one drag scene or another. I think next season could be fixed easily by getting rid of the surplus of poorly scripted group acting challenges and casting queens with more personality (or keeping those ones with personality around longer.)

Agreed. The producers of RPDR, in the last few seasons, have tended to respond to the predominant criticism of one season in the next. After the surplus of teary Untucked moments and the tiring drama between Coco and Alyssa and the uncomfortable nastiness of Roxxxy to Jinkx in S5, the producers reduced the cry-ins in Untucked and eliminated the villains very early in the season in S6. The only consistent criticism of last season was that the competition aspect was unexciting, because Bianca was so clearly the frontrunner from early on. Her costumes were always very well-constructed, even if unexciting at times, but there wasn't a high fashion queen in S6 like Raja or Sharon or Detox to call attention to her repetitive silhouettes. The only time we saw a crack in Bianca, IMO, is when she overreacted to Ben's comment on the mainstage in the Glitter Ball episode, after Bob Mackie (her idol) read her jewel eleganza look, much to her chagrin. I could imagine production told Ginger to suppress her dance and costume design skills - or at the very least complain about their purported absence - in order to create a dramatic storyline for the likely eventual winner and evade the inevitability complaint. Producer manipulation is the name of the game on this show, but it's a bit sloppy of Ruduction to force the "Ginger-can't-sew-or-dance" song and dance when there's evidence to the contrary at the click of a button. It doesn't make me like Ginger any less and I still think she ought to win, although I would understand if Ru gave the prize to Violet to shake things up after two comedy queens in a row winning. Pearl, just no. I've always been able to excuse the producer shenanigans on this show because the top half of the contestants are actually typically quite talented and get a great career boost from the show, but a Pearl win would reduce this to the level of Project Runway (or what it's become in recent years, rather.)

To follow up on this...if you look at the StageClick profile for Joshua Eads-Brown (Ginger) she's been nominated for and won awards for costume design AND choreography. Either Ginger is the rare choreographer who can't dance or the rare costume designer who can't sew, or I smell something fishy and it isn't Gia Gunn. I already suspected something was a bit suspect about her supposed inability to do choreographed dance, since she played Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway about ten years ago. But I attributed that to discomfort with her current body shape, since she said she was a twink back then. But now I think that her supposed inability to sew and dance could have been foisted on her by producers to avoid presenting her as the obvious front-runner or her win as a coronation, since they got flak for doing so with Bianca last season. If so, Ginger is a very good actress indeed.

There have been a number of episodes where Michelle has seemed pissed this season, notably this one and the Ru-Hollywood Stories. Perhaps it's the return of former permanent judging panel members that ticks her off so heartily? ;) I agree that if Michelle, and not WoW producers, were picking the winners and bottom two, we'd probably have had a very different season. Pearl and Miss Fame would have been axed a lot sooner, Mrs. Kasha Davis would have come back in place of Trixie, Jaidynn would probably not have lip-sync'ed as much, and Kennedy might have been in the bottom another time (for Ru-Hollywood Stories). On another note, this episode reminded me of how crack-tastic Santino's judging can be. Thinking back on the lip sync, I can't say Kennedy was great - she was checking off marks on a lip-sync checklist (e.g. getting in her death drop quotient) - but it pains me to say that she was still at least a little better than Katya, since Katya is by far my favorite queen this season, and one of the few I've really personally connected with in the course of the series. She's made me feel far less alone in a lonely semester of graduate school, dealing with low self-worth. It is truly ridiculous that she didn't make top three, considering the consistency of her performance between episodes 3 and 10. As someone upthread said, it's like claiming Justin Timberlake was the fifth most talented member of N*SYNC. I think it was written in stone that Katya would not crack the top three or four from way back. Ruduction's hand guides elimination to go in their desired order subtly, by eliminating certain queens a few episodes ahead of time, keeping the remaining challenges in mind. I think keeping Fame from lip-sync'ing for so long served the producers' purposes in this sense, at the same time as it reflected their desire to keep a YouTube celebrity in the mix. I'm sure they knew that a potted plant could win a lip-sync against Miss Fame, and there's no way to redeem her peformance through editing. In my mind, the cracked-out elimination order for the last half of the season was determined by having Jaidynn, not Miss Fame, lip-sync against Max in Snatch game, even though Jaidynn had a superior performance and runway to Fame. Jaidynn sent Max home, allowing Miss Fame to continue. Trixie would probably still have come back in Conjoined Queens, but without Fame - the one inferior lip-sync artist to her - Pearl would have doubtless gone home to Violet in Divine Inspiration. Trixie and Max would have still probably gone next, and we would have ended up with a F4 of Kennedy, Violet, Ginger, and Katya (the deserving one, IMO). All because of that pesky Miss Fame being kept around to save Pearl.