There's a lot that's good about RuPaul's Drag Race season 12. Jackie's looks. Heidi's personality. Gigi generally. But there's also some bad. (Primarily, the editing job on Sherry Pie.)

And then there's Aiden Zhane.

Suffice to say, this week's exiting queen didn't have a great run, though her looks were often engaging, combining the very best of Liza Minnelli and Jack Skellington from A Nightmare Before Christmas.

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"OK. She's the odd one!" was Sherry's initial take, dripping in condescension, and subsequent mean comments were no doubt left on the cutting room floor.

The queens quickly sniffed out Aiden's inexperience, and enraged by a workroom nap, her unpopularity became a storyline in and of itself – especially with Brita, who (wrongly) claimed she carried Aiden through two improv challenges. This all culminated in uncomfortable scenes on last week's Untucked, in which Brita argued hard that Aiden should be shown the door, with several other queens piling in.

But here's the thing. Both Aiden and Brita were bad at improv. Both their Snatch Game performances were weak. And, ultimately, so were their lip-syncs. Save for a pyrotechnic.

And yet, intoxicated by her perceived superiority, Brita did not let up trashing Aiden: just check out her childish, sarcastic questions over Aiden's Snatch Game direction. "Good luck, bitch," she added in her confessional.

In fairness, Brita addressed her treatment of Aiden on Twitter last week, albeit stopping short of an apology. "I definitely let my sadness and insecurity get the best of me," she said, referring to the Untucked argument. "Instead of embracing my faults, I tried to hide it with overconfidence and aggressiveness."

Her self-awareness proves she's halfway there. But insecurity is an explanation, not a justification, for such behaviour.

Although, this is about more than just Brita. And it's about more than Aiden, too – who, some would argue, doesn't deserve defending given her own problematic past tweets. (Not that the other queens knew about these when they singled her out.)

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The truth is, the highly-engineered culture of competition often gets out of hand on Drag Race. Remember the flak reigning champ Yvie Oddly got last year?

The UK version was much softer, perhaps because British queens don't take themselves so seriously, or perhaps because it was the BBC. Who knows? But as runner-up Divina De Campo told QX: "I don't think I fit the model that RuPaul [likes]. He likes people who are cutthroat and will smash your kneecaps in in order to win – that's not me."

The pressure to 'slay' the competition comes from all angles. From 'Who should go home this week?' to the reading challenge ("Maybe reading isn't fundamental, maybe it's just bullying" said LGBTQ Nation in 2017). What about the 'queer peer assessment' in episode three which knocked Aiden's confidence early on? And those increasingly stinging, seemingly spontaneous confessional critiques? How many are actually prompted by producers?



Online bullying and popular culture are entwined. A lot's been written about RPDR fandom toxicity, but we'd argue it bleeds from the show into real life. RuPaul's Drag Race needs to set a better example.

We've had our issues with RPDR in the past – issues super-fans are often blind to. But for us, right now, it's a guilty, self-isolating pleasure. We can see and respect that it's on its way to becoming the most successful LGBTQ+ TV shows ever made.

@RuPaulsDragRace Twitter

But to get there, it needs to mind its controversies. The Sherry Pie issue almost derailed this series. Who knows what might have happened if the show's treatment of Aiden had gotten any worse?

A fresher, kinder culture that brings out the kind of sisterhood seen on the UK version might be a good call in future. And regards format, what about a permanent two-team approach, like on The Apprentice, to encourage bonding and camaraderie?

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Y’all need to stop taking everything so seriously and laugh a little. Seriously. LAUGH. It’s way better if you do. ❤️ — Aiden Zhane (@Aiden_Zhane) March 29, 2020

Aiden, in fairness, took her bumpy ride in her stride, recently saying on Twitter: "Y'all need to stop taking everything so seriously and laugh a little."

But another, more vulnerable, contestant might not have fared so well in Aiden's shoes. Or rather, her infamous corset with balls hanging off.

Season 12 of RuPaul's Drag Race US airs on Fridays on VH1 in the US, and streams on Netflix in the UK.

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