‘Canada’s Drag Race’ Season 2: After the Sashay with Suki Doll

Xtra contributor Russ Martin gets all the tea from this week’s eliminated “Drag Race” contestant

As one of very few drag performers of Asian descent working regularly in Quebec, Suki Doll was often typecast and pigeonholed as she came up in the Montreal drag scene. When the drag star was cast on Canada’s Drag Race, she arrived with a mission to represent AAPI performers and fans.

Suki’s run on the show was a love letter to AAPI cultures, from her collaboration with designer Terrence Zhou to her beautiful showcase of her tattoos, which represent her Vietnamese, Chinese and Cambodian roots. Though she was sent home last episode, on the runway she delivered an inspired, fashion-forward homage to Sandra Oh in the 1994 Canadian indie flick Double Happiness that was adored by the judges.

After her elimination, Suki Doll joined Xtra’s After the Sashay to discuss AAPI representation, her work as a fashion designer and growing up in the projects.

Russ Martin is a writer whose work has been published in Flare, the Toronto Star, The Walrus, and NewNowNext. He lives in Toronto.

Keep Reading

A side by side of drag king and lesbian performer Gladys Bentley and a flyer for one of her shows

The drag king provocateur of the Harlem Renaissance

Gladys Bentley was a beloved and successful gender outlaw, but the world would ultimately fail her

NBC apologizes after misgendering Olympic skier

Swedish freestyle skier Elis Lundholm made history as the first openly trans Winter Olympian
Black and white images of Dorothy Arzner and Marion Morgan, who were crucial to Hollywood history

This lesbian power couple ruled the Golden Age of Hollywood

Director Dorothy Arzner and choreographer Marion Morgan were collaborators and life partners for over 40 years

Book ban lists from Edmonton, Calgary school districts released

The Alberta government has mandated that school libraries remove titles with “inappropriate” content