EXPLAINING LA MÁS

There are many versions of Drag Race around the world right now. Many. And people have decided which one is their favorite. Some prefer the US version, some prefer the UK version. Some swear by the Canadian version and some are waiting for the Australian version. What people tend to forget is that this is a reality series, and that changes the stakes and the rules a little bit. Reality series are basically semi-scripted and that makes them special.

Many people have mentioned that some excellent Drag artists do not do 'well' in the contest while some others seem to be a match made in heaven for the format (coughKandycough). Drag Race is a competition, it's not the essence of Drag, no matter what Jaida says. To put on Drag race the responsibility of being 'accurate' at all times in what concerns Drag, it's like asking Chopped or Cupcake Wars to teach us all there's to know about cooking or baking. I see Drag Race as a vehicle for the queens to launch a career and for Ru to expand her empire. Ru is the perfect example of what a Drag artist with vision and ambition could do. She models for the girls one of the possible paths to follow.

So when I ran into Margaret y Ya and her YouTube series explaining what La más Draga is, I thought it would be great to post about that. I've talked about La Más Draga here before. It's a Mexican contest modeled roughly on Drag Race but with a much more focused emphasis on Mexican culture. The challenges vary from very specifically Mexican (La Más Frida) to general (like a lip-sync). But LMD differs from DR when it has to do with the contestants' gender, too (they have had boys doing androgynous drag and Bio Queens doing high and conceptual drag, something we have not seen in RPDR) and when it comes to the age range and style of drag of the queens participating.

LMD is doing tryouts for its third season now. Margaret and Denali (yes, Denali, from the thirteenth season of Drag Race) sit down here and discuss the ups and downs of the finale of La Más Draga and American viewers would be surprised to see that La Más Draga actually seems closer to the idea some have of what Drag Race should be. They'd be in for some surprises, though, like when some Drag artists seem to go overboard with their runway presentations (something that would never happen in the US, for example, where pageants prescribe some specific styles for the runway).

I thought it would be interesting to get your opinions about this. Especially Maddie, our resident Drag expert (who by the way, writes the most hysterical Drag Race reviews) after you see what Margaret and Denali hash during their get together. They tear apart the finale of LMD and verbalize some of the thoughts that I've had when watching both contests.

By the way, I like Denali. She may be one of the Drag Race queens whose talents do not align completely to the competition's format but I like her style and her personality outside of the contest. Spoiler alert: not all the queens need to make it to top four. Is it nice? Yes, necessary? I don't think so. Some top four queens do very well for themselves (Trixie, Bianca, Alaska) but some do well by just being in the show. I see the show as a platform, and most of the queens use it to raise their profile and get known by a bigger public. I think Denali will be all right even though she's not top four (second spoiler alert, she made it to the top eight, halfway the competition just like Jan, another very talented queen who seemed to try every trick she knew in the contest and was also eliminated for a technicality).

So the video of Margaret and Denali kind of shows us how culture defines the way we see Drag and its accoutrements. Everybody's got an opinion about Drag because everybody sees it through their eyes and through their experiences. Not to mention their culture. In Drag, like in life, one size definitely does not fit all.

XOXO

P.S. also, while you're here, get a load of Denali in her element.