The Real Reason Daya Betty Isn't Sitting Right With RuPaul's Drag Race Fans
"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 14 trundles on, seemingly indefinitely. Per Distractify, despite the fact 12 episodes have been broadcast thus far, just seven queens have gone home. Season 14 feels like it's been going on forever, leading social media users to joke about forgetting who's even taken part. Moreover, the addition of the golden ticket, as it were, in the form of a chocolate bar that prevents whoever is holding it from being eliminated has further robbed the show of much-needed suspense.
Regardless of whether Season 14 has been making the same impact on fans as previous installments, there's no denying it's brought the drama, thanks in large part to resident villain Daya Betty. From feuding with a bemused Jasmine Kennedie to loudly complaining every time she places anywhere except in the top, Betty has consistently made herself the focus of the show, for better and worse. To be fair to her, though, Betty started the competition on the back foot since Crystal Methyd is her drag mom.
As she told Nylon, "Going into it, the pressure was more with the fandom because she was such a well-loved character from her season. I think that was maybe the most stressful part." And yet, fans seem unwilling to cut her any slack, either because Betty is the victim of a bad edit, or because her approach is genuinely rubbing them the wrong way.
Daya Betty seems to be leaning into the villain edit
As The Tab argues, Daya Betty's journey is unique in "Drag Race" herstory because she actually went home first, alongside Orion Story, before being brought back. Unlike Story, though, Betty rose to the top of the pack in subsequent episodes, proving herself to be much more of a threat than the other queens realized.
However, Betty's eagerness to place top each week is clearly annoying her fellow competitors, especially those who land in the bottom and take issue with Betty complaining about being safe, which is a considerably better position to be in. She seems to be leaning into the villain edit, which could be a smart move, in reality TV terms, since it's likely producers will want to keep Betty around to stir up drama. It could also turn out really badly (just ask poor Phi Phi O'Hara).
Betty has consistently struggled with being unfavorably compared to Crystal Methyd, which might explain why she keeps lashing out. Moreover, Out noted that even the best editing can't change queens' statements or intentions entirely — in RuPaul's song "Blame It On the Edit," she even says as much — so Betty is at least partly responsible for her actions.
And yet, Betty pulled it out of the bag in one lip-sync, beating Jasmine Kennedie when nobody expected her to (via YouTube), so she's a fierce competitor, all things considered.
Fans are growing increasingly tired of her bad attitude
Despite Daya Betty's demonstrable talent, though, viewers are really not happy with her. And they've been letting her know, too, with the "Drag Race" star taking to Twitter to plead for more kindness from the show's diehard fans in a lengthy statement. "Over the past couple of days, I have received some very hateful messages," Betty revealed. "Messages telling me that I 'deserve nothing, not even to live.'"
Although she acknowledged the ability to ignore most of the hate she gets, Betty wanted to make it clear that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. The "Drag Race" star even admitted dealing with the situation brought her back to the homophobic bullying she'd endured as a child. "I'm posting this to remind you that words matter, and they do have an effect on people," Betty wrote.
Over on Reddit, commenters posited that "Drag Race" fans are taking the show way too seriously and should just sit back and enjoy it rather than letting themselves get so invested they feel the need to send hate to complete strangers. Moreover, echoing The Tab, several people pointed out that Betty's shady behavior has rescued Season 14 from being a total snooze-fest. Besides, taking issue with the lack of eliminations is reasonable. In fact, it's the same frustration shared by many of us watching at home.