On Canada’s Drag Race VSTW: A Season Fueled by White Entitlement and Pure Sisterhood
This drag race season was about two couples -
Alexis Mateo and Kennedy Davenport versus Cheryl Hole and Lemon.
And from the very first episode it was clear what this season would be about — white entitlement.
Let’s be clear, I agree that both Lemon and Cheryl are grossly underappreciated drag race queens, and they remain white. They remain amazingly privileged in a Black and brown queer and trans art form. Therefore, their ideas around what they believe they are entitled to is riddled in whiteness and anti-Blackness.
The below interaction sums up the season for me -
Lemon and Cheryl have no real understanding of what it means to be minoritized queens in the usa. What’s not shown in this clip is Lemon’s participation in this conversation — in full agreement with Cheryl.
To complain to Black and brown queens about being owed and underappreciated is maddening. To leverage that you are somehow owed to two queens who’ve been in the game for probably 40 years combined is not the tea. Both Kennedy and Alexis have both had to navigate racism, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, xenophobia, etc. And in most cases, their drag race runs were cut short because of the aforementioned.
And, I thoroughly enjoyed a season filled with Alexis and Kennedy kiking. Their bond and love for each other was entertaining and inspiring — true sisterhood.
Worth mentioning, post season, Silky Nutmeg Ganache made the below astute observation, stating that Alexis did not get as much screen time as Lemon in the final lipsync. This is true.
“If you don’t want someone to win you just don’t show them in a lipsync. Reminds me of bootylicious”
This is a stark and honest critique of how Black and brown queens are often moved out of the way to make room for burgeoning white queens who can make the franchise a larger profit. This moving out of the way is often overt playing in their faces.
And Lemon responded,
“always been a fan of yours, really sad to see someone who’s gotten such hatred from this fandom act just like them <insert yellow heart> take care and much success to you!!”
This is such a dehumanizing, rude, defensive and typical response from a white queen. Conflating actual critique around racism (and by proxy all of the other -isms) in final lipsyncs with the anti-Black racist fanbase is wild, and deserves to be checked.
Ironically, Lemon’s response did exactly what they accused Silky of doing, which is weaponizing the anti-Black fanbase. This will ensure Silky gets all sorts of hate and death threats through social media, unleashing a public lashing.
And the “always been a fan of yours” part is a lie at best. If Lemon can’t acknowledge the fucked up ways of a capitalist anti-Black show, then she has no real understanding of Silky’s drag — therefore, not a fan.
And Silky ends the conversation concisely and righteously,
“Being a fan and production editing her out are 2 different things, congratulations though!!!!”
Codi (they, them, Codi) is the Founder and Executive Director of the
(now closed), Haus of McCoy, a queer and trans community center in Lawrence, Kansas. Moreover, Codi is a former writer for the Lawrence Times, a liberation coach, a cultural critic and a dreamer who critiques pop culture at the intersection of Blacktrans liberation. Codi enjoys trash TV, spending time with beautiful Blacktrans humans and loving on their dog, Monét.
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