Rupaul's Drag Race Episode 5 Ruview

This post is a bit late but oh well. Let's jump right into the shenanigans of Episode 5.

To be completely honest this episode seemed really empty due to Trixie not being in the workroom and I still don't think she or Pearl should've been in the bottom 2.

The mini challenge this week was to create celebrity looks out of paper and everyone was divided into groups of two. The teams and looks were as follows:

Ginger Minj and Kandy Ho: Lil Kim

Jaidynn Diore and Kennedy Davenport: Lady Gaga

Pearl and Max: Cher

Mrs Kasha Davis and Katya: Björk

Violet Chachki and Miss Fame: Jennifer Lopez

The winners were Katya and Mrs Kasha Davis and that was pretty obvious because they played up their look by having Kasha act like Joan Rivers on the red carpet. Yaaasss.

The main challenge was called "The Despy Awards" and the girls stayed in their pairs and had to put together presentation speeches to present awards for the categories:

"Sexy Sexy Drag Queen" presented by Jaidynn and Kennedy

"Most Busted Queen" presented by Max and Pearl

"Shadiest Queen" presented by Ginger Minj and Kandy Ho

"Meatiest Tuck" presented by Violet and Miss Fame

Since Katya and Mrs Kasha Davis won the mini challenge, they got to be the co-hosts for the award show.

To help the queens put together their material, Kathy Griffin came back to the show. Each team had time with her during their preparation time. Right away, Miss Fame and Violet start clashing. Battle of the beauties....neither of them are comedy queens so they're throwing ideas back and forth and they both attack each other's ideas.

Kennedy and Jaidynn are clashing because Kennedy is a bit over confident due to winning last week's challenge and Jaidynn is just not having it.

Let's talk about Pearl and Max for a minute. This moment is like...the craziest point in this episode. Pearl has been picked on every week for not having enough personality and acting tired all the time. Rupaul walks in the work room to check on all the teams. He walks over to Max and Pearl and asks how everything is going since Max has a big personality and Pearl doesn't. This gets Pearl upset and she goes "well you kind of just told me I have no personality so that isn't supposed to make me feel good or give me confidence." After this, Pearl and Rupaul kind of have a huge moment of tension with a few words exchanged and a stare off in which Pearl replies "do I have something on my face?" and Rupaul basically tells her that he's not convinced. Max starts encouraging Pearl and Pearl walks out of the workroom and doesn't come back for a few hours. Eventually Pearl comes back and Max tries her best to get her back on track.

Next the girls show Kathy Griffin what they have put together. Kathy wasn't really impressed with Kasha and Katya, although I thought the "Ginger Minj is the Danny Devito of drag" line was pretty witty...but that's just me. Kennedy and Jaidynn say "girl" too much during their presentation to Kathy which I couldn't agree more. Miss Fame and Violet are the farthest thing from funny and Kathy looks bored....I still really love them though, they just aren't comedy queens. Max and Pearl walk in and Kathy isn't too impressed. Kathy is a tough cookie, that's for sure. Ginger Minj and Kandy Ho were next and Kathy calls them out on copying a joke from someone else. Ginger seems unsure of herself at this moment because Kathy told her that their speech wasn't funny.

The next part of the awards preparation was each queen had to vote on who out of their peers should win the award categories. Right off the bat I could already guess a couple of the winners and come to find out, I was correct. :)

When the queens are getting into drag for the awards, Pearl reveals her teenage years were spent being mostly angry all the time and that she has issues with past abandonment. After hearing that, it makes a lot of sense and maybe her Rupaul stand off was something that needed to happen for her to realize she isn't living up to her full potential.

This episode also helped me see how much I really and truly adore Max for always encouraging everyone and standing behind them no matter what. Even though it is a competition she obviously still cares about everyone and doesn't want to see people completely fall short and I feel she needs to be recognized for that. She seems like the rock that holds everyone together in times of tragedy.

The next highlight was Miss Fame putting her makeup on next to Violet and her talking about chickens. This is probably one of the most bizarre minute of Rupaul's Drag Race ever. Looking at Miss Fame and her flawless appearance in drag...one would never guess that she is completely obsessed with chickens. It finally makes sense. She even has a tattoo on her arm of a chicken. A whole minute of the show was dedicated to Miss Fame and her obsession with chickens and it was the best thing ever. She even revealed she sang songs to her chickens and did a chicken noise in the confessional room.

After the conversation about chickens, Violet and Miss Fame seem to open up more to each other and a friendship starts blossoming. No more battle of the beauties.

The award show starts with Katya and Mrs Kasha Davis opening the show and they threw a bit of shade at the other contestants. It was pretty witty but I thought they could've done better because I know they're capable. Same thing with Jaidynn and Kennedy...they did good. Pearl and Max were next and they had me in tears....absolutely FABULOUS. Ginger and Kandy were next and I wasn't a fan of Kandy's dress but that bit where she called Ginger an elephant was pretty funny so they didn't do too bad. I know people will disagree but I really liked Miss Fame and Violet's presentation

The winners were:
"Sexy Sexy Drag Queen": Miss Fame

"Most Busted Queen": Jaidynn Diore Fierce

"Shadiest Queen": Violet Chachki (of course)

"Meatiest Tuck": Katya

And then it was time for the critiques. Pearl and Max won the challenge which I was very excited about because they deserved it. Mrs Kasha Davis isn't over the top enough. Katya's acceptance speech was funnier than her opening speech...and she needs more volume to her wig. Ginger Minj was hilarious in her presentation and she needs to cut back on her black spray she puts on her forehead. Kandy Ho faded into the background compared to Ginger Minj (I agree) and her dress is ugly. Violet talked too fast but she looked stunning as always. Miss Fame looked stunning and the judges are seeing that she's at least trying to be more funny and stepping out of her comfort zone.

Top looks for me:
Miss Fame
Violet Chachki
Max
Pearl

In the end, Mrs Kasha Davis and Kandy Ho. Mrs Kasha Davis ended up going home. This week, yet again, I disagreed with the elimination. I'm a bit shocked about it as well. What is going on this season?

That's all for now! Check back next week for Episode 6!


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Rupaul's Drag Race Season 7 Episode 3 Ruview

Alright kittens, time to sink my teeth into episode 3 because I have a lot to say!

Let's start with post- elimination after Sasha Belle left...the beginning of the episode when everyone was getting out of drag, Jasmine and Kennedy were in their own corner talking about the younger contestants which included Miss Fame, Trixie, Pearl, and Violet. This is where I must say I think Kennedy is a fierce performer and Jasmine is always saying whats on her mind, but girl, I did lose a lot of respect for these two this episode. It's not because Trixie is my favorite...it's the fact that there is more than one aesthetic of drag. I'm not even a drag artist and I know that. If you walk into that competition with a bad attitude and a fixated view on what drag is, then I don't think you will get too far. From what I've seen, the competition puts a variety of queens together and forces them to work through every situation that will be thrown at them no matter how absurd and outlandish the situation is and make them put something together on a moments notice and pray for the best. That's my understanding of it anyways. I've gotten to know a lot of young artists who work just as hard (if not, harder) as any older queens out there and how dare you discredit young artists like that. Girl, let me tell you I'm already heated about this episode in the first 5 minutes. Moving on.

The mini challenge was called "SISSY THAT WALKER" and the girls had 15 minutes to get into costume and they had to make themselves look like old women and have a dance off....granny style. The 2 champions of this were Max and Kennedy which means they were team captains for the main challenge. This is where it gets real interesting. Max picked her team very carefully and it was obvious. Kennedy seemed very bitter this episode so I feel instead of evening her team out, she picked some people she knew wouldn't be the best at theater thinking that it would make her prevail in the end...boy did that backfire REALLY QUICK. Also, Kennedy picked Jasmine...and it always happens every season...someone picks teams based on friendships and it always backfires. The teams were as follows:

Team Max: Trixie, Miss Fame, Ginger Minj, Ms Kasha Davis, Jaidynn

Team Kennedy: Jasmine Masters, Katya, Pearl, Kandy Ho, Violet Chachki

Each team got a remake of a Shakespeare play. Team Kennedy got "MACBITCH" and Team Max got "ROMY & JULIET". The teams started rehearsing and it's like right away you could already tell who was going to have their shit together. As I said earlier, I noticed Kennedy was a bit bitter this episode and instead of putting whatever negative feelings she had aside to FOCUS on the task at hand, she started trying to humiliate Violet when everyone was reading over their lines. Violet was already bitter for being picked last yet again. As much as I love Violet, I feel the reasoning for getting picked last is because she's been the bitch of the season and no one likes that. But I do really love Violet...bitchiness and all. Anyways, right away Jasmine is trying to overpower the group and Kennedy just let her pick her part which I completely disagreed with. We all know from the beginning that Violet should've automatically had the bitchiest part in the play. Kennedy gave it to Jasmine at first when I thought Jasmine should've been the ghetto girl. Kennedy gave Violet the ghetto girl part and Jasmine the bitch part. BIG MISTAKE. As time goes on and the clock is ticking, not only is Kennedy making everyone learn their lines separately but she changes her mind last minute and switches Violet and Jasmine which messes everything up and they didn't have much time to learn their lines. Team Max on the other hand seemed to work together well. Max obviously picked his team using a strategy and most of his team had lots of theater experience. WELL DONE MAX.


First to perform their play in front of Mama Ru and Michelle was Team Max. Overall they did pretty well. They messed up a few lines and Jaidynn had a bit of a breakdown but after that, they seemed to really pull it together and make everything work. One thing I really admired about Max's team was how encouraging Max was as a team leader. She really just wanted everyone to succeed and when Jaidynn was having a breakdown she talked to her until she could pull herself together and encouraged her...which I just really admired. That's what a team should be...not bringing everyone down and purposely making people fail. Props to Team Max for making everything work and participating in actual TEAM WORK.

Next was obviously Team Kennedy. Where do I begin? Let's start off by saying it was a bit of a train-wreck. Round of applause for Katya though because I felt she was the strong link in the whole entire thing. Pearl was just being herself and no matter how terrible their play was...she did have me entertained. I remember at one point she walked into a bush and I about died. Violet did pretty well considering she had basically no time to learn her lines. Jasmine was an absolute mess. Kennedy and Kandy didn't know their cues. Props to Violet and Katya though. Even Rupaul said their play was the worst train-wreck in the history of the show. That's not good. Moving on.

I just want to say this about the workroom getting ready for elimination day...once again they show Jasmine talking about drag aesthetic and once again I find myself rolling my eyes. Moving on.

For this particular episode, Rupaul asked the queens to do bearded lady looks. Instead of a top 3, I'm just going to name off my favorites because some of these bitches nailed it and I can't pick just 3.

1. Katya- SLAYED

2. Max- Tim Burton inspired looks always capture my heart.

3. Trixie- Serving Jesus realness and those wings were made of plastic spoons. YAS.

4. Pearl- Used unconventional items for her beard and did an evil but sexy look. IT WORKED FOR HER.

5. Miss Fame- I didn't know how she would do but I thought she looked stunning!

6. Violet- Absolutely breathtaking as always. 1950s Dior inspired. EVERYTHING.

Rupaul showed the videos of the plays. Team Max prevailed...obviously. Max also won the main challenge which I agreed with and she absolutely rocks as a team leader. Round of applause for Max.

Team Max got sent backstage and Team Kennedy was onstage to hear critiques because all of them were in the bottom. Rupaul went down the line and everyone got their critiques. Kennedy was called out for being a terrible leader. Jasmine said she knew her lines and Rupaul called her out as well. Pearl was told to wake up because Rupaul didn't see her living up to her full potential. Rupaul basically called everyone out for having excuses.

In the end Kennedy and Jasmine had to lip sync which I completely agreed with. Jasmine went home...which I completely agreed with. Bye Jasmine.

Quick note: I AM SO PROUD OF MISS FAME. I feel like she is finally starting to loosen up and show a more silly side of herself and it makes me so happy to see that.

UNTUCKED: I usually don't include Untucked in these reviews because I feel like there isn't much happening but GIRL. I knew once Violet had the opportunity she was going to say something about Kennedy, which she did. Her and Kennedy got into an argument in which Kennedy was trying to say that it wasn't her fault that so many people on the team failed. Yes, Kennedy, it was. You picked your team based on feelings. Stupid move. VERY stupid move. If you want to win, pick very strategically and throw friendships out of the window because during challenges, it doesn't matter.


That concludes this week. Sorry this is so long but I had a lot of feelings to put out there. This was the first elimination I 100%  fully agreed with this season.


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Farrah Mones: Burlesque and Video Games

Farrah Mones is from the Seattle area. She's only 18 years old and she's still learning but she always seems to stay down to earth and has always been very approachable. Her drag isn't the typical modern drag because she loves to do Burlesque songs with her own modern twist.

1. Describe your drag persona.

Well, my drag persona is a mix of classic and vintage performance with a modern aesthetic. It's also a good mix of my twin and also who I would be as a woman onstage.

2. Who or what inspires you the most?

I think a lot of my character inspiration would be from my twin brother. My drag mentor inspires me the most. He's a performer who's been around for a long time and he knows his way around the ropes. He's been all around the country doing drag...he does old school drag. He really likes to focus more on performance instead of being so modern and predictable. His name is Mark Finley and he's Seattle based.

3. Where did you get your drag name from?

From sitting down and I was trying to think of who I wanted to be onstage. I wanted to be someone who could attract everybody, obviously. I wanted to be someone that you could feel like you've known through your whole life. I was also studying chemistry in school and just the biology of people who are kind of naturally attracted to each other. I was studying pheromones and that's how I came up with "Farrah Mones". She's someone who can appeal to everybody and you can feel natural being around. 

4. Do you think Rupaul's Drag Race has improved the drag community and ruined it and why?

Well if it wasn't for drag race, I probably wouldn't have been introduced to drag. But I can certainly see the negative effect that it has...it's given drag a lot of publicity and a lot of people think that just anyone can do drag. They do it and they call themselves a "Queen". It's not necessarily true that everyone can just go onstage and be a performer. Drag isn't meant for everybody. I encourage everyone to try drag but Drag Race has just given people the mentality that everyone can do drag and that being a bitch is the key component to being a drag queen and that's totally not true. I think it works for some people and it depends on what you take from the show.

5. What is your biggest insecurity?

I think my biggest insecurity right now would probably be my age. Being in Seattle there isn't many opportunities in drag for people who are under 21 and I'm only 18. Being at my level of drag that I'm confidently at right now, it makes me want to be onstage more often. Whenever I do competitions or whenever I just go onstage to perform, my age is something that makes me a little nervous because I feel like I'm not going to be up to the other people's expectations. Once I stop focusing on that I have more fun and drag becomes more enjoyable.

6. Do you have a most embarrassing moment?

Yes and I think it's something every drag queen experiences onstage at least once. But I was doing a competition in Seattle this past summer and I made it all the way to the semi-finals in a celebrity impersonation competition. Like every other week the judges would have to keep switching my character which is kind of weird because not everyone else in the competition was doing that but the judges wanted to see something different out of me. When the semi-finals came I had switched to Christina Aguilera who I had never really been a fan of before, but after watching "Burlesque" I learned that style of performance. So my mentor in the competition and I decided it would be a good idea for me to impersonate Christina in "Burlesque". I ended up getting onstage and I forgot half the words to the song which was completely embarrassing because the judges obviously called me out on it. It made me feel really basic. 

7. Who is your favorite drag queen?

Probably my drag mentor, Mark Finley because nobody does his type of drag anymore. He's an older queen and he sticks to what he was doing back in the day. So it's definitely him. If I had to pick a more modern queen it would probably be The Markos Sisters. It's 3 drag queens in Seattle who are all amazing in their own individual ways and they're a tight knit sisterhood. Their names are Kaleena Markos, Minerva Markos, and Cherry Markos and all 3 of them are unique in their own ways but fierce no matter what. If you could mold all 3 of them into one queen it would definitely be the mega queen. 

8. What is your favorite song to perform to? Any specific reason why?

If I had to pick one it would be "Mein Herr" from Liza Minelli in Caberet. It's from a classic movie but I got to do my modern twist on it all and it's super fun and campy. I love the old Burlesque style. Also my costume was amazing. 

9. If you had the power to completely rid the world of one thing, what would it be and why?

Probably traffic because I hate sitting in an hour of traffic everyday to get to Seattle when I only live 10 minutes away. 

10. What is your coming out story?

I was in 8th grade when I realized who I actually was and I had this plan because I lived in a really conservative family. My dad was always really vocal about how he just completely hated gay people. So I had this plan where I was going to wait until I turned 16 to see if it was a phase or not and then I was going to come out if I had a job and a car just in case I had to move out. My twin totally ruined that by outing me to my parents and it was really weird. I came out to people at school and my twin told my parents so everybody kind of found out all at once. I lived in a very conservative area too so I lost all my friends and my dad reacted exactly how I thought he would. He wasn't happy and it took him a long time to calm down from it. He realized though that having a gay son isn't the worst thing in the world. There was one time where he told me and my brother that we could become anything in life as long as we weren't gay. Basically we could be a serial killer, we could drop out of high school, we could become a drug addict but as long as we weren't gay he would still love us. It made it super difficult for me to even want to open up to him. After the cat was out of the bag it tore the family apart for a while which is kind of ridiculous because I was just in 8th grade and I didn't mean any harm. I apparently had done this horrible thing by being myself. So it took a while but things eventually chilled out and I think my dad saw me as more of an individual afterwards.

11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

In 10 years I hope to see myself being happy and hopefully being able to travel the world doing what I love which is just entertaining people and making them happy. If I were to stay local with my drag, I would say in 10 years that I would be pursuing my professional career as a psychologist because that's what I want my real career to be. But in my fantasy world I certainly want to become a worldwide drag entertainer and to help people out and encourage them to do what they want to do in life. 

12. What is something that no one knows about you?

Oh my gosh, I don't even know. I'm such a blabber mouth and I tell everybody everything about myself. I would say that no one knows that I want to be Miley Cyrus but I just remembered that I tell everyone that. A lot of people don't know that I'm a video game addict. People think I'm a prissy think gay guy but I am obsessed with video games and I'm a really big nerd.

13. What else are you passionate about besides drag?

I would have to say my boyfriend. Haha. Anyways, I'm really passionate about civil rights because everyone should have the opportunity todo what they want. I'm passionate about making sure that everyone has their voice heard because I know what it's like to not have your voice heard and it sucks. So I make an effort to be passionate about other people's rights. 

14. What does drag mean to you?

Drag is everything to me. It's saved me on so many different occasions. If I never discovered drag I know I wouldn't be anywhere close to where I am in life right now. It's really my entire world. It occupies a lot of my time and a lot of my mind. Drag means to me to be your most free and open self in front of people no matter what they're going to think. 

15. If you could have any superpower, what would you pick and why?

My superpower would be shake shifting so I could get into drag in 3 seconds compared to having to take 4 hours to get ready. 

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Rupaul's Drag Race: Helping or Ruining Drag?

Recently, more so than ever, I've come to find that the Rupaul's Drag Race fandom can be pretty shady. I've never really come to understand why since we're supposed to be part of a community where everyone can be accepted for who they are...but one thing I've come across is everyone is out for themselves. 

It's a huge shame, really, because drag to me means so much more than a TV show. I'm not discrediting Rupaul and he's done so much for us as a community but if anyone has noticed I really like to focus more on the culture itself rather than the TV show for a number of reasons.

One of those reasons is I don't want my page to be a shady place and I want to open people's eyes to what drag really is. If you really wake up and start doing research, you will find that drag is a variety of things and it's such a beautiful art that I've grown to love and appreciate since I started this page. I want the queens I feature to feel comfortable and to feel like they can trust me because I want to showcase them in the best light possible. I know some pages that just try and dig for scandalous information and I refuse to sell out to that for a few subscribers.

I feel like Drag Race has helped our community but it's also destroyed it. I feel that as a community we should stand together and be happy there's so much support and we should take pride in the fact that drag is a really popular thing. Let's take advantage of this opportunity, you know? But the fans of the show have really hurt each other and they treat queens like collectors items and if you don't meet as many queens as they do then they will pay you no mind. And not just any queens, Rupaul's Drag Race girls. 

Here's a piece of advice: 

Stop hurting each other. Stop being jealous. Stop treating this like its a competition. Learn to love drag for what it is...an art. It's an art where people should feel safe. It's not safe anymore. It's everyone bashing each other and trying to act superior. Stop it. Stand together...you aren't a drag expert because you watched a few seasons of a TV show. You should be supportive of each other. It's a family...not a war.

Another thing I wanted to address, is that some of the Drag Race girls act ungrateful and it really hurts the people that look up to them. Why would you be rude to someone who supports you? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Don't forget where you came from and who supported you from the beginning. The second you forget that is the second you will start to see people leave your side. It hurts them.

My mission with this page was to unite people and it seems like I've united some people but it's also cost me some friendships I thought I had as well. And if someone is treating you badly because you are out there making a name for yourself, they don't deserve your time. The queens and artists I feature mean more to me than anyone will ever know and I do this to help myself as well as other people learn more about them. I use my page to promote and help, not to ruin someone's career.

I try to focus on the positive aspects of the drag world and the wonderful artists who put so much work into what they do. I take a lot of pride in that and I'm really tired of the shade and jealousy in the drag community. This includes the fans.

That's all I have to say about this topic. If you have any suggestions on what I should write about next, please contact me:

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