RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE: Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Drag Queens

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Our favorite of the Drag Race perennial challenges sees a return to form, but for some reason, the judges all got hung up on criteria that never seemed to matter before. But first…

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Any questions?

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This was hilariously stupid/fun and we have no idea why the show doesn’t do such stupid/fun mini challenges every week. We get that it’s easier and cheaper to just shoot the queens kiki-ing in the Werk Room, but the whole point of the show is to put them through their paces. Every week should have a quick drag-based mini-challenge, we say. Literally just “You have fifteen minutes to get into quick drag based on [theme] and then you have to [do a stupid dance/pose stupidly for the camera/say something stupid] — GO!” How hard can that be to mount? So to speak. The results are almost always funny and usually fairly revealing of whose skills are better than others.

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The family makeover challenge has always been our favorite because it’s the one challenge that really gets to the heart of drag; unpacking both the emotional aspects of surrendering to performative femininity and the technical aspects of turning a non-diva into a diva. To our way of thinking, this challenge has always worked best when the queens are forced to makeover cis men.

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It can be cute when they’re making over their moms or sisters or even female athletes, but Drag Race has always been at its best when two people sit down to figure out their feelings about masculinity and also to learn how to walk in heels.

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Granted, it might have seemed like this was one of the easier makeovers, since not only was every participant gay, but some of those rodeo queens are as sassy and shady as any of the girls who ever walked through that Werk Room.

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But we honestly think that was what made this season’s version of the challenge so poignant. We’ve seen straight men wrestle with their notions of masculinity and femininity and some of the show’s best moments came when a man opted to let his inner diva out. But because Drag Race has been around so long and explored so many aspects of drag in so many different ways, it now has the ability to look at poignant variations on the theme. In other words, this challenge stood out because it allowed a bunch of gay men who have been performing masculinity their entire lives to unpack their feelings about the forces in the world that caused them to act that way.

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There was a point in Drag Race’s herstory where the family makeover challenges had morphed because of the social changes that occurred during the show’s long run, which means that, instead of conversations about being rejected by family members or cast out because of their drag or gayness, the challenges started becoming about accepting parents and loving queer spouses. It was a wonderful reflection of the times, which is why it felt somewhat sobering and appropriate to turn this challenge over to discussions about queer-bashing, the military, and the difficulties of expressing queerness in overwhelmingly het spaces.

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Then Michelle got a bug up her ass and the judging went straight into the toilet. Sorry to be blunt, but we sat there through the deliberations muttering “What the hell are they talking about?” over and over again. Look, we get that when you’re down to six queens, the chances are that you’ll be relying on nitpicking to figure out which one to send home. And to our way of thinking, these results were pretty evenly great across the board. Once again, we have to point out that this crop of queens may not be the most sickeningly talented and fierce in the show’s history, but they tend to produce consistently good results. There are very few disasters week in and week out.

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We suppose the judges had to figure out some criterion for criticizing these efforts, so the longtime family makeover judging point of “resembling but not twinning” got tossed out in favor of “You’re supposed to look exactly like your partner.” Never mind that actual family members who aren’t twins don’t look exactly alike and very few of them make it a point to go out in matching outfits. Never mind that PLENTY of queens have won this challenge without matching outfits or wigs. Nini’s idea to make herself in a butterfly and her daughter into a caterpillar was genuinely very clever, but it was probably a little too clever for its own good. We think she should be lauded for the concept, but she should have at least made sure the color schemes matched.

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Evidently, this is what the judges want to see in this challenge now: matching outfits, wigs, and dresses. This is very good work by Myki, but we think it’s kind of unimaginative. There was no attempt to interpret or modify the look.

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The judges praised Juicy and Loosey’s looks, which is how you know that whole “You’re supposed to match” thing is bullshit. Different colors, different outfits, different hairstyles, but this pair of looks was praised…

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While this pair got trashed, which is completely INSANE to us. Michelle tried to criticize Jane  for wearing a necklace right after she got done praising Juicy’s mismatched looks. It was silly and a little insulting to the audience.

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We suppose if you’re going to impose a “You have to look exactly alike” rule, then it’s clear that Discord’s looks failed the brief, but we thought the judges sounded nuts when they went on and on about how there was no resemblance. Just admit you’re nitpicking fine work instead of being a bitch about it, Law Roach.

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This was really cute and well-done.  Personally, we would have given Darlene the win because she managed to fit the judges’ exceedingly narrow criterion but she also managed to let each look be individual enough. It helped that she had the sassiest cowboy in the room, but she was smart about how to build up a resemblance while creating distinct looks. Her character-based approach to drag really helped her out here.

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So condragulations to Myki and her matching dresses. It’s not that we disagree with the win so much as we think it’s based on something the judges didn’t prioritize in the past.

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We’re not mad that these two were in the bottom. Somebody had to wind up there, after all. While we thought the judges were spewing some nonsense, we can see the argument that these two were the least on point for the challenge, although we still think Nini’s idea was so clever she should have been given a pass.

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This shook out pretty much as we thought it would with her. The judges thought her goofy walk was funny and instead of coaching her or telling her she needed to improve, they kept patting her on the head while not awarding her any wins. She was always cannon fodder, but they kept her in so long because they liked laughing at her. It’s to her credit that she never let any of it bother her.

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[Still Credit: MTV]

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