It happened during one of the episodes of Untucked, when Gia went after the appearance of Milk, another Drag Race contestant. The episode's theme was Tony Awards Glamor and while all the contestants were dressed to the nines, Milk shocked everyone when she showed up at the runway with an unusual look (see image below).
As you can see, instead of a polished look, Milk donned a maternity dress complete with the pregnant bulge. On top of that, her hair was disheveled, and her makeup was a mess. This prompted Gia to say, "If someone showed up at the Tony's looking like that, I want to know what's going on in your brain." At this point, Gia gave a fair remark. Let's be honest. Milk's look isn't something we'd expect (or we'd like to see) at any awards show.
But what got people talking is Gia Gunn's perception of drag, which she made perfectly clear to further her argument against Milk's look. "Drag means dressing up as girl. I don't see femininity," she said.
Again, Gia is right at the beginning of her sentence. But we disagree with her when she blurted out the last part -- and especially with how she condescendingly said it. Besides, she has always viewed the other queens on the show as "manly." And she hates manly queens.
Well, there are different types of drag queens, and Gia represents what we call the "fishy" queens -- or those who look, talk, walk, and act feminine. Milk, on the other hand, is another type of drag queen. If only Gia's approach wasn't condescending, she would have understood that Milk does the way she does because she has a cause.
In her makeup session with Jesse St. James, Milk explained that she will never look pretty. (Check out the video, starting from 2:32.) This is because she wants to show people who don't think they have the looks to become a drag queen that it is possible to be a drag queen.
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So is being a drag queen all about looking like a woman? That is the craft, yet. But is being a drag queen all about looking pretty and feminine? Definitely not.
