DRAGSCRIMINATION // Last week the Advocate released a story about a New York City drag queen who was poorly treated at a taping of the Wendy Williams Show.
According to the article, the controversy arose when Erickatoure Aviance was informed that she could not sit in the audience due to show’s “no costume” policy. While she was eventually allowed in, she was told not to ask “Hot Topic” questions and placed in the periphery of the audience behind a tall man.
The minor gay blogosphere uproar that followed brought many questions, accusations and general shadiness to the table about Wendy Williams, but also the intentions of Ms. Aviance.
Being very familiar with this very interesting queen (FULL DISCLOSURE: we are good friends), the timing of this incident is practically serendipitous (more on that later) and opens up a dialogue on gender politics, a hot topic at the moment.
But first I think some background is warranted.
A gay man who grew up in Portsmouth, NH, Ericka came to New York in 1999 to study ballet and modern dance at the prestigious Tisch school at NYU. Entranced by NYC’s legendary nightlife scene, she “wanted to be one of the pretty people, the glitterati who don’t wait on line or pay for drinks,” as I learned in a previous interview. She went on to work at places like Tunnel, Twilo and Exit while they still existed.
But it was her love for fashion and personal expression (can you find the word “couture” in her name?) that formed Ericka’s persona of today: a New York City queen who dresses in outfits of her own styling; design that reaches for the sui generis in women’s fashion.