Olympian Sharron Davies targets drag shows in latest bizarre tweet

Retired British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies used to be most well known for winning a silver medal in the 1980 Moscow games. But over the past few years, she’s become increasingly notorious for tweeting transphobia that draws the ire of other public figures who stand for inclusion from cricket captain Tammy Beaumont to Dustin Lance Black and Tom Daley.

This past weekend, Davies decided to take a break from slamming trans athletes to spend part of her Saturday launching a weird and unprovoked attack on drag queens:

In doing so, Davies revealed that perhaps the reason she is part of the population who doesn’t care for drag is that she has a fundamental misunderstanding of what it’s about.

According to a report from MetroWeekly’s Rhuaridh Marr, RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michell Visage tried to school her on the concept with her reply:

“OR…you can see it for what drag actually IS, which is a celebration and homage of all things feminine, giving power to those who need it! Strong women aren’t threatened by drag queens, but rather empowered by their chutzpah.”

Photo by Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

Marr further reported that Davies’s tweet drew the ire of multifaceted segments of the drag community, with female drag performer Venus Envy straight up declaring, “I have no kids, I don’t cook, I don’t clean, and I don’t define my womanhood by how ‘leaky’ I am at any given time. There’s no one way to be a ‘real woman’ and drag is a beautiful art form that expresses exactly that.”

It should go without saying that although there drag performers who are trans, trans is not drag. Although it should also go without saying that if you’re a white former Olympic athlete, you really shouldn’t compare your plight to blackface. And clearly, Davies wasn’t aware of that either.

Editor’s Note: The original report referred to Ms. Davies as a “former Olympian.” We regret the error.