The longest season of RuPaul’s Drag Race is finally coming to an end this week, culminating with a historic five queens making it to the finale. Did I roll my eyes every time Ru avoided eliminating another queen? Yes, I sure did. Has there ever been a more iconically embarrassing game twist than, “It’s chocolate.” Certainly not. But without Ru’s machinations, we would have been deprived of the reality TV goddess that is Daya Betty.
Daya, who was eliminated in episode 2 of Season 14’s split premiere, was such a refreshing component of the show that I feel compelled to build the ultimate defense of her actions. An ode to Daya Betty, if you will.
When Daya first entered the werk room, as an audience we were told that the only notable thing about her was her drag sister, Crystal Method. Crystal was in the top four of Season 12 and was known for her distinctive makeup and kooky style of drag. Episode after episode, the judges implored Daya to break out of her sister’s shadow—a pretty manufactured critique if you ask me! And break out of her shadow she did.
Have you ever finished an episode of Drag Race and been completely shocked by the judges’ decisions? Daya Betty has. If Daya Betty had an opinion, she would let the girls know it. Notably, Daya called out the double standards that came from thin queens being able to get away with wearing things on the runway that larger queens would be lambasted for. She also hilariously stirred up drama by purposefully deadlocking the vote for Saltine during the Moulin Rogue-inspired challenge, forcing Willow Pill to make the decision.
That moment was so calculated, yet hilarious that it solidified Daya Betty’s place as a legendary Drag Race villain. In a year that’s been almost overstuffed with them, Daya Betty may be reality TV’s greatest villain—in that, as Drag Race fans began to realize as the season continued, she may not even be a villain at all.
And that’s the charm of Daya Betty. As biting and to-the-point as she can be, you know that she’s a fan of not only Drag Race but drag itself. She’s not an indiscriminate hater, evident by her admitting how hot Jasmine Kennedy looked during her lip sync performances. She calls it as she sees it, which is exactly what we want to see on reality television. Could her delivery use some work? Sure, especially if she was in a different setting. But as a cast member on a reality television show, Daya Betty’s snark and hateration were simply entertaining.
Daya Betty is not the first drag queen to be painted as the “villain” of her season. RuPaul’s Drag Race has faced allegations of giving an unfair edit to many of the drag queens that appear, particularly queens of color. The indisputable villain of Season 4 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, was Jaremi Carey, formerly known as Phi Phi O’Hara. After the show, Carey was treated horribly by Drag Race fans. The poor treatment continued after his second appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars. After a nearly two-decades-long drag career, Carey retired the drag persona of Phi Phi O’Hara.
The Vixen, a queen who appeared on Season 10 of the Emmy-award-winning show, actually raised this phenomenon during her time on the show. During an argument with eventual Season 10 winner Aquaria, The Vixen called attention to how she would be perceived on television after getting in an argument with a young, thin, white queen, especially as the latter began to cry. The Vixen feared an “angry Black women edit”, which arguably, she received anyway.
Season 13’s “villain”, Kandy Muse told fellow drag queen Trixie Mattel that when she returned home from Drag Race, she thought fans were going to appreciate her matter-of-fact way of speaking and attitude. Instead, she had to steel herself for week after week of hate and death threats.
Daya Betty revealed in last week’s reunion that she too received death threats, putting a major damper on her Drag Race experience. However, it was refreshing to see her being actively supported by her sisters. And more than that, even to this day, Daya stands ten toes down in speaking her mind.
In response to the group discussing her tendency to be hyper-opinionated, Daya said, “A lot of people ask me if I regret anything I’ve said or I’ve done, and I don’t.” Later, in a different segment when Bosco is in the hot seat over how she handled her conflict with Lady Camden, she says, “Yes, I was being a bitch. But I don’t know where we got the impression that drag queens aren’t bitches.”
Whatever happens during this finale (I’m personally rooting for Lady Camden), Daya Betty won. She was one of the most notable queens to come out of a season that lasted four months and had seven episodes where no one was eliminated. She never faded into the background. I knew that whenever a teaser featured Daya Betty, I was going to get something juicy in that next episode. Hell, even in the episodes with no teaser, Daya Betty would always leave her mark.
Drag Race is highly produced, but at the end of the day, it’s the queens that keep us coming back. In the social media age we're in now, good villains can be hard to come by, by nature of them not wanting to receive death threats from 14-year-olds on the internet (fair enough). But they are the life force of reality TV, and I don't want to live in a world without them.
When you’re putting together a competition reality show, the drama and fights are a major component of it. If that’s not what you want to see, fair enough. If you want to watch The Great British Baking Show, feel free, but I’m a Hell’s Kitchen kind of girl. Kumbaya won’t cut it. And thanks to Daya Betty, Season 14 of RuPaul’s Drag Race was anything but kumbaya.
