RuPaul's Drag Race UK VS The World Discusses Cancel Culture
Here's What Drag Race Fans Thought of That Cancel-Culture Convo
A new episode of "RuPaul's Drag Race UK VS The World" aired last night, and fans have had a lot of thoughts about the latest topic of conversation in the workroom. The queens debated the impact of cancel culture, whether it's something that's gone too far and makes it difficult to be authentic when performing, or conversely, whether it's necessary and needs to be more considered.
"I feel like you have to kind of be sensitive, online especially, because it puts our career on the line," Blu Hydrangea explained. They added that "Sometimes it's hard to speak out on matters because you're so worried about what you're gonna say and if I'm gonna annoy or offend someone. People have the right to be offended when they wanna be. Cancel culture, on the other hand, is a completely different ballgame, where people can be cancelled and their careers ruined. There's a lot of matters that we as drag queens have to speak out about — it's part of the job. We're the epicentre of the community, and we have to lead by example."
Janey Jacké shared a similar opinion to Hydrangea in that cancel culture can be dangerous, but in a much less subtle way. "I think you should be aware, woke, understanding, but you need controversy to address certain things. You can have a career where you do a lot of great things, but you're only as good as the last bad thing you did," she said. "Comedy, and the way comedy deals with things, is a way of therapy, but now you can't make certain jokes because there will be a person in the world with an opinion, who will be offended, who will drag your ass."
A number of queens went on to share their opinions and experiences, including Pangina Heals, who explained that she'd been cancelled before, receiving death threats after her appearance on "Drag Race Thailand" for being "too real and too mean". Baga Chipz also shared her opinion, saying that "I do tell very blue jokes, but there is a point. I'm not gonna talk about experiences I've never had. At the end of the day, people have died in the world, we're living in a global pandemic, and you're moaning about a stupid joke from a man in a dress?"
Rounding off the discussion, Mo Heart then (thankfully) added that "I will say that some things aren't funny, and a lot of sh*t has been allowed as comedy. I feel like a lot of times, trans people, Black people, Latinx people have just been the easy joke. There needs to be a line where you go 'OK, I heard the comedy in that, but there's so much that's just trash.'"
Understandably, the conversation didn't sit well with fans of the show, who criticised it for being contrived and insensitive, with Mo Heart being the only opinion that made sense. Read on to see what Drag Race fans had to say about the episode.
