Throughout her career, Candis Cayne has admittedly embraced her role as an unofficial spokeswoman for all things trans. When it comes to the community’s recent outcry against terminology deemed “transphobic” on RuPaul’s Drag Race, though, Cayne takes an opposing stance.
“There’s no transphobic anything [on Drag Race],” the actress stated flatly during a recent telephone interview promoting her new film Crazy Bitches, which debuts June 26 at San Francisco’s Frameline Film Festival. In fact, rather than towing the trans-party line, Cayne seemed frustrated by those lobbing the accusations.
“There’s a group of people who don’t like certain words,” said Cayne, who plays one of seven sorority sisters systematically murdered in the upcoming indie horror flick. “And now everyone has to change their lives around it.”
For those living under a rock, the sixth season of the Logo TV search for “America’s Next Drag Superstar” was shaken by a social media blitz demanding that words like “tranny” and the popular “You’ve Got She-Mail!” catchphrase be discontinued. Initially, series namesake RuPaul and producers stood firm.
However, a segment dubbed “Female or She-Male” soon drew particularly intense backlash. Even Drag Race alum Carmen Carrera, who transitioned after appearing on the show’s third cycle, weighed in via Facebook.
“Although I am certain RuPaul’s Drag Race didn’t mean to be offensive, let this be a learning experience,” Carrera started her scathing indictment of the mini-challenge in which competitors were asked to determine whether photos of body parts belonged to cisgender women or past Drag Race contestants. “‘Shemale’ is an incredibly offensive term, and this whole business about if you can tell whether a woman is biological or not is getting kind of old.”
Eventually Drag Race producers acquiesced. They issued a statement about being “newly sensitized,” and such words were edited out of future episodes; the “Female or She-Male” segment was pulled from online archives entirely.
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Women Born Transsexual 