The season 11 winner is burning it all down.
Her name is Yvie Oddly and she has something to say!
While many of us were at the beach or grilling for Memorial Day Weekend, RuPaul's Drag Race season 11 winner Yvie Oddly was catching up on All Stars season 8. The way we know? Her viewing of the episodes on Paramount+ brought up a few thoughts she wanted to share with her 280,000+ followers and the rest of Twitter.
"Catching up on AS8 and I have two thoughts," she tweeted.
This wasn't the first time she share her thoughts on the show. After competing on All Stars season 7, Oddly took to social media to voice a number of issues she had. She described the entire experience as "pretty gruesome from the start" and took issue with production reducing her to "some goofy big-dicked mascot, bravely laughing through my chronic illness, happy to be along for the ride." Suffice it to say, she was displeased with her edit. But now, she's taking the producers to task for their overall handling of the massively successful series.
\u201c1. These queens are remarkable!\nThe drag artists are and have ALWAYS been the lifeblood of what makes this franchise great\u201d— Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark) (@Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark)) 1685402523
According to Yvie (and most anyone who has two eyes), it's the queens that make the show. Their creativity (often in combination with the creativity of their collaborators like fashion designers) keeps us coming back week after week. And it's their personal stories that win our hearts.
"All the things we love: the looks, the catchphrases, the memes, the drama," Oddly writes. "It all comes from the queens." And that can not be denied. While the producers certainly do invaluable work in casting, and even sometimes nudging or positioning the performers, it's really up to the performers to do the things. As RuPaul said in that shady "Blame It On the Edit" track, it's ultimately the competitors saying the things that are only being edited in or out of the final cuts.
\u201cThey fuck with real people\u2019s 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\u201d— Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark) (@Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark)) 1685403253
But for Yvie (and we are going to just let her words speak for themself here), the producers are "often the greediest, most-calculating, capitalist culture thieves."
"They fuck with real people's lives, career opportunities, and health," she wrote of the World of Wonder production team. "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."
"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."
\u201cP.S. they took over a year to pay me my winnings because they conveniently kept forgetting they owed me 100k \ud83d\udd95\ud83c\udffd\u201d— Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark) (@Yvie Oddly (blue checkmark)) 1685404664
Oddly did acknowledge that she was thankful for the series which changed her life. But as she pointed out, the change has been for specified groups — drag kings have never been cast and trans contestants have had issues until recently.
"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," she wrote.
And then there was the "tea:" After reading production on points they've been criticized for over the years, Oddly opened up about her own experience. "They took over a year to pay me my winnings because they conveniently kept forgetting they owed me 100k," she wrote. Later she followed up on the point writing that Jaida (presumably Jaida Essence Hall who won season 11, one season after Yvie) received her prize money first.