Drag Race star divides fans with shady ‘homage’ to Chappell Roan at VMAs
Plane Jane pays shady ‘homage’ to Chappell Roan at the MTV VMAs (Getty)
Drag Race firebrand Plane Jane paid tribute to Chappell Roan at the VMAs by dressing as the “Pink Pony Club” singer and hiding from cameras, in a nod to the star’s recent comments on fame and fandom.
Whoever said “don’t be shady, be a lady,” clearly wasn’t speaking loudly enough for RuPaul’s Drag Race season 16 finalist Plane Jane to hear.
The burger-finger-scented drag star made a name for herself by being unfiltered in comments towards her fellow competitors during her journey to the top three alongside Nymphia Wind and Sapphira Cristál – and she’s continued in the same vein leaving the Werk Room.
There was a bit of a bumpy landing for Plane after she sparked a backlash in June, by calling pop star Roan, who makes a point to hire local drag talent for her shows, and her “love for drag… performative as f*ck”.
It now seems that Plane is doubling down on her later-confessed love for Chappell, after she attended the MTV Music Video Awards dressed as the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer. But, not exactly unexpectedly, there was a dig.
Recently, Chappell spoke about her struggles with fame and boundaries. At the VMAs, Plane, accompanied and fellow queens Morphine Love Dion, Xunami Muse, Megami, Dawn, Nymphia and Amanda Tori Meating, pretended to be scared of the camera when they approached her.
“I wanted to pay homage to my favourite artist’s favourite artist, Chappell Roan,” Plane Jane told Entertainment Weekly through a representative, itself a reference to Roan’s relationship with Sasha Colby.
Last month, Roan released a statement on Instagram about boundaries, saying: “This has nothing to do with the gratitude and love I feel for my community, for the people who respect my boundaries, and for the love I feel from every person who lifts me up and has stuck with me to help the project get to where it is now.
“Please do not assume you know a lot about someone’s life, personality and boundaries because you are familiar with them or their work online.”
Although Jane and Roan were later seen interacting, and some people have praised the homage (“Oh Plane Jane you ate that”), others have pointed out the serious nature of the pop star’s complaints. “In what way is this funny to make fun of Chappell Roan feeling uncomfortable for literal stalking by so called fans?” one asked.
In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Chappell recalled the “final straw” of unacceptable fan behaviour, revealing that she was kissed on the mouth in a bar by a “fan”, as well as her family being stalked and called from unknown mobile numbers.
In her acceptance speech, after being presented with the award for best new artist at the VMAs on Wednesday (11 September), she thanked the “queer and trans people fuelling pop”.
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