Drag Race RuCap: “The Wicked Wiz of Oz: The Rusical!”

THE WIZARD OF OZ looks...different.

NICK TAYLOR: Can you believe our luck, going from a disappointingly mid Snatch Game to a snappy, entertainingly performed, bizarrely conceived Rusical? With a fabulous runway and a lip sync for your life where both queens are actively serving? That’s just about everything one could ask for on this show, with my one caveat being the least deserving finalist got the win this week. Even so, I loved this episode of Drag Race, which threw so many portents and standbys at me that I somehow convinced myself this episode’s somewhat inevitable elimination could surprise us with an unexpected victory. There’s so much drama, all of which is organically felt and most of which is seamlessly edited into the rhythms of the episode. Were you as big a fan of this episode as I was? 

CLÁUDIO ALVES: The only thing that would make it better would have been Onya messing up another girl’s outfit. But I guess we need to wait ‘till next week for that…

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"We Are the Champions" (on LGBT Representation at the Oscars)

by Deborah Lipp

2019 was a very LGBT Oscars. (Well, at least LGB.) And it was not merely the presence of LGB characters, although this was staggering in numbers. It was also that many were presented in a new way.

Consider Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy was not nominated for playing a lesbian. She was nominated for playing a famous writer—a famous lesbian writer. I’m not particularly a fan of the “happens to be” formation—I think it erases the struggle and complexity of arriving at a queer identity. Let’s face it, no one “happens to be” queer. We get there through a process that is sometimes difficult, or even agonizing, sometimes complex and winding. There’s always a road to be taken, always an arrival that may or may not require yet more journeying. Despite that, our stories should be about more than how we got there...

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