Drag Race’s Yuhua Hamasaki on “Nosegate” and the pitfalls of being a team player
The third eliminated queen rocked out her lip-sync and sashayed out the door
If nine seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race have taught us anything, it’s that our drag sisters have much to teach us. From Latrice Royale’s always-handy Five Gs, to RuPaul’s colorful bouquet of sayings, Drag Race has been and continues to be an overflowing fount of drag wisdom. Even the eliminated queens — especially the eliminated queens — come away bearing useful advice for the rest of us.
“Be more assertive,” says Yuhua Hamasaki, the latest to sashay away from Drag Race Season 10. “Whether you’re gonna appear as a bitch or not, be assertive, because if not, you’re gonna end up being eliminated, you know what I mean?”
Viewers of episode three might know exactly what Yuhua means, as they watched the New York-based, self-taught performer land in the bottom alongside Mayhem Miller. Assertiveness, or lack thereof, was a running theme of the episode, as Mayhem confessed on-camera to wishing she’d spoken up for herself more in the episode’s acting challenge.
Yuhua, who was also judged to have flubbed the main challenge, agrees that teamwork takes a queen only so far in the competition, particularly after she followed her teammates and didn’t use prosthetics for the Madam Buttrface ad.
“I would try to be a team player, so I listened to my teammates on not to use the prosthetic nose, or prosthetic facial features that were provided to us,” Yuhua says. “They said, ‘Don’t do it because the other two girls are doing it.’ I listened to them, so it’s my fault.”
Would she have done anything differently, knowing that the decision potentially contributed to losing her place in the competition?
“What I should have done was stick up for myself and say, ‘Hey, listen. I’m going to be a big bitch right now,” she says. “I’m going to put on those fricking prosthetic facial features and use it, whether you like it or not, because I want to stay in this competition.’”
But those decisions aren’t as clear cut in the workroom. Drag Race queens must navigate a bruising competition, while remaining ever-mindful of a hyper-critical TV and social media fanbase.
“You want to be nice, you want to be professional. You also don’t want to look like a bitch on camera,” says Yuhua. “That’s, I think, what we’re all scared of, that we’re going to look like a bitch on camera.”
If that’s the case, nobody told The Vixen, who seems plenty assertive and does not appear to be too scared of appearing bitchy on-camera.
“Well, I am,” admits Yuhua.
Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 10 airs Thursdays at 8pm on VH1.
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