Have you been watching Canada’s Drag Race? And if you have, what are your thoughts on it? I think this cast has been amazing so far, and now that we’re at the Top 4, I’m not sure who I think is going to win it all. They’ve all been incredibly entertaining, and it definitely makes me feel some nostalgia for some of the older seasons of the American version of the show, when things were a bit rawer and more crafty.

 

Although the cast has largely been received well, some members of the show’s fanbase have rebuked the Canadian judges. In particular, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman has received the harshest criticisms, in part because of his role as the “stern” judge. It’s gotten to the point now that every Thursday, the Canada’s Drag Race hashtag is flooded with insults directed to JBC or the general panel of judges. Just search his name on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean.

Even Drag Race queens were calling him out: 

Over the weekend, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman deleted his Twitter. Now it doesn’t take a real detective to put two and two together to deduce that it was probably the online hate that Jeffrey was receiving that prompted him to take a break from social media. (That or his love for RuPaul meant that he stole a page from Mama Ru’s playbook when she deleted her Instagram and Twitter last month.)

Although I can no longer confirm the specific details of this, prior to deleting his Twitter, Jeffrey’s last tweet had been at the beginning of August (around the first or second). He largely remained quiet throughout the show’s run, in stark contrast to Brooke-Lynn Hytes, who tweeted about the show every week and was constantly active on social media. In fact, Jeffrey’s podcast, Conversations with Others, hasn’t tweeted since July 8th, even though the latest episode aired last week.

 

I’ve been meaning to write a post about the judging on the show. To be fair, it has been a little rocky and the fans have obviously noticed. It’s because at times, the judging can seem inconsistent and is often at odds with the way the show is edited. The panel’s critiques shown on the screen seem to indicate one narrative, but the actual decisions reflect another. (Although, people - myself included - seem to love Stacey.)

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that at certain points, the critiques have seemed a bit harsh af. For example, Jeffrey’s comment about adding full coverage foundation to Ilona’s ass just seemed insulting and unnecessary.

But one of the reasons I held off on writing about the judging on the show is because at the outset, I wasn’t expecting the judging to be perfect. Finding your groove as a judge takes time, and one of the tricky parts of launching a franchise without RuPaul is having to contend with both new judges AND the lack of the show’s figurehead.

Plus, what’s really hard about the way Drag Race is produced is that the entirety of the show is pre-filmed. This means that there’s no way Jeffrey can react or change his behaviour based on what people are saying online. The scenes are filmed, so he just has to watch week to week as people tear him apart online for something he doesn’t have much control over. 

There’s also much more than what we see on our TV screens. Editing, producing, scripting, and directing all contribute to the final product of the show. We aren’t seeing entirely what the judges are seeing, and we also don’t know what direction or character suggestions they’re being fed. 

 

While there are solutions to these, it points to the fact that there’s additional context to the show that we as viewers don’t have. That no ONE person can be targeted or blamed for some of the show’s shortcomings. Which brings us back to Jeffrey deleting his Twitter. Regardless of criticism or dislike, hate speech and baseless insults are indefensible.

And it’s sad that JBC felt the need to remove himself from the situation altogether. Some, like Drag Race UK’s Crystal, have also pointed out that while both Brooke-Lynn and Jeffrey have been the focus of online hate, Jeffrey, a Black queer man, has been receiving the brunt of it.

When I spoke to Jeffrey before the show premiered, his enthusiasm and passion for the show and for the art of drag just dripped out of the phone. This didn’t make the final article, but I asked him about his role on Drag Race and he replied, “I learn from queens every single day. I'm just blessed to be in a position where I can help not judge them but help guide them to become even more well-rounded human beings than they already are.”  It’s clear that he loves the show and the queens. For some reason, that’s not translating on screen, and while that’s a problem we need to talk about, it’s by no means grounds to run Jeffrey off Twitter.