RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Yvie Oddly slammed the show and its producers in a fiery Twitter thread, bemoaning the sky-high costs contestants are expected to spend to appear on the show benefiting from their originality.
Yvie, whose real name is Jovan Jordan Bridges, became a reality star in 2019 after winning season 11 of the competition series – but claimed it took more than a year to receive the $100,000 prize money.
While watching the final season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars on Monday night, the 30-year-old let loose an unfiltered thread about the brass.
The drag queen labeled the producers as “capitalist culture thieves” who “f*** with the lives of real people” and live off the pig while underpaying for their talent.
In a stunning claim, Yvie added that the bosses “took over a year to pay me my winnings because they kept easily forgetting they owed me 100,000.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for the show for comment.
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The show has faced damning scrutiny for letting its talent groan under the financial strain of paying for their own extravagant looks.
A 2021 report in Shame estimated that the typical contestant has to pay between $4,000 and $20,000 over the course of a season.
One Queen claimed she “spent more on this contest than I did on down payment on my house,” and another agreed, “I spent more on this contest than I did on college.”
Yvie’s Monday night thread started, ‘These queens are remarkable! The drag performers are and ALWAYS have been the lifeblood of what makes this franchise great.”
He continued, “All the things we love: the look, the catchphrase, the memes, the drama — it all comes from the queens.”
However, Yvie then stated: ‘The producers are often the most greedy, most calculating, capitalist culture thieves.’
In a bravura diatribe, he claimed, “They mess with real people’s lives, career opportunities and health. They drive themselves home in their luxury cars when their participants are sleep deprived, depressed and DRASTICALLY underpaid for their contributions to the cultural phenomenon.”
Yvie continued, “Then they tell themselves they are good people for showcasing queer content and creating opportunities for us, while ignoring the irreparable damage they are doing, creating a monopoly on how drag artists can succeed .’
Going for it: While watching the final season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars on Monday night, the 30-year-old let loose an unfiltered thread about the brass
Warm Words: Yvie’s Monday night thread began, ‘These queens are remarkable! The drag performers are and ALWAYS have been the lifeblood of what makes this franchise great.”
A follow-up tweet urged readers, “Ask one of the drag kings who have never been cast. Or the trans people who weren’t allowed to be themselves until a few years ago, when they realized how lucrative that representation was in the culture wars.’
In 2018, RuPaul faced an outpouring of backlash from the show’s fans after stating that he would “probably not” allow trans women to compete on the show.
“You can identify as a woman and say you’re changing, but that changes once you start changing your body,” he told the paper. Guardian. “It gets something different; it changes the whole concept of what we do.’
In the same interview, the trailblazing drag queen stated, “Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not the men doing it because it’s essentially a social statement and a big f-you to the male-dominated culture.” . So when men do it, it’s really punk rock, because it’s a real rejection of masculinity.’
The backlash was so loud that ‘Mama Ru’ ended up doing a volte face, and trans contestants are now allowed on the series.
Towards the end of the blazing Twitter thread this Monday, Yvie wrote, “Let me be clear: I’m so SO thankful for Drag Race!”
He added, “That show changed my life LONG before I was ever part of the fiber, but I’m hopeful for a future where queer people get a chance to thrive outside of a fake contest to make some rich old gays richer.” to make.’
Returning to his earlier scathing tone, Yvie added a postscript, “it took them over a year to pay me my winnings because they conveniently kept forgetting they owed me 100,000,” and concluded with a middle finger emoji.
Mainstay: Yvie, whose real name is Jovan Jordan Bridges, became a reality star in 2019 after winning season 11 of the series; pictured last year in a promo for RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars
When the comments went viral, Yvie returned to the subject the next day and said, “Yeah, I milked the system. No, I don’t regret it. But yes, I want to see a better future for our entire community.’
Turning to the hosts themselves, Yvie envisioned a drag industry that is “not just controlled by the kind of people who would preach ‘we’re all born naked and everyone else is drag’ before judging someone for their ‘boy body’.” (in 2023!) all while cashing in on their slogan and trauma.”
“You’re born naked and the rest is drag,” is RuPaul’s signature catchphrase, who’s used it for years and keeps it as his Twitter bio.
Meanwhile, program participants are regularly urged to put padding in their costumes to create a more overtly feminine figure.