Pearl started the day sharing a “character” with the world.
On Thursday, August 10, RuPaul’s Drag Race season seven finalist Pearl shared an Instagram carousel of pictures of herself using what appears to be a filter that deeply tanned her skin and added voluptuous lips and huge pink nails to her body. She also held a cup of iced coffee in her hand, writing in the caption: “Skipper’s all grown up now.”
Pearl’s now-deleted Instagram post was quickly re-shared all over social media, including Reddit, where a new thread was started with the title, “This feels wrong.” Drag Race fans immediately took to Instagram comments, Reddit comments, and X (formerly Twitter) posts to share their reactions. Many fans accused the queen of doing “blackface” and/or “blackfishing,” though others counter-argued that she wasn’t doing those things.