"Recently fashion week has come up, but so has PETA. So in honor of fashion week and peta, lets have a talk about the asia o'hara butterfly stunt in 2018." - Domino HOwlett-cragg, 6th grade
Recently, fashion week has come up, and so has mentions of PETA protests, so let's talk about an instance of assumed animal abuse:
In 2018, Asia O’Hara, a well known “Queen of Color,” a drag queen who lives in Grand Prairie, Texas, and is recognized as a staple member of Rupaul’s Drag Race, pulled a stunt during a lip sync on the season 10 finale.
As we know, O’Hara was significantly older than most of RuPaul's drag show cast at the time. According to an interview with O’Hara, done by Entertainment Weekly, O’Hara states, “I’m considerably older than the other competitors. I’m the only one who’s not really a dancer or who doesn’t do kicks or flips and whatnot, so I thought, ‘Well what can I do in the part of the song where I’d normally do a split or something?’ I wanted to create a moment that was unforgettable, a moment that people would think, ‘Oh my God, that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.’” With this context, it's safe to say that O’Hara had no ill intent on harming the butterflies, but here's more info on what thought process went into the real deal; the butterfly disaster in 2018.
As already mentioned, the goal of O’Hara’s stunt was to fill in a part where you would break down into a split or flip. O’Hara wanted to pull a stunt that would blow the crowd's mind. She claims that she used “painted lady butterflies” which are temperature affected insects that will die, or just not fly, when not warm enough.
“Honestly when I realized what was happening, all I could think about were the poor butterflies,” said Samuel Thorpe, a designer at Marc Jacobs, when asked about his reaction to the scene. “As a vegan I consider the life and experience in that life of each creature equal. It felt as though Asia hadn’t considered the butterflies' safety at all. They seemed like a by-product, a casually rendered victim of entertainment. Like circus animals. I’m sure they all perished, which I found incredibly sad. I respect Asia as a performer but at that moment I didn’t want her to win. I’m sure it was an embarrassing moment for her as a performer, it dulled her star.”
As you can tell, people are not quite happy with the incident, and have come to the conclusion it was a careless act of animal abuse. But was it? As we know, painted lady butterflies are temperature affected insects. Due to what looked like carelessness, O’Hara didn’t keep them warm enough. In an interview with O’Hara that was previously mentioned, she claims that this wasn’t actually carelessness, and that a lot of thought went into the stunt, including research about the butterflies and many rehearsals.
When Natalie Rock, a university teacher in the audience, was asked if the incident caught her off guard when she saw it, Rock replied with,“Yes, 100%! It's live TV and anything can happen, I guess. Also, it's the finale, and these are Queens so we were definitely expecting an outrage, but we didn’t expect things to go quite so badly.”.
Currently Asia O’Hara is continuing her career as a drag queen, and is still known as a major character in RuPaul’s Drag Race. But with all of the complaints from the people who know of the butterfly stunt, and PETA she still does struggle with the guilt from the stunt.
In 2018, Asia O’Hara, a well known “Queen of Color,” a drag queen who lives in Grand Prairie, Texas, and is recognized as a staple member of Rupaul’s Drag Race, pulled a stunt during a lip sync on the season 10 finale.
As we know, O’Hara was significantly older than most of RuPaul's drag show cast at the time. According to an interview with O’Hara, done by Entertainment Weekly, O’Hara states, “I’m considerably older than the other competitors. I’m the only one who’s not really a dancer or who doesn’t do kicks or flips and whatnot, so I thought, ‘Well what can I do in the part of the song where I’d normally do a split or something?’ I wanted to create a moment that was unforgettable, a moment that people would think, ‘Oh my God, that’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen.’” With this context, it's safe to say that O’Hara had no ill intent on harming the butterflies, but here's more info on what thought process went into the real deal; the butterfly disaster in 2018.
As already mentioned, the goal of O’Hara’s stunt was to fill in a part where you would break down into a split or flip. O’Hara wanted to pull a stunt that would blow the crowd's mind. She claims that she used “painted lady butterflies” which are temperature affected insects that will die, or just not fly, when not warm enough.
“Honestly when I realized what was happening, all I could think about were the poor butterflies,” said Samuel Thorpe, a designer at Marc Jacobs, when asked about his reaction to the scene. “As a vegan I consider the life and experience in that life of each creature equal. It felt as though Asia hadn’t considered the butterflies' safety at all. They seemed like a by-product, a casually rendered victim of entertainment. Like circus animals. I’m sure they all perished, which I found incredibly sad. I respect Asia as a performer but at that moment I didn’t want her to win. I’m sure it was an embarrassing moment for her as a performer, it dulled her star.”
As you can tell, people are not quite happy with the incident, and have come to the conclusion it was a careless act of animal abuse. But was it? As we know, painted lady butterflies are temperature affected insects. Due to what looked like carelessness, O’Hara didn’t keep them warm enough. In an interview with O’Hara that was previously mentioned, she claims that this wasn’t actually carelessness, and that a lot of thought went into the stunt, including research about the butterflies and many rehearsals.
When Natalie Rock, a university teacher in the audience, was asked if the incident caught her off guard when she saw it, Rock replied with,“Yes, 100%! It's live TV and anything can happen, I guess. Also, it's the finale, and these are Queens so we were definitely expecting an outrage, but we didn’t expect things to go quite so badly.”.
Currently Asia O’Hara is continuing her career as a drag queen, and is still known as a major character in RuPaul’s Drag Race. But with all of the complaints from the people who know of the butterfly stunt, and PETA she still does struggle with the guilt from the stunt.
