The Vivienne clarifies position on pronouns after fans thought she agreed with Boy George’s ‘transphobia’
Drag Race UK’s contestant and winner The Vivienne came under fire for seemingly supporting Boy George’s anti-trans comments. (Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
Drag Race UK winner The Vivienne was caught in a crossfire of criticism after she appeared to come out in support of Boy George’s anti-trans Twitter tirade, but she has since apologised for the confusion.
This week, the Culture Club singer, for some reason, attacked trans folk. Calling pronouns a “modern form of attention seeking” and said people should “leave [their] pronouns at the door”.
During the mess of anger and confusion at George’s comments, The Vivienne was dragged into the drama when she responded to another user who said: “Every venomous, deranged tweet I come across has a pronounced [sic] bio attached to it.”
“This!” the Vivienne replied, a single word that ignited fury from LGBT+ people.
Genuinely just ? Not surprising but still shocking at how brazen people who essentially have careers based off of support from queer people, are transphobes. @THEVIVIENNEUK we have seen your disregard for language recently and to see it continue is vile pic.twitter.com/ptyxmzXZ0b
— Jamie Windust (@jamie_windust) January 9, 2020
Why did she seemingly support Boy George?
Her response appeared to be fuelled by a recent bout of controversy she encountered.
While on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year, she presented a “drag slang” round, asking the celebrity contestants the meanings of terms such as “gag“, “spilling the tea” and “fishy”.
She didn’t provide a definition for the last term, but nodded when one contestant said it was used to describe a queen who looked like “a real woman”.
After the show aired a number of people, including drag prinx Chiyo, criticised the use of the word.
“This term is rooted in the brutal misogyny that has always existed in the gay community, and is heavily transphobic,” Chiyo tweeted.
“It directly links womanhood to vaginas, and vaginas to a nasty stinky smell.”
This term is rooted in the brutal misogyny that has always existed in the gay community, and is heavily transphobic. It directly links womanhood to vaginas, and vaginas to a nasty stinky smell.
The only thing that’s ‘fishy’ is your attitude u rash— CHIYO (@PrinxChiyo) December 27, 2019
The Vivienne: ‘I’d like everybody to respect and understand other people pronouns.’
“I apologise if anybody was offended, never my intention, never my narrative,” The Vivienne hit back during her second round of controversy in a pair of since deleted tweets.
“Learn, grow.”
She then added in a follow-up tweet: “I’d like everybody to respect and understand other people pronouns, I’ve done nothing but fight for this for years.
“That’s all.”
However, many Twitter users were sufficiently unimpressed with her apology, with some calling on her to “delete them”.
You could have apologised and learned from your wrongdoings, but you decided to act like the victim in a situation where you definetly are not. Ain’t a good look hun. pic.twitter.com/tdfpAlYqEt— Loren Order (@loren_order) January 10, 2020
But when she appeared to have done exactly that, it only prompted further fury from her followers and the wider community:
Really brave of The Vivienne to delete her shoddy apology and try to brush the fact that she's transphobic way under the carpet ?? pic.twitter.com/ntsyh1I4LS— ??? (@jm_sprs) January 10, 2020
‘I’m sorry I upset you’. an apology as terrible as your ‘comedy’ series https://t.co/Dl20IeKpUN
— Joshua (@joshcharles_21) January 10, 2020
