Yvie Oddly has never been afraid to speak her mind, and when it comes to the RuPaul’s Drag Race producers, she’s not holding back. In a series of Twitter posts, the season 11 winner unleashed a screed against the “calculating capitalist culture thieves.”
Fans, including Yvie, are watching
season 8 of Drag Race All Stars and she opened with praise for the queens who are currently vying for their spot in the
Drag Race Hall of Fame. And she shared that she had two thoughts while watching the show, and all its drama unfolding. “1. These queens are remarkable! The drag artists are and have ALWAYS been the lifeblood of what makes this franchise great,” she wrote, but quickly let the producers have it. “2. The producers are often the greediest, most calculating, capitalist culture thieves.”
“They fuck with real people’s lives, career opportunities, and health. They drive themselves home in their luxury cars when their contestants are sleep-deprived, depressed, and DRASTICALLY underpaid for their contributions to the cultural phenomenon,” she continued. “Then they tell themselves they’re good people for showcasing queer content and creating opportunities for us while ignoring the irreparable damage they cause, and creating a chokehold monopoly on how drag artists can succeed.”
She drove home her point by highlighting the way that the show is cast — and who has been excluded from that “chokehold monopoly.” “Ask any of the drag kings who’ve never been cast,” wrote Yvie. “Or the trans contestants who were barred from being themselves until a few years ago when they realized how lucrative that representation was in the culture wars.”
She’s of course referring to the fact no drag king has ever been cast on the show in any of its seasons or iterations across the globe — also that it until more recent seasons openly trans contestants were essentially not eligible to compete, with RuPaul herself once comparing trans contestants to being on steroids, saying, “You can take performance[-]enhancing drugs and still be an athlete, just not in the Olympics.” Oof.
Thankfully that has changed, and many trans queens, including Sasha Colby and Kylie Sonique Love, have gone on to compete and win in the show. While Yvie’s point was well made, she also expressed gratitude for her time on the show. “Let me be clear: I am so so SO thankful for Drag Race! That show changed my life LONG before I was ever a part of its fiber,” she wrote, but she had one more zinger for the powers that be. “I’m hopeful for a future where queer people have opportunities to flourish outside of a fake competition to make a few rich old gays richer.”
With one more message, she also called out the show for not paying her in a timely fashion. “P.S. They took over a year to pay me my winnings because they conveniently kept forgetting they owed me 100k.”
A spokesperson for Voss Events explained to PRIDE, "Management asked that Yvie’s prize money be held as they were in the process of establishing her LLC to receive payment. The money was wired shortly after her business account was opened and payment requested."
Yvie’s tweets garnered praise from fans who appreciated her fearlessness in speaking truth to power.
UPDATED 5/30: Yvie is back and she has more to say! This time the beloved queen is doubling down and opening up about how despite her issues with the show she kept returning and went on tour.
"My final notes on the subject," she began on Twitter. "1. Jaida done already done had herses MONTHS before I got mineses…but it’s not ALL about the money!"
"2. Yes, I CHOSE to go back for the same reason I CHOOSE to tour: for you. To share more of my art and heart on the biggest (and sadly often the only) platform drag fans care about. If I never got cast I’d still be doing drag because I love it!," she continued "Tell you what. I’ll admit I was foolish to return when my gigs aren’t heavily populated by people who waited to see a random rugirl for their first drag show. Once we stop asking local stars if/when they’re going on drag race. When people stan us before we get a seal of appRUval."
"So, yes I milked the system. No, I don’t regret it. But yes, I want to see a brighter future for our entire community," she added before subtweeting Mama Ru herself. "One that isn’t solely controlled by the kinds of people who would preach 'we’re all born naked and the rest is drag' before condemning someone for their 'boy body' (in 2023!) all while cashing in on their catchphrases and trauma."
UPDATED on May 31 to include comments from Voss Events.
"Go buy a ticket to my show so I don’t have to go back for AS38: Blacklisted Broke Bitches edition," she joked, before saying she was done discussing the topic... officially!
