Who knew a toast would cause all this conversation?
In the third episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16, titled “The Mother of All Balls,” Hershii LiqCour Jeté and Geneva Karr fell into the bottom two and had to lip sync for their lives. In Untucked, both Hershii and Geneva were worried that they’d be the first-eliminated queen of the season.
But before the bottom-two queens of the week talked about their fears and concerns, Amanda Tori Meating pointed out that this was the first (and only) time that the entire season 16 cast was together in Untucked. “Everybody, raise your glass,” Morphine Love Dion said, calling for a toast. “To no more being a ‘local girl,’” Plasma added while raising her cup.
From what was shown in the episode, no one on set reacted negatively to Plasma’s statement. Later in the Untucked segment, Hershii expressed her fears that going home first meant that she’d go “back to being a ‘local girl.’”
For context, a “local girl” is a term used to describe drag artists who are known in their local scenes but have not been on television — even more specifically, haven’t been on Drag Race — as of yet. Seattle-based drag artist Jane Don’t saw this Untucked clip and quote-reposted it on X (formerly Twitter). “This was really weird lol,” she wrote. “‘No more being a local girl’ ok see y’all when you get booked at the bar with us.”
Jane added, “Don’t come on here much anymore but felt compelled by how goofy this moment was. I get that most people that get on the show probably feel this way to one degree or another but hooooo boy does it feel a little tactless to say it.”
