The RuPaul’s Drag Race season 11 finale takes place on Thursday, May 30 (we must get through the reunion first this week).
There are four queens that remain vying for the title: Brooke Lynn Hytes, Yvie Oddly, A’Keria C. Davenport and Silky Ganache.
Silky could be the first big girl to ever win RPDR, both in a regular or All Stars version. In the fifteen seasons of this show there has only been a handful of big girls who make it all the way to finale night. They are:
Roxxxy Andrews (Season 5)
Ginger Minj (Season 7)
Kim Chi (Season 8)
Eureka (Season 10)
There have also been a couple who made it to the final four but were cut short from the finale. This was back when RPDR only ended with a final three.
Latrice Royale (Season 4)
Darienne Lake (Season 6)
The six listed above are plus-sized queens who deserved the title of being the first big girl winner over Silky in my honest opinion.
Here’s the thing. Does it matter if a big girl wins this show or not? The Drag Race community has been split over this as many think it’s a non-point and that people should focus on the queen’s strengths and not her size.
Other see it differently and think it’s ridiculous that skinny girls have won every single season while the big girls, who have performed consistently well over the past decade, have not had their shining moment yet.
Regardless, Silky doesn’t deserve to have that big girl honor. I’ve never seen a queen this polarizing on the show. Her ability to not see how delusional she behaves is baffling to me and the way she has treated some of her competitors, notably Yvie and Soju, has been nothing short of disgusting to me.
Silky was likable during her entrance on the premiere episode. Then it changed for the worse and never got better. Did she have some brilliant moments? Yes. Her Snatch Game was amazing as TS Madison and she did great in some of the acting challenges as well.
That doesn’t equate a winner in my books. There must be a back story and a personality that the fans can fall in love with at the blink of an eye. A’Keria, Brooke and Yvie have done that easily, along with another big girl of the season who should be in the end instead of Silky: Nina West.
Nina has done what many other big girls haven’t on this show: NOT MADE IT ABOUT THEIR WEIGHT. Therefore, I think she should’ve gone the distance and made it to the end over someone who flopped all over the stage during a disastrous lip sync performance to TLC’s “No Scrubs”.
The Columbus, Ohio based queen focused on her comedy, acting and over-the-top fashion (which I loved every week) as her strengths and not the pounds on her body. She also had such an incredible heart and was immensely kind to every other girl she competed with.
Nina’s back story of her growing up in a conservative household also resonated with many viewers who have had the same happen to them which only made more of us love and understand who she is not only as a queen… but a person.
I think that’s also the problem with Silky. We don’t really know much about her. The confessional angle that she gave was nothing but shade, shade and more shade mixed in with frustration and ignorance about how the judges and other girls felt about her. If she gave a modicum of emotion about the queen and person that she is then it might have shifted our perception of her. But it didn’t, so here we are.
It saddens me that certain queens must joke about their weight before others do as a way of finding success on this show and off if it. Nina, along with Kim and Latrice, were the only queens who excelled on RPDR that didn’t rely on that as a crutch. Sure, Latrice had the whole “chunky yet funky” thing but she brought it in so many other ways that made us love her for her and not her size.
I’m still playing devil’s advocate on the size matters topic of this show. I’m someone who has always been happy to be the weight that I am, and I would love to see that in someone who wins this show one day. I just don’t think Silky should be that girl given how overwhelmingly negative her reception has been since she stepped foot into the werk room months ago.
Time will tell though as we inch closer and closer to finale night.
Do you think Silky deserves to be RPDR’s first big girl winner?
This is the opinion of one contributing writer and not that of Instinct Magazine or other contributing writers.
Silky was annoying as hell. No real person behind her persona. I truly believe the producers kept her for shock value.
How freakin’ toxic. I see you got finessed by RPDR producers as well. They shaped every persona on that show then throw in your inherant racism, I’m not surprised by your hate. Silky is out there making coin while your faves are sitting at home in Colorado and Canada because they’re one-note, skinny queens. So no, I don’t agree.
Calling this inherent racism takes away from actual racism in the world. That kind of talk makes the world think it’s the boy who cried wolf when there is truly racist stuff going on in other parts of society. Latrice is black but the author says she could have been a winner. If anything, your comments are ugly towards people who are thin.
I don’t see any talent on Silky. She only has done what she does best: being Silky. She is loud, annoying, envious, cocky, unrespectful and trashy. All the characters played on this season were the same, and it is same Silky we see backstage during Untucked. There is a big difference between personality and being loud.
I do agree with this writer, even though she does have her funny moments, her attitude toward the other contested does not impress me. To be crown queen, I think you need to have a positive attitude toward everyone.
If they’re still doing the lip sync tournament, it’ll be a goddamn miracle if Silky survives the first round. Her lip sync against Nina was disastrous, especially considering she’s been telling us she’ll turn it out all season. The only reason I think she won that was because Nina stayed in the same spot the whole time. Brooke Lynn and Yvie have already proved themselves to be lip sync assassins, and Akeria was pretty capable herself.
Silky had a few high points, but she had more than a few faceplants too. That roach look was atrocious. The only runway I even liked of hers was the caftan look. Yvie and Brooke Lynn have had higher highs and less lows IMO, and barring a Asia O’Hara-level disaster, the crown is theirs to lose.