Disclaimer: SPOILERS AHEAD

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a televised competition between drag queens, which has been on air for eight years, and is going on its ninth. The fourth episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9 aired April 14. The main challenge was to produce a live morning talk show.

Both RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants, and viewers at home were confused when they saw competitor Charlie Hides blandly ‘lip sync for her life,’ on the main stage.

When I watched the episode I was shocked. I have been watching RuPaul’s Drag Race for years now, and the only performance similar to this was the Honey Mahogany and Vivienne Pinay double elimination.  

When asked why he didn’t compete against Trinity Taylor, Hides said that he’s from the UK, and UK queens sing live, so he doesn’t lip sync. He then went on to say that when he first was accepted to be on the show, he strategized that if he had to lip sync he wouldn’t try, and get sent home.

I believe this was a lose-lose situation for Charlie whether he tried or not. Even if he did try he would have been showed up by Trinity Taylor who is a much younger queen. Also, he didn’t know the words to the lip sync song (‘I wanna go’ by Britney Spears) which wouldn’t have flown with the judges.

Charlie stayed on the right side of the stage doing a pitiful step touch, making for a very awkward performance. Meanwhile, his competitor gallivanted around the stage doing front flips and whipping her hair.

However, an article from Vice recently came out, which says that he didn’t lip sync because he had a cracked rib from the previous cheer leading challenge, where he had to lift fellow contestant Shea Couleé. This contradicts the story he told viewers.

Charlie’s performance remained at a less than satisfactory level, even when contestant Alexis Michelle screamed “Charlie let’s go” in hopes of encouraging him to perform to a point where he would have a fighting shot of staying instead of getting eliminated.

As you probably assumed, Charlie was sent packing.

Charlie was being very childish. He took up a spot on RuPaul’s Drag Race, that many other queens would have died for. I feel like he wasted everybody’s time with his petty issue of not being comfortable lip syncing. When joining RuPaul’s Drag Race, all queens are made aware of the very real possibility of lip syncing if you end up in the bottom two. Since Charlie was informed of the possibility of him lip syncing as well as his uneasiness with the concept, why would he bother going on the show? Did he think he was going to be like fellow season six winner Bianca del Rio and not have to lip sync once?

This opens up a larger problem that is shown throughout RuPaul’s Drag Race: queens not doing what is expected of them. Either not taking the judges’ critiques or not meeting expectations.

Season seven contestant Jasmine Masters believes that new queens are ruining drag because they don’t meet  the ‘old’ drag standards. Some queens come to RuPaul’s Drag Race and can’t sew or entertain. Masters judges good drag by the old standards, while other queens like Phi Phi O’Hara think that there are many types of drag. I agree with both Masters and O’Hara.

I agree with Masters because I think that all queens should know how to lip sync and entertain. Every queen singing live isn’t realistic because not every queen can sing well enough. However, I disagree with Masters because I think that saying new drag queens are ruining drag is an extremely melodramatic statement.

I agree with O’Hara because there isn’t only one type of drag, and because drag is such a sophisticated culture, it shouldn’t be trapped into a box.

It’s weird that Charlie Hides doesn’t follow old drag standards, considering that he’s 52 years old.

In the Vice article Hides also complained about shooting 19 hour days, while running on two hours of sleep, and suffering achy knees from high heels. Due to the hardships he endured, it is better for Charlie to be back home, where he can continue to make his Cher and Madonna impersonation videos.
I like Charlie, and he seems like a good performer, but his lip sync was a complete flop, and I think any other RuPaul’s Drag Race lover would agree.