RuPaul's Drag Race: Gayest Ball Ever
June 3, 2017 6:48 AM - Season 9, Episode 11 - Subscribe

The girls compete in a queer-culture pageant.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero (23 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was really tired of Alexis blaming everyone for not telling her that her outfits weren't great. There were things I liked about her, but it was clearly her time to go. It's a solid top 4, a lot of variety and talent and personality. While I'd be happy to see any of them win, I think it's Shea's competition to lose.
posted by donnagirl at 9:09 AM on June 3, 2017 [9 favorites]


I cannot get over Peppermint's lip syncs. She absolutely radiates charisma and joy. What a goddess.

Felt that Sasha's final outfit was overpraised. Very cute, but not an elevated drag look. I understood why Shea took it. Trinity's final look was gloooorious, though. I go back and forth on her pretty much every episode, but she can certainly turn out some highly dramatic runway moments.

Was it just me, or did Ru say "fuck" on camera way more often than usual during this episode?
posted by merriment at 12:15 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


If you draw against Peppermint in a LSFYL, you might as well fall on your mascara wand, because you are going home. She is a destroy-ah.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 2:29 PM on June 3, 2017 [6 favorites]


Agreed on Peppermint. We were talking last night about how much actual, prolonged eye contact she makes both on the runway and when lip syncing. Most other queens look in the vicinity of judges without ever actually looking at anyone. The difference is remarkable.
posted by donnagirl at 3:51 PM on June 3, 2017 [6 favorites]


I wasn't a huge fan of Sasha's Village People look either. She did tailor it well considering she's not a seamstress, but the fabric/silhouette was kinda... 10th-grade Home Ec?

I love Peppermint the very most. I still can't see her winning but whoa, what a phenomenal performer, and she just seems like such a lovely person. And that cop look was sickening (I personally liked her rainbow flag outfit, too).

Haven't watched Untucked yet, but I predict it's going to involve about 20 minutes of Alexis Feeling Very Attacked.
posted by Pizzarina Sbarro at 4:09 PM on June 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


Untucked spoiler: Trinity reminds Alexis she told her to do a braid and Alexis didn't. Trinity is not here for Alexis' excuses. That said, I have a real soft spot for Alexis. I imagine I, too, come off like a hopeless know-it-all sometimes. I really enjoyed her rainbow look. The Indian look was tragic, though.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:31 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


I do like how much fun there was in this episode. Ru was cracking jokes and seemed to be having a really good time, which goes such a long way.

Okay, the MINUTE Alexis pulled out the corset and started talking about how great she was going to do the stonework, I knew what was going to happen.

As great as Shea is, I do feel her win is starting to be a little boring/predictable at that point. I would've preferred a Sasha win this week, both because her unicorn was awesome and her "somewhere over the rainbow"/"friends of Dorothy" look was cool, but also just to add a little more suspense. That being said, Shea's construction-worker cape was freaking amazing and I was sort of okay giving her the win for that piece alone. (She... embraced the materials.)

I was surprised they liked Sasha's cowboy look as much as they did; the two-sided gloves were cool, but I thought the basic outfit was a little... basic.

Shea is an all-around great performer and stylist, but Sasha is bringing something different (sort of trying to scratch my what-if-Kim-Chi-had-won-S8 itch). And Trinity is just bringing it all plus self-deprecation and three jokes on top of that. I am consistently falling for her wit and her smarts, and also the fact that she showed up here to Get. The. Crown. At this point, I'm feeling like it's:
Shea: Will win.
Sasha: Should win.
Trinity: I want to win.

Oh, and Peppermint is also there. I mean! She's great. But I think she knows as much as any of us she's not going to win. But glad to get to see more of her performances, plus her talking heads are usually pretty good.
posted by Zephyrial at 7:06 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


That said, I have a real soft spot for Alexis. I imagine I, too, come off like a hopeless know-it-all sometimes.

Same. Most of what is annoying about Alexis is what I hate in myself. This was also true of Nina. I've spent a lot of this season watching Drag Race excusing myself to smoke before I triggered a panic attack or punched the screen is what I'm saying here.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:05 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]


Great point, TPS and MCMike—the Alexis we really hate is the one inside each of us. Ugh too real.
posted by Zephyrial at 11:07 PM on June 3, 2017 [3 favorites]


Peppermint is the Jujubee of the season: lovable, sweet but can still read a ho, full of personality, fierce lip sync assassin, probably won't win (but deserves a spot on a Ru spinoff or two).
posted by en forme de poire at 2:29 PM on June 4, 2017 [7 favorites]


I wouldn't write Sasha off yet. Shae's had a few off weeks, whereas Sasha has never been in the bottom let alone the lip synch. This season's got a lot more uncertainty than 8 did - I mean it was pretty obvious 8 was Bob's to lose. This season, not so much.

liquorice: I'm holding out for All Stars for Valentina. I was just so crushed when she was eliminated. I can absolutely see her getting a berth in AS3.
posted by Jilder at 7:09 PM on June 4, 2017


Why would they let anybody choose the Indian? There is almost no way to do it without being offensive and Alexis sure as fuck couldn't pull it off. Also led to Ru making a reservation joke which is a bad idea.
posted by Uncle at 7:39 PM on June 4, 2017 [5 favorites]


Because Ru is 3 edgy 5 America.

I thought the visual pun of Alexis putting a bow in her hair was a way to take that theme in a benignly funny direction, but it wasn't quite far enough. Maybe if she'd bedazzled the shit out of it like Shea's helmet.
posted by en forme de poire at 8:23 PM on June 4, 2017


I don't know why they let Shea get away with that off-topic Pride look. Sasha's unicorn tapestry was the best (and least tacky), Sasha had a unique take on the rainbow. The construction worker cape was really the only thing Shea was winning on; Sasha's was ok. Sasha should've won this week.
posted by larrybob at 9:47 AM on June 5, 2017 [3 favorites]


Why would they let anybody choose the Indian?

I think they forced the choice. There wasn't an army guy look on the table that I saw.
posted by donnagirl at 10:32 AM on June 5, 2017


Why would they let anybody choose the Indian? There is almost no way to do it without being offensive and Alexis sure as fuck couldn't pull it off. Also led to Ru making a reservation joke which is a bad idea.

AGREED 100% -- this felt like Ru's use of "tranny" in the far past of ... 2014? (Seriously, I thought that blew up earlier.) My wife and I both gasped at Ru's "Your Native American couture... left the judges with reservations," not rolling our eyes as assumed/summed up by Bustle. A quick reminder: reservations are where settlers and "Americans" of European descent (generally) forcefully moved Native American tribes, often to the west, where the land was better suited to low-yield ranching, instead of higher-yield farming. Ru's use of the term was not "exploiting another culture," but making light stinger joke out of a tragic history.

And where "Indian" could definitely lead to cultural appropriation, this outfit was just dumb and tacky, reflecting poorly more on Alexis as an artist than her attempt to evoke anything Native American or First Nation. As pointed out by Bustle, Raja's Season 3 outfit was cultural appropriation. Any time someone says "I'm designing something ready-to-wear," you can mentally rephrase that as "I'm going with some basic look" (as my wife pointed out to me in this episode).

My message to anyone who happens to read this: We Can Do Better -- "Indian" isn't a theme, it's a crude catch-all name for a diverse range of traditions, cultures and histories. Yes, I get it -- The Village People did it first, but that doesn't mean we need to keep doing it. We know better. We Can Do Better.

On the other queens, I liked Sasha the most as a performer and presenter this episode, but when remembering that this was supposed to be The Gayest Ball Ever, she missed the mark. Peppermint and Shea were on point, and Trinity did a decent job, mostly. It seems her range of styles is limited.

I mean it was pretty obvious 8 was Bob's to lose. My wife and I were skeptical, because we felt that Ru had kept to more of a pattern to the types of queens who had won, so awarding the title to a "comedy queen" only two seasons after Bianca Del Rio won seemed like it was too soon. Mind you, we were 100% on Team Bob, but we weren't expecting her to go all the way. Then again, we were also expecting Valentina to be in the Top 3 this season, so who knows what'll happen this season?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:21 PM on June 5, 2017 [4 favorites]


I'm beginning to wonder if Shea didn't have another Pride costume that the producers nixed for not being camera-friendly (it's happened before, with certain prints), hence the graffiti number.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 1:13 AM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's hard for much to be camera-friendly with those blowout pink purple and white lights.
posted by donnagirl at 1:57 PM on June 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Sasha's unicorn, though.
posted by en forme de poire at 1:03 PM on June 8, 2017 [5 favorites]


I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE RAJA AND RAVEN BOOTED IT, HOW, WHAT, WHARRGRARBL
posted by en forme de poire at 7:29 PM on June 8, 2017


I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE RAJA AND RAVEN BOOTED IT, HOW, WHAT, WHARRGRARBL

there is a youtube video up entitled "Raven hates Sasha" for a reason.

I thought Sasha's unicorn look was beautiful, but I am a giant nerd who loves the unicorn tapestries at The Cloisters, so it was right up my alley.
posted by Julnyes at 12:04 PM on June 9, 2017 [3 favorites]


Didn't Sasha even clarify her inspiration? -_-
posted by filthy light thief at 11:27 PM on June 9, 2017


I thought Sasha's rainbow look was uninspired ready-to-wear. Seriously, imagine the four of them on a pride float. Would you even remember Sasha was there? She looks like an energetic art teacher at brunch: interesting but neither glamorous not elegant ( The point of this challenge). That's why she didn't win.
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 9:20 AM on June 10, 2017


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