The BBC has unveiled the contestants for season three of Drag Race UK. Among the contestants is Victoria Scone, who will be the first cisgender woman to compete as a contestant.
Drag Race Thailand previously featured a cis woman (or “bio drag queen”) in an audition round, but she did not proceed to be a full contestant. Drag Race, in the UK and US, has featured several trans women and nonbinary contestants.
Scone, whose real name is Emily, told the BBC, “Drag’s always been a part of my life. I genuinely think I was born to be a drag queen. But I didn’t really know if, as a woman, that was a possibility for me.”
Related: RuPaul drops this gendered “Drag Race” catchphrase in favor of an inclusive one
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Emily, 27, lives in Cardiff, Wales, and says her drag persona is very much old-school, British drag, and “very, very camp.”
She says she has occasionally faced criticism for being a drag queen but hopes her appearance on Drag Race will promote greater diversity in the drag world.
“Now that the top tier of drag is doing it, there’s no more excuse for event organizers not to be booking more diverse lineups. Lineups can be so much more enriched and varied.”
You can watch a clip of Victoria Scone below.
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Besides Scone, returning for season three of the show will be Veronica Green, who was forced out of Season Two after a positive Covid test. Season Three of Drag Race UK will begin airing in the fall.
Related: RuPaul calls out ‘Drag Race’ contestant’s racist past on the air
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The other contestants revealed today are below.
Kitty Scott-Claus
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Charity Kase
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Scarlett Harlett
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Vanity Milan
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Choriza May
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Krystal Versace
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Elektra Fence
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Ella Vaday
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Anubis
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River Midway
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LegionKeign
They should just call it Muther Ru’s Variety Hour.
galacticChild
This is going to be an unpopular opinion, but…
Bio Queens have an unfair advantage in a competition that is about female illusion. A bio queen is not going to be dinged for not being contoured, for not being padded, showing an Adams apple, or for having a “meaty tuck”.
A bio queen is not a drag queen – its a woman performing in too much make-up.
Just like athletes have to show that a medical intervention does not give them a competitive advantage – a bio queen should have to wear a Brent corrigan softie, wear a chest wrap and pad until she’s got a boys body, and then start from there.
My husband has been a drag queen for decades, sings live, and has had to learn to do that while corseted, with a chest plate, and in f-ing stilettos. Ru has sold out true drag to reality show fame whores and MTV. Real drag should be Bawdy, and funny, and subversive. It should be a little dangerous – its not just death drops and her relentless self promotion. The show has gone down hill since it left Logo.
SDWalker96
I’m not sure it’s solely about female illusion – i would say that some of the other queens in the lineup are more petite and feminine than Victoria Scone, it doesn’t seem like she is “going for” female illusion.
I think its fair to say she wouldn’t be picked up on certain things that a male drag queen would be, but I don’t think that gives her a free pass through the competition – she could still be boring, awkward and not entertaining, and so will be given the boot. Alternatively, she could be bawdy, funny, and subversive. I think its best to watch their performance before jumping to conclusions
Annaronimo
Drag isn’t simply female illusion. Most winners of drag race aren’t the most feminine either. Drag is performance art. Especially in the U.K. Your argument is the same one that was used to exclude trans women from Drag. Drag is an evolving art form and everyone across the spectrum of gender should be allowed to do it.
GlobeTrotter
You know, we should all be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains fall out. And this is a perfect what’s happening here.
Drag is defined as members of one gender imitating members of another. It’s mimicry at its finest, nothing short of an art form. When you now allow women to entry drag race, the entire thing falls apart since there’s no one to mimic, therefore no more illusion.
Inclusivity has to have limits, else there can be no more art.
Annaronimo
So inclusivity ends where you think it should end? What’s wrong with spaces being for everyone? Where do you draw the line? The modern ballroom drag scene was in large part trans women wanting a safe space to express themselves. Drag allows people to put on a persona and free themselves from the restrictions society places on them by dint of their biology. Why should anyone be excluded from this?
GlobeTrotter
@Annaronimo: “So inclusivity ends where you think it should end? What’s wrong with spaces being for everyone? Where do you draw the line?”
Sorry, but inclusivity is not holy, untouchable doctrine that everyone has to buy into. Discrimination by itself is not always a bad thing. The law itself makes it very clear – some forms of discrimination are okay, while others are not. There’s nothing wrong with boys having a club just for boys, or girls having a club just for girls. These types of discrimination are legally allowed. Some forms of discrimination are undesirable and therefore forbidden by law, e.g. health, employee or legal benefits based on race, gender, age, nationality, etc.
Allowing everyone into every space is by no means desirable and is exactly how we end desirable domains like girls’ sports, drag race, gay bars, etc. Your mistake is believing that ALL forms of discrimination are bad, when that is obviously not true.
Cam
Drag was usually about giving an F-U to straight society while also entertaining it. But it was subversive and a way for LGBT people to push back. I’ll wait to see it, but not sure a woman putting on makeup and entertaining comes from the same place, it seems more like a showgirl type of thing then drag. It seems like step one into turning the show into a big straight bachelorette party at a Gay bar.
But happy to be convinced otherwise and will check out the show.
That said, I hope Veronica Green does well and is it me or did Kandy Muse sneak over to the UK, change her name to Kitty Scott Clause and audition for the show???
LumpyPillows
“a big straight bachelorette party at a Gay bar” – we have a winner.
SDWalker96
do showgirls dress like scone does in her promo look? haha
LumpyPillows
It may be entertaining, but it isn’t drag. We’ve gone from men pretending to be women, to men transitioning into women pretending to be men pretending to be women, to women pretending to be men pretending to be women. I think its time for the looney left to cancel drag as being offensive to real women. They can call it gender appropriation. (Yes, this is a bit tongue in cheek, don’t get your panties in a bunch, but I know some of you can’t help yourselves.) ????
Kangol2
I haven’t watched this show consistently in years but it would be very interesting for RuPaul or one of the other versions of Drag Race to include drag kings. Drag isn’t just one thing, and drag kings did have their moment in the late 90s and early 2000s.
LumpyPillows
There is a reason it didn’t catch on.
NexPat
Dragula had a drag king (who i think won), but it doesn’t really work with drag race’s concept
they can do a drag king season however and make that work, but they tend to not be nearly as funny
Annaronimo
Lumpy Pillows – yes, there’s a reason Drag Kings have been marginalised – people like you.
Sqwoah
There is a hilarious irony here – woke-ism killed drag. That’s what we get for being dumb enough to go along with it in the first place.
Mostlikelytobedownvoted
(spoiler alert) Considering she goes home 3 episodes in due to a “medical emergency” this seems to me like a production stunt to appease the easily offended 10 cups of coffee extra WOKE kweeens bitching that the show needs to be more inclusive. Call me and old fart but a woman with too much make-up does not a Drag Queen make. Stop with the bullshit already and just call it Rupaul’s Bitchy Clowns in Sparkly Sunshine Make-up Happy Hour.
toddlicious
Apparently drag means anything these days. More performance art than drag… it’s sad that it’s getting so watered down that anything is drag if you say it is….
Annaronimo
Drag IS performance art. Especially in the U.K. it’s ironic that so many people in the comments are objecting to an art form which is all about breaking down the fallacy of binary gender, actually opening up to the full spectrum of gender…
Cam
@Annaronimo
Drag originally was a way for marginalized LGBTQ people to push back against the straight world that demonized, arrested, and killed them. They were breaking the gender norms that were imposed on them.
I don’t have a huge problem with Ru expanding the show, but what I find interesting is that there wasn’t an organized effort by the show and former queens to support Black, Trans, or other queens expanding the franchise, but there is a HUGE organized push the second a straight white person, who hasn’t gone through what Queer people go through, is cast. Yeah, nothing familiar there……because media usually NEVER pushes to promote straight people into LGBTQ spaces. (Eye Roll).
Fahd
Drag seems to me to be an art form, an integral part of which is a male doing the impression or illusion of being female. The best jokes rely on that premise. Even though art does evolve over time, I think the cisgender women should have their own show Also, many drag queens with whom I’ve been acquainted have had a hard enough time finding gainful employment – they really don’t need the competition.
But I don’t like the idea of high school girls playing on the boys football team, and I have been told that’s an outdated view.
BoomerMyles
Just a woman in garish makeup. It doesn’t work.
bsg1967
Okay we’ve reached total stupidity