When you are a writer, journalist, blogger, or whatever you call yourself, sometimes you have a hard time distinguishing your in real life experiences compared to the ones that are only on the internet.
We have a way of being able to write about topics without ever having to deal with who we are discussing in real life, and when we do, your mindset can change completely and make you rethink about the words you typed in the first place.
I was lucky enough to attend the RuPaul's Drag Race crowning on Thursday night in New York City, where I got to once again talk to the three finalists: Asia O'Hara, Kameron Michaels and Eureka, as well as the season 10 winner Aquaria. I originally spoke with them a couple of months back before the show premiered in March.
Asia and Kameron were two queens who I never really wrote anything bad or too negative about when it came to my reviews of the show each week on Instinct. However, I will fully admit that what I wrote about Eureka and Aquaria was particularly rough, but my focus here is strictly on the "elephant queen" herself in terms of one particular piece that was published back in May.
The article focused on if she was being force-fed for us to like, which I noticed many people took that comment as a way of fat-shaming, which is 110 percent not true. I look back on what I wrote and realized what a horrible mistake it was to judge someone that harshly when they are out there living their authentic life and putting themselves out there on such a major platform like RPDR while I was simply sitting in my room and judging on a level that wasn't necessary.
I came to this conclusion for a couple of reasons. When I saw Eureka again on Thursday night, she couldn't have been more kind, sweet, and an overall blast to be around. Her passion for drag and her fans is quite evident from the moment she opens her mouth, and she has a tenacity about herself that most people in our community wish they had. It was here where I realized that what I said a month ago was really wrong, and for that, Eureka, I do apologize.
I also spoke with Asia right before the finale aired, and saw the downfall of her lip sync performance along with millions of other people. Since Thursday, my social media has nothing but butterfly memes that poke fun at Asia (whether people want to see it that way or not), and it actually made me physically ill.
Perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic in my approach here, but it took both situations for me to realize that what I wrote wasn't cool. Even though Pride Month is over, being kind to one another isn't.
This was created by one of our Contributing Writers and does not reflect the opinion of Instinct Magazine or the other Contributing Writers when it comes to this subject.
I didn’t get all butt hurt
I didn't get all butt hurt about your articles, as pointed as the were. That being said I did have a few WTF moments after reading them. Good for you coming back to say sorry and correct a mistake . It's okay to voice opinion but there's a thin line sometimes. Great to see this article.
People didn’t hate Eureka
People didn't hate Eureka they hated how the show glorified her middle of the road moments. This is a reality show where edits play a huge part. For instance while Monet was criticized for wearing shorter wigs, Eureka went weeks with beehive hair and one piece jump suits and was praised.
There is nothing wrong with hating an edit and disagreeing with praise if it seemed unjust. Production pets exist across the reality show spectrum. If you haven't seen Big Brother or Survivor etc Production pets help create the moments the show wants and in return the pet goes further than deserved.
If people truly are upset at you then they are hypocrites. While they condemn your views they leaving insulting ones of their own. Avoid hardcore fan sites like Survivor Sucks or even Reddit if these folks are shook but what you said
the apology should be for
the apology should be for your power rankings you did each week which mostly just hated on queens and didn’t correlate to the show as it was all your twisted view of the show. You also regularly slammed eureka in the weekly postings even when she was on top your descriptions of her where hateful.
Finally good, your article
Finally good, your article was completely bias and hateful about eureka. I have avoided all your writtings since as you looked like an ignorant ass in your pushing eureka article and I don’t support peoples hate, like you pushed on everyone who read that article.
Good on you for realizing you where encouraging online hate and trying to fix it but instead of posting an apology you really should not write such an opinion piece that is completely shit.