Spring Reality Round Up: Drag Race enters Monsoon Season!!

Congrats to Jinkx Monsoon, winner of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 5. Jinkx is that great combination of Creativity, Uniqueness Nerve and Talent that Ru is always touting. I was rooting for her ever since she played Little Edie in the Snatch Game episode and half of the other queens didn't even know who the hell that was. They all should've been eliminated on the spot. I mean, there is not having an in depth knowledge of gay history, and then there's not ever having heard of Grey Gardens, despite documentaries, books, movies and a Broadway musical. I mean, seriously. I thought there might be a point where she'd crack under the pressure of all the pageant queens who wanted her gone, but she only got stronger throughout the competition. As my girl Latrice Royale would say, "Get up. Look sickening and make them EAT IT!"

 Jinkx's win keeps Drag Race on a nice run of  satisfying winners following Sharon Needles last year and Raja before her in seasons 4 and 3. (I still think Tyra Sanchez in Season 2 was a cray cray win over Raven or JuJuBee.) Now it's Monsoon Season, and who isn't happy when it's raining men?

It's a satisfying conclusion to what turned out to be a fairly solid season. The cast favored a very pretty (fishy, if they must, but it's my least favorite term) cast, and I wish there were larger personalities (and some larger bodies too) in the mix. Too much of the season was dominated by the "feud" between Coco Montrese and Alyssa Edwards and it just wasn't that interesting, especially when it became clear neither was going to win the crown. Once they were  eliminated, there was room for the other queens to get a word in edge-wise. And Ru, as always, seemed really engaged in the process. I always believe Ru cares!

There was also this weird underlying battle over drag philosophy this season. The "pageant queens" really seemed to look down on the "comedy queens." Roxxxy Andrews, in particular seemed to think that if Queens were trying to be funny characters instead of gorgeous women, they were doing it wrong and that comedy was a less legitimate form of drag. Now, some of this complaining be attributed to Roxxxy's own insecurities which she herself admitted. But other queens seemed to agree and looked down on Jinkx and even Alaska on what they were doing. I think that attitude is completely crazy! Firstly it's crazy, because Ru is ultimately looking for an entertainer and a tour headliner - not just a pretty girl. She needs to be a drag SUPERSTAR, bitches! And that attitude also dismisses and ignores a very rich history of drag performance. Drag is not just one thing, or one school of thought. Luckily, Drag Race Veteran and Fan Favorite Pandora Boxx, wrote a piece for the Huffington Post that addresses just this issue, much better than I ever could. You should give it a read.

I think Jinkx is a really talented performer and an interesting creative guy outside of his grad persona. Anyone who walks around with an arsenal of Death Becomes Her quotes at the ready is aces in my book. Jinkx has already started creating new projects including The Vaudevillians that will be in NYC this summer. I'm excited to see what other projects come in the future. JINKX, YOU BETTA WERK!!!!