We are only two episodes into All Stars 4 this season and there is already a villain that has emerged from the bunch: season 6 contestant Gia Gunn.
Fans of the show got a taste of Gia’s shade in the first episode when she pretty much slammed Trinity the Tuck and Farrah Moan for a good portion of the show. I sort of overlooked that due to how wonderfully she did during the talent show, where her kabuki performance should’ve netted her much more praise than it did.
Episode two was all about girl groups, which they’ve done in the past in season 1 and All Stars 3. Yet the focus once again shifted to Gia and her being unbelievably shady to Farrah, to the point where she interrupted her one-on-one conversation after Farrah wound up in the bottom two to “apologize” to her. Notice the quotes in apologize there.
It’s kind of confusing to look at Gia and figure out what her reasoning is for doing this. Obviously, we can’t have this be RuPaul’s Best Friend Race every season, as we all love to watch some drama happen otherwise this show would’ve never survived, but this is coming across as a forced storyline that is only taking away from Gia’s natural talents.
All Stars is a queen’s opportunity to showcase how far they’ve come from their original season in hopes that they’ve developed themselves enough to win the coveted prize in the end. Even if that doesn’t happen, it gives you the chance to reintroduce yourself to an audience of millions of people (Tatianna, Morgan McMichaels) or keep the momentum going from being a queen on a very recent season (Aja, Katya).
It shouldn’t be nothing but shade upon shade upon shade. In a regular season this sort of idea can work, as the general public has no idea who you are and you can craft yourself as someone that can either come across as likably shady (Bianca Del Rio, Bob the Drag Queen) or the complete opposite (Phi Phi O’Hara, Roxxxy Andrews), but to do something like this in an All Stars season really makes no sense.
Gia was eliminated hella early in season 9 because she chose to do Selena then Kim Kardashian for the Snatch Game episode, neither of which are known for being funny. She also went home because Laganja Estranja destroyed her in the lip sync, death drop or not.
Casual fans of Gia’s and the show (in other words, fake ones who don’t go outside a 42-minute edited program to see what a queen is REALLY like) will know her for her catchphrases like “Absolutelyyyyy” and “Let me feel my oats!” Now you can show a completely different side, one we didn’t see originally, and this is how you re-enter… by being unnecessarily shady to the point where you’re sitting there like “WTF!”
I think Gia is very talented and is breaking needed ground as the first openly trans queen on RuPaul’s Drag Race. To let all of that be shadowed by her shade is really frustrating to see, and my hopes are that her storyline and how she’s coming across shifts for the better as the show goes on so people can really see how great she truly is.
This post was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.
Badgering another queen until
Badgering another queen until she finally named Farah as being the weakest link in their girl-group and then zooming over to bully Farah with the news was rude and shady to no end. Then when Farah saw what Gia was doing and told her to buzz off and go away, Gia responded with "Why are you being so sensitive?". Going from bully to passive-agressive is not acceptable, and the other girls are fully aware of what Gia was doing, so are ready to see her gone. I am ready to see her gone as well, she was shady on her initial season and is even more shady now.