Following the controversy surrounding RuPaul’s Drag Race use of the term “she-m***”, Logo TV have pulled the episode featuring a mini-challenge on the show titled “Female or She-male,” and issued an apology.
In the mini-challenge, contestants were asked to identify whether a photo showed a cisgender (non trans) woman or a former “Drag Race” contestant after viewing a cropped portion of the photo. Some transgender people claimed that the segment was transphobic, as “she-m***” is considered by many to be a violent word used against trans people.
A statement sent to the Huffington Post by Logo read:
We wanted to thank the community for sharing their concerns around a recent segment and the use of the term ‘she-mail’ on Drag Race.
Logo has pulled the episode from all of our platforms and that challenge will not appear again.
Furthermore, we are removing the ‘You’ve got she-mail’ intro from new episodes of the series.
We did not intend to cause any offense, but in retrospect we realize that it was insensitive. We sincerely apologize.
Earlier this month San Diego LGBT Weekly columnist and trans activist Autumn Sandeen heavily criticized RuPaul for allowing use of the term she-m*** describing it as “… is a vile term that trans people (outside of the porn industry) don’t use to describe themselves.”
Calling out RuPaul in her column Sandeen continued, “Trans people deserve to be heard about which terms are problematic, defamatory and derogatory. We trans people deserve better from our LGBT entertainers than what RuPaul gives us; what he gives us is use of, and functionally working to normalize the use of, one of the most vile anti-trans pejoratives that function to dehumanize trans people.”
