Culture

Drag Race ‘fans’ have bullied Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman off Twitter

By Sam Damshenas

24th August 2020

Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman has deactivated his Twitter account.

Over the past few weeks, the actor has been inundated with spiteful, hateful comments from Drag Race ‘fans’ over his perceived lack of judging skills on the Canadian spin-off.

Viewers have taken to Twitter to call Jeffrey “a waste of space”, “horrendous” and “deaf dumb blind and stupid” due to comments he’s made to various contestants on the series, specifically to Jimbo and Ilona Verley.

A petition to remove Jeffrey from the judging panel has also received over 2,000 signatures.

Drag Race UK star Crystal, who guest starred on the sixth episode of the series, criticised fans for their treatment of the star, tweeting: “So the black queer judge on Canada’s Drag Race gets bullied off twitter. Ya’ll happy?

“The main arguments I’ve seen are accusations of “inauthenticity” (as if YOU know what’s authentic for him), and bad critiques (but none of the other judges are getting that half as hard). It’s a pile on. And it’s racist. And for what? Clout? Bet you would have loved a good old fashioned public stoning.

“Honestly – search his name and just look at the endless endless nasty tweets. It’s so depressing. Are you contributing to this? Wild idea, but maybe put that energy into someone who’s actually done something… bad?”

Several ‘fans’ proceeded to disagree with Crystal in the comments section of her tweet, and recalled Jeffrey’s critiques to Ilona for the Canadian ‘Tuck’-shedo runway, for which he was accused of body-shaming.

“I think that your mug is painted so gorgeously. However, when I see that booty and the little turnaround, a little full coverage foundation may have helped you out,” Jeffrey told Ilona. Fellow judge Brooke Lynn Hytes also said “she definitely should’ve put some makeup on that ass.”

Brooke addressed the backlash shortly after, saying the panel has “no problem with the size or shape of Ilona’s bum, she has a beautiful, beautiful body and it was not meant in that way at all,” and that it was “not meant as body-shaming whatsoever.”

One ‘fan’ wrote: “Crystal (and Lemon, I see you retweeted this), I respect you both SO much, and yes, black-queer representation is so important, but Jeffrey was just being an absolute bully. Humiliating contestants for the whole world to see. body shaming, making them cry, etc.”

Crystal hit back: “You’re telling two people who have worked with him that YOU know better than us who he is, and what he’s like. How does that logic work?” Lemon also responded: “How many conversations have you had with him? You don’t really think you know him from 20 min of judge time on a television show? Delusion.”

When we spoke to Lemon following her elimination last week, she said it’s “ridiculous” that fans feel the need to spew hate to the cast on social media.

“If you like someone, amazing. You should tell them that you love them. And if you aren’t a big fan of someone, that’s also totally fine, it’s your opinion,” she explained. “You’re welcome to hate or dislike whatever queen, but you don’t need to share it with them. You don’t need to tag them in that post. You don’t need to post it to your Twitter feed.

“Text your friend about it if you have to get it off your chest. At the end of the day, we’re all people – even though we look like circus clowns sometimes – and we are affected by these comments. Pay attention to what you say online.”

Despite the aforementioned negative comments, there were Drag Race fans who came out in support of Jeffrey and condemned others for bullying him off Twitter.