I couldn’t find episode 2 teasers on YouTube and since I am living in the Third World and am just a poor peasant I can’t pay for video or image hosting, so you guys need to bear with probably the same two YouTube videos in the coming weeks.
Just like Drag Race Mexico, I loved the first episode of this new season. I love both franchises that I have honestly given up on watching All Stars 8 and decided to focus on these two shows instead. Sorry about it!
Rose is the Porkchop of this season of Drag Race France and her frequent collaborator Punani isn’t happy about it, especially since they’ve been friends for 21 years. Quite honestly, this is a great and touching departure from how I feel Drag Race prime would have handled it, which is have the queen say “I am sad but I am here to win!” And the queens — or the editor — know well enough to break the tension with a well-placed quip from one of the queens.
Off we go into the intro and gotta admit it still throws me off that there are no cash prizes but an overseas trip instead. But I guess that’s still better than what the Drag Rae UK queens got which is nothing!
The mini challenge is panda-themed drag and as someone who is partly Chinese I can’t help but raise my eyebrows. Yes, what I know comes mostly from the internet — which you can never fully trust — but what I hear about France and the French is that they can be very racist. Your in danger, show.
And you know what, it wasn’t so bad! I thought that the queens would go for some Asian stereotypes but the lack of time — seeing as this is a quick drag challenge — and the lack of resources has Punani dressing in zebra print instead which what?
Moon actually kinda looks like a panda? And Sara Forever humps a panda? This is deranged and I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. Moon wins and I am not mad at it! She wins a CD and I kinda wish the mini challenges here in Drag Race France had some bearing on the Maxi challenge instead. She can’t even decide on the order of this week’s Maxi challenge, which is the talent show performed in front of the Drag Race France season 1 queens.
The queens are looking forward to Keiona’s performance in particular since she’s a legend in the French ballroom scene. Keiona is well aware of the pressure on her, as she also acknowledges that her voguing performance will be the first time someone from the actual ballroom scene will perform on Drag Race France.
Mami Watta, on the other hand, is preparing a performance that may “kill” her father. Both of her parents are deeply religious and actually put her in conversion therapy. You gotta admire Mami’s grace at insisting that her mother did it out of love for her.
Another thing that horrified me about Mami’s story is that apparently conversion therapy is not banned in the Ivory Coast? I am going to trust Mami’s word on this since I am doing this blog just for fun and don’t wanna do in-depth research right now. This article from Statista says it is, but I haven’t fully looked into their sources just yet.
Here’s a video of Boy Erased author Garrard Conley talking about his experience in conversion therapy.
Moon shocks me even further when she reveals that conversion therapy also exists in Switzerland and that they use electroshock therapy. Electroshock therapy. Like not only is Switzerland holding the stolen wealth of my country they’re also electrocuting young members of the LGBTQIA+ community! What in the world?
Ginger Bitch also shares how difficult it was to come out for him as well, especially since he did earlier than the young queens in the group. He shares that his mom told him to come home and she’ll cure him himself! Fortunately (?), he also added that now his mom would be ashamed that she even said those things about him and to him.
These series of confessions was actually pretty well done! Hopefully it impacts French society because these stories really moved me.
The season 1 queens do a little runway walk before the start of the talent show and they are looking gorgeous. I liked Kam Hugh’s look in particular, as well as La Grande Dame’s. La Grande Dame doesn’t have look on her Instagram though. ALSO, La Big Bertha reminded me that Piche isn’t the first bearded queen to appear on Drag Race France! Why was La Big Bertha beardless in my memory?
Keiona is up first and she pisses (metaphorically! metaphorically!) all over that stage and whoever arranged the order of performing queens wants the next one to be eliminated,
And it’s Punani. Someone has it in for the comedy queens. Thankfully, at least for now, her act is funny and a little crazy, so maybe she has a chance of sticking around!
It’s Vespi who ends up making the first flub of the night as her disco ball helmet opens during an inopportune time. Gotta tell you, it was really disconcerting to have the camera switch to it during Keiona’s performance because I genuinely thought I hallucinated it or something.
Sara Forever does an opera dance number (?) while Ginger Bitch has a stand up routine that might as well have been a roasting session. Went after the plus size queens of season 1, joked that it was Kahena first episode 2, even Paloma! If you guys watch this clock Soa de Muse’s face when Ginger Bitch goes after Paloma. Soa is gagged. Daphne Burki is cackling.
Who’s the poor queen going after that strong performance? Kitty Space. Honey, baby, fellow Southeast Asian, you in danger, girl. She does a dance routine but I kept being distracted by one of her nipples constantly popping out.
Mami Watta…performed. I know she had a sad story as the foundation of this performance but it just didn’t work for me. Also, just like Kitty Space, her outfit didn’t seem to fit her right.
Cookie Kunty…was not cunty. Maybe it was because Ginger Bitch had such a great set but the queens that performed after her have been consistently whelming.
Fortunately, Moon and Piche manage to somehow salvage the latter part of the show, but now it’s clear whose going to be the bottom girls and the safe girls, judging from the performances.
The runway theme is 2-in-1 and honestly the outfits are mostly…whelming. Some standouts include Sara Forever who walked the runway with a penis outfit that turns into a vulva, Kitty Space’s phoenix outfit, and Moon doing a simplified Utica bag look. I am kidding.
Utica’s bag look should have won though.
Ginger Bitch also does well with her Jacquline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe look, while Vespi just cements her place in the bottom two with a suggestion of a 2-in-1 outfit. GIRL YOU JUST PUT A PIECE OF FABRIC OVER YOUR HEAD. That’s not an outfit that’s a veil!
Vespi’s sucky outfit is even more emphasized when Piche comes in with a dress that reflects his own culture and successfully transforms into another outfit that also represents her culture as well. Vespi, girl, you in danger.
Piche wins this week’s challenge and I am not mad at it! I think it was her outfit that really pushed her over the top as it really was one of the few outfits that actually did a successful reveal.
Cookie Kunty and Vespi end up in the bottom and can I just say that I am so over queens taking off their outfits and making it a substitute for emotion. OVER IT. And as it turns out, so is Nicky! Because it’s that girl that she sends home.
I do love how like in Drag Race España, Nicky makes sure to emphasize that how you perform on the show should not be taken as a complete assessment of your drag and that it just shows a small snippet of it. Don’t crush these queens’ spirits!
Ron Does Stuff 
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