‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under’ S1E5 Recap: Pissed Off
Is this mic on? Because we've got a LOT to talk about this week.
Is this mic on? Because we’ve got a lot to talk about after this week’s Drag Race Down Under. First: is racism a man drowning in the Hudson river? Because RuPaul really just sent his thoughts and prayers out to absolve Scarlet Adams.
We’d heard rumours that this episode addressed Scarlet’s history of blackface and other culturally fucked-up performances, and while I wasn’t expecting the show to tackle it substantially, RuPaul’s own brand of pseudo-psycho-babble came forth like a weak bubbler stream. Technically, it offered something, but it was far from satisfying.
It’s not my apology to accept, but I can’t imaging many accepting what was aired on the show. (Scarlet is aware of this, and has posted a much lengthier video to her IG, detailing her anti-racism actions, though a recent costume suggests she still views herself as a victim of trolling and hate.) Where to from here is a much bigger question, but the show’s flaw here is that it tried to treat Scarlet’s past offences as if they were another narrative to be overcome, like ‘assault’ or ‘self-esteem’ or any other ‘issue’ the show pries out of queens.
That said, a TV competition show isn’t going to be able to dive deep into racist acts without disrupting its own production. I’m thinking of Real Housewives Of Auckland, where the latter half of the show fell apart after one cast member used a racial slur against another. That’s what needs to happen: the show needed to become something else to tackle it (though RHOA, not surprisingly, didn’t exactly succeed either), rather than shoehorn it into seven minutes of airtime, finished off with Ru calling it a learning lesson and tying a bow around an unfinished issue rather than ‘cancelling’ anyone.
Would substantive addressing of Scarlet’s behaviour be the Drag Race we love? Of course not: it probably wouldn’t even be televised. Maybe that’s more appropriate, for Scarlet to have ‘taken’ leave (if the show only became aware of the performances during filming, that is, which seems unlikely given they were floating around online beforehand).
Instead, we’re left with this — an apology that centres Scarlet so she can continue to compete, with literally no Bla(c)k voices or people of colour present in the werkroom to speak about their own experiences with racism. Not that if Jojo was still present it would’ve been her duty to accept Scarlet’s apology for her blakface, or to even talk about it with her. The whole thing just speaks to Down Under‘s larger failure: if the cast reflected our actual drag community, the conversation we saw in the werkroom would have been completely different.
Seven white people talking about race isn’t a bad thing of itself — white people should discuss their own whiteness and racism outside of having a person of colour in the room. But the issue is obvious, especially when televised in place of any other conversation: whiteness will always be centred. (I’ve seen some comments that Etcetera isn’t white as a Lebanese-Australian, but for now, I’m going off how she describes herself as an ally to people of colour routinely on social media.)
It’s just shit. And look, maybe this episode is a great starting point for a white viewer who hasn’t actively considered how racism is socially conditioned into all of us and needs to be actively unlearned/practiced against. But, to paraphrase Ziwe talking to Caroline Calloway, there are no ally cookies in this game: don’t be ‘woke’ just to get critical acclaim, be forgiven or considered ‘one of the good whites’. And that’s what it felt like from both Scarlet and the show. S2 needs to do better. Right now, this mess overshadows the queens’ talents and joys — it’s not fair on the other queens or the scene they’re representing to the world.
Please don’t stop watching Drag Race Down Under!!!! I get it, believe me I do! But we need the ratings for a second season because I REALLY want to jump out of a box like @itsSHANGELA 😂💖
— Jojo Zaho (@ZahoJojo) May 29, 2021
Reading Is What? Something You’re Doing Right Now! Look At You Go
Before we get into further (lesser) grievances, let’s celebrate that reading challenge: antipodeans have a natural flair for taking the piss out of each other, so it’s no surprise this was genuinely funny. Deadpan and original jokes in abundance, and Art Simone proved that it’s possible to make a pronouns joke without being offensive. Then again, I’m pretty cut that we won’t be seeing Etc in the finale, as is ‘Absolutely Everybody’.
Me upon learning that Rita Ora, Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson probably had a threesome while presumably gakked out of their minds during a Sunday session.
Before all that, though, we’re given this week’s main challenge — a ‘branding challenge’, where the queens create their own marketable definitely-not-Vegemite yeast spread, and film an infomercial. It’s a cute idea, but it does feel like the queens are lead down a particular path. Most run with the obvious vagina yeast joke, which leans heavily into a specific blend of gay male misogyny, where we express disgust and horror at an AFAB body.
and just while i have your attention ,, acting disgusted by vaginas will always be crossing the line to me personally !! happy to see bodies of all types pissing wherever they want on tv ,,, but don’t wanna see gay men continuously acting like vaginas are scary ,, or gross.
— etcetera ɐɹǝʇǝɔʇǝ | STREAM #FLUSH (@glamourbug) May 29, 2021
The fact that Karen, Scarlet and Maxi’s ads essentially have the same throughline of ‘vaginas are gross!’ suggests it’s also just a lazy joke. It’s not surprising, then, that the best ads of the week go in a different direction.
Kita Mean may be missing her partner-in-crime, but this week really shines with her Divine nod: she’s razor-sharp, and it shows in the script. She’s routinely been in the middle of the pack all season, but I could easily see her breaking through in this latter half to the top three (especially now Anita and Etc are gone).
Perfection.
Art overthinks the fuck out of her ad, which is essentially a really convoluted joke about how Americans don’t like Vegemite. It’s a classic case of trying too hard to be clever and having too many components to work with — as someone who tries way too hard every week to make people laugh, it’s incredibly relatable.
We can see with Art’s runway this week that she loves to meticulously plan things and fill her drag with references. Kath Day-Knight realness aside, she had a motorised parter for the corked Akubra, á la Billy Porter at the 2020 Emmys! That’s an absurd ( and yes, spenno) attention to detail, but it’s hard to fit it all into the show’s confines at times.
‘And then in the next I’ll play an American tourist who is excited to see real life Aussies’
I’ve been waiting for an Elektra breakthrough since E1 where, blinded by how hot she is, I predicted she’d make the top three. And by God, did she deliver on both fronts this episode (That ‘how’s it going’ to the Pit Crew? The wink to the camera while entering the werkroom?). Her ad was perfect Drag Race fodder, a meta-reference to her own so-so performance through the competition that showed the self-awareness and irreverence that Ru creams himself for.
Also, ‘And Talent’ was one of the better jokes of the night.
The obvious winner, though, was Etcetera, whose ad for her jar of black-tar piss was on another level. I was astonished when Ru said it wasn’t “clever”, given that it was filled with puns (‘piss off’, ‘get on the piss’, ‘it’s number one, not number two’) and worked on a shock (glamourous woman moaning for piss) and cerebral level ( Australia’s desert ‘piss’ being black because of the lack of hydration!).
Ru and Michelle have missed a few local jokes this season, but this is the first time I’ve wondered whether they’re simply not equipped to judge Down Under drag, as this was by no means too crass of an ad for antipodean audiences. Piss is the moment, and I have bought the mug.
MIRANDA! MIRANDA!
This week’s runway was ‘sheila of the bush’, a delightfully open-ended theme that saw Maxi Thee Shields pay homage to Picnic At Hanging Rock.
A dream within a dream within a dream.
We get quite a few odes to Australian classics, with Art doing her best Kath Day-Knight and Scarlet pulling out the silver lamé for a Priscilla homage. The latter is a little lacklustre to me (it feels too much like a direct recreation without anything else added on top), but I did love that she spun around on stage about eight times in a row: it was the funniest thing Scarlet’s done so far.
Someone had to do it!
She’s come a long way from her ‘Gay’ days.
Karen’s firefighter look is adored by the judges, which is confusing. It’s not particularly flattering and by carrying a prop in either arm, she can’t do more than nod her head on the runway. I will always appreciate someone using an international platform to directly call out our government’s inaction on climate change, though.
There’s also something funny about paying tribute to firefighters by putting your own drag initial on the helmet.
I think Karen is a little stuck in her schtick: the office-worker brand is so funny off the show, but doesn’t quite fit the challenges. It’s that classic case of a seasoned queen knowing herself a little too well, and being unable to adapt to what Drag Race requires (Tina Burner, for eg) — if she doesn’t have a breakthrough soon, it could be curtains.
Etc’s runway, meanwhile, was a conceptual look at how fire regenerates our bushland. Exciting! Bold! Editorial! It’s just astonishing she was in the bottom this episode.
Snug as a glamourbug.
My housemate, an avid Drag Race fan, only just realised Kita Mean’s name is a ketamine pun, so I’m putting this out here just in case anyone needs it.
Kita’s butterfly look doesn’t set my heart aflutter, but it’s quite pretty — Elektra, however, absolutely kills it with her enchanted witch of the woods outfit, inspired by the extinct Huia bird. The painted hair on her bald head is really stunning, and it’s easily the best she’s looked all season. Couldn’t have come at a better time.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is this Drag Race’s first paint-wig? (Bob’s neon runway featured paint on his head, but it wasn’t pretending to be hair)
Before Elektra nabs the win, we don’t get even a touch of Untucked. The editing and pacing was pretty rough this episode, assumedly to fit in all the Scarlet conversations, and it’s most felt here. It’s surprising the queens didn’t get into Karen’s now-removed Gollywog tattoos, given how it’s related: you have to wonder whether it did come up in Untucked, but the show decided to cut it for time? Perhaps they decided it requires too much context for an international audience.
Unfortunately, two favourites wind up in the bottom. Maxi breaks out the microphone hidden in her sleeve and absolutely embodies the cheese of Vanessa Amorosi’s ‘Absolutely Everybody’, a nice reminder that a simple idea done well can be more entertaining than a lotta splits and reveals. Etc leaves the show inviting people to piss into her mouth — she is an absolute star, and I’m so glad the world beyond the Inner West knows it.
RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under is exclusively streaming on Stan. A new episode streams every week from 4pm AEST.
Jared Richards is Junkee’s Drag Race recapper and a freelancer who writes for The Big Issue, The Guardian and more. He’s on Twitter as @jrdjms.