RuPaul's Drag Race Season 6: Episode 6
Joining me this week is Megan Marie Metzger, DePaul grad student and lady arm wrestler. She's writing her thesis on the Drag Race, and so I was excited to hear her thoughts on the show!
Chad: So what's your particular focus with the Drag Race?
Megan: Drag Race negotiates gender, class, sexuality and race constantly. It's also a sharp critique of the reality TV genre, where everything is for sale. Reality TV is often devalued as trash TV, and Drag Race is anything but trash. It totally elevates the genre while also bashing it.
Chad: How do you think Season 6 is faring so far?
Megan: Ru has completely flipped the script. We are no longer rooting for the unlikely underdog. Before the season premiere, I was Team Milk.
Chad: A lot of us were! Do you think this season is going to emphasize the importance of polish and professionalism? Bianca, BenDeLa, Courtney?
Megan: And being adaptable. Being able to succeed in any milieu because the queen has perfected her look and persona so much she doesn't have to think too hard about how she would handle a challenge.
Chad: Yeah, that's a really smart way of putting it.
Megan: Bianca is anything but the loser or the underdog. She is polished and professional and her best realized version of herself.
Chad: When you said "adaptable," I thought... "Adore."
Megan: YAAAAAAS
Chad: Adore ISN'T polished, nor super professional.
Megan: No. But she could be.
Chad: She rolls with the punches, puts on a good show, and makes for great TV. She even makes her screw-ups funny.
Megan: I love her humor. Her "drop dead" read during the library challenge was everything.
Chad: We had a lot of fun at the library this week! Those girls wrote those jokes ahead of time. Or their friends did. Maybe it was Lil' Poundcake.
Megan: At this point, if you don't come to the show with an arsenal of reads already stowed away in your Caboodle, you're doing it wrong.
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Chad: I was interested in the rap battle--and how incredibly uncomfortable some of these queens were with it.
Megan: Honestly, it could have been a lot worse than it was? I kept thinking back to the Body Beautiful, Carmen Carrera's unfortunate reggae song in season 3? Yikes.
Chad: I guess as an awkward white boy from Wisconsin, I cringe at the thought of ever being filmed trying to rap.
Megan: Like Run DMC said, "it's tricky."
Chad: I did love Eve and Trina's input--it was unusual to have two guest judges directing the challenge, rather than Ru herself, wasn't it?
Megan: Yeah, where was B-girl Michelle?
Chad: There was a lot of false bravado on the film set, but I was riveted by Adore. She brought an easy confidence to the challenge--despite her lyrical missteps, she dominated.
Megan: Adore's short asymmetrical wig--so cute.
Chad: Yeah, it was striking and so different from her normal looks
Megan: I love when she said she wanted to be Salt n' Pepa, not N Sync. Adore knows what's up.
Chad: We're starting to see an interesting dynamic emerge between Laganja and Adore--I would bet that, in the clubs where they've met, Laganja tends to outshine Adore. Laganja's presence, fashion, and WILD dance moves are true showstoppers.
Megan: They really are. And Adore is this funny hot mess.
Chad: Adore's fashion isn't as consistent, and her live-singing doesn't always work well in a club with a shitty sound system and rowdy audience.
Megan: Exactly. But this show works to elevate drag as a performance. It's not just lip synching in a bar for a dollar.
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Chad: This show loves to surprise us with a queen who emerges late in the season as a serious contender. Last season, Jinkx emerged a few episodes in, and then Alaska really only gained momentum during the second half of the season. Do you see any queens who have been overlooked that will pick up steam as the season progresses?
Megan: Definitely possibly Joslyn. But I have to say I can't imagine anyone surpassing Bianca. Dela has a shot, mayyyybe.
Chad: Courtney has barely gotten any attention the past two episodes--do you think she's got anything up her sleeve?
Megan: She is going to be a star for sure, I'm not worried about that, but, as far as this competition, Bianca has it on lock.
Chad: I love Bianca as much as anybody, but.... I'm suspicious of that. Like, WHY are the producers letting us fall in love with her from the start? WHAT ARE THEY PLANNING??
Megan: They want her to win our hearts.
Chad: But they're also building up Adore. Do you think the top 2 will be Adore and Bianca?
Megan: I do. I think it's going to be Adore, Bianca and Dela as the top 3.
Chad: Me too. Dela is my personal favorite right now. I'm just not sure if she's building the momentum she needs with the show's viewership to get the crown at the end!
Chad: What are your thoughts about Milk's departure?
Megan: Like I said, I was Team Milk all the way, but I was frankly a little disappointed by her performance on the show. It just wasn't the right environment for her, maybe, and that is perfectly fine. Milk was weird, but she unabashedly owned it.
Chad: I adore Milk as a person and as an artist. But he hasn't had the years of experience like the older queens, and he doesn't have the rabid ambition of the younger queens.
Megan: Yeah, and he is a gorgeous tall man who works at Marc Jacobs, and has a super hot ballerina boyfriend. He is doing better at life than any of the other queens, really.
Chad: I do really admire what he does with drag, though.
Megan: Me too. I love that someone who is that good looking likes to get weird. Being weird is usually a defense for people who have been told by society they are ugly (speaking from experience!) and it's great to see a guy who looks like a Calvin Klein model destroy that whole notion.
Chad: I'm excited to see what Milk does as he gains more polish and notoriety.
Megan: I don't want to admit that I was Team Milk because he was so dreamy but...I can't help it! He is fine!
Chad: And he made SUCH a great first impression. That matador look will forever be one of my favorite first looks ever, ranking right up there with Raja in my book. Literally, when I compile a book, I'll put them together in a double-page spread.
Megan: Yeah, his looks I've seen since the show taped are pretty impressive, too. He reminds me of the girls in the Batman movie with Joker smiles after they inhale the Joker's poisonous gas.
Chad: I'll miss Milk. He did us good.
Thanks so much to Megan Marie Metzger for the fabulous chat about this week's Drag Race! You can find her on Facebook , Instagram, and at CLLAW events (Chicago League of Lady Arm Wrestlers), where she wrestles as Divine Tragedy, their premiere drag queen wrestler.
As always, I've got lots of fabulous art prints of this week's Drag Race art available for sale hereand onEtsy! Celebrate Milk's time on the show with a print of one of her unforgettable looks!
Next week, there are TWO episodes of RuPaul's Drag Race airing back-to-back. I'm not sure how I'll handle that, yet. Maybe one batch on Wednesday, another over the weekend? We'll see!