Drag Race Newcomers Dahlia Sin And Aiden Zhane Want The Show To Stay A Boys Only Club
When the next batch of RuPaul’s Drag Race queens come in, it’s kind of eerily similar to when heterosexual men obsess over their first fantasy football drafts. Seriously, it’s a wave of imploding information learning about twelve+ queens and getting to see who we’ll be getting to cheer or jeer over the next four months. Year by year, the audience turns its favorites into superstars and the not-so-favorites, well, they tend to become buried by slander and defamation. This year is the twelfth season of Drag Race and looks like it may be no different already. The Twitter trope is out in full force for some early shaming of two incoming queens.
A prodigy of popular Drag Race alumni, AJA, is Dahlia Sin. Sin is a California queen and former club kid, as most drag queens tend to be – they’re following in RuPaul’s footsteps after all. She describes herself as a “sex worker” and transitioned her sensuality to her drag. She claims to not be a comedy queen, but describes herself as funny. She even borrows RuPaul’s “meh” statement to a lip synch for your life match between Silky Nutmeg Ganache and Nina West as her thoughts towards seeing a lot of her season twelve sisters upon first impression. But, according to the tweet below… she’s probably very happy they were at least all cis gender males. Sin, who came into the competition with a large social media following already, states that she loves everyone on the gender spectrum but doesn’t see female identifying performers welcome on Drag Race and won’t apologize for stating her opinion.
https://t.co/grNhCvYTnG pic.twitter.com/acootUKrKD
— berlin hell (@BerlinHell) January 23, 2020
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2MdBFpHjVZ/
Another who aligns herself with the statement that Drag Race should be a Boys Only Club is a second newcomer and new to the performing scene, Aiden Zhane. Zhane, a “spooky” queen who hails from nowhere Georgia in a town that didn’t have a single gay bar. She claims not to be a dancer and that she does “Whatever the F she wants”.
Related Post: RuPaul Under Scrutiny for Comments on Trans Contestants
Well, some of that F is apparently believing and stating that Drag Race should only have male identifying performers showcased. Zhane shares that transgender women who are drag queens are getting booked more than anybody thanks to RuPaul (and the series) and no one owes anyone anything. Check out his Facebook post from 2018 in the tweet below which was posted around the time when RuPaul said he “probably” wouldn’t allow cis or trans women to compete on upcoming seasons of his show Drag Race.
https://twitter.com/MissSaraAndrews/status/1220445467701665807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Related Post: Is ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ For Dudes Only?
Thoughts and perceptions can certainly change. We’re all adults and we it’s our God given right to change ourselves and our opinions at any moment, even if it’s unjustified. People can grow. These comments still bring up a much larger conversation – Should Drag Race be more inclusive to all genders? We’ve had only a handful of queens be openly transgender on the series (Gia Gunn and Peppermint and Monica Beverly Hillz [to a point]) while many have transitioned after their appearance. If you’ve ever been in a gay bar or befriended the drag performers in any of those bars, you’ll realize a lot of them are transgender and it really doesn’t affect their ability to perform. Perhaps the best of the best aren’t auditioning for the series or failing to impress the casting crew. Should we be including someone just based on diversity or do we actually want to see someone who could win over the hearts of the judges, audience, and America with her Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent? What do you think?
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 12 premieres on VH1 every Friday beginning February 28th.
Writer’s Note A: This is the opinion of one Instinct Magazine contributor and does not reflect the views of Instinct Magazine itself or fellow contributors.
Writer’s Note B: The pronoun “she” refers to the drag queens while in performance art and costume, not to be confused with their gender identity of cisgender male.
H/T: Entertainment Weekly
Think you might mean “protégé” of Aja. That queen is far from a prodigy…