Bianca del Rio slammed for ‘so-called jokes’ about Blair St. Clair’s sexual assault

Bianca del Rio slammed for ‘so-called jokes’ about Blair St. Clair’s sexual assault

RuPaul’s Drag Race season six winner Bianca del Rio is under fire for a series of remarks about season ten contestant Blair St. Clair’s on-show admission she is a survivor of rape.

The comedian made the comments during a stand-up set at Montréal Pride last week, sending the audience into a confused silence, Gay Star News reported.

St. Clair, who was eliminated partway through the recent tenth season of Drag Race, revealed on her elimination episode that she was struggling with the pressure of the competition because of resurfaced trauma around her sexual assault.

del Rio used her set to accuse St. Clair of revealing this in a last-ditch attempt to save her position in the competition.

“Seriously, I don’t even want to talk about season 10 because every fucking bitch cried every fucking episode. Did you see that? Every episode!

“It’s her fat ass going, ‘Ugh I’m fat’ and then the other one – and then you’ve got that other bitch: ‘I was raped!'” she said.

“No, fuck you. You notice she wasn’t raped until she was in the bottom two? Think about that, bitch, that’s fucking strategy.”

del Rio later added, “Oh, fuck you, rape is funny if you hadn’t had it. And if you weren’t raped, remember this – you’re ugly.”

You can watch a low quality video of the set on the /r/rupaulsdragrace subreddit.

Montréal Pride released a statement via Facebook distancing the festival from del Rio’s jokes.

“The Montréal Pride Festival would like to severely disassociate itself from certain remarks made during the Drag Superstars show,” the post said.

“The approach of certain sensitive themes, presented in the form of so-called jokes, in no way reflects the policies of our organization and we apologize to anyone who has experienced discomfort due to these events.

“We will also take the necessary steps to ensure that such situations do not happen again.”

Blair St. Clair tweeted in response to the set’s circulation and the criticism of del Rio in indirect terms, stating, “In the U.S. someone is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes, but people persist in thinking that making rape or sexual assault jokes is ‘comedy.’ It is not. Rape jokes contribute to rape culture.”

del Rio spoke about the controversy to Hornet, saying, “Call it political correctness, social justice or whatever else. Bottom line is there will always be people who don’t agree with you. That’s life. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. That’s why there’s coffee.”

Queer comedian Cameron Esposito released a stand-up special earlier this year called Rape Jokes, consisting entirely of jokes from a sexual assault survivor’s perspective, with proceeds going to anti-sexual violence charity RAINN.

Hannah Gadsby also addressed her experiences as a sexual assault survivor in her acclaimed stand-up show and Netflix special, Nanette.

Further reading: ‘Why are we ignoring LGBTI sexual assault survivors?

You May Also Like

Comments are closed.