Second on the leaderboard, a score of 36 from the judges… and somehow in the dance-off.
Michelle Visage’s appearance in the bottom two on Strictly Come Dancing last weekend was among this series’ most shocking moments – but, irritatingly, it wasn’t unprecedented.
It may only have been a blip, but viewers of the BBC One behemoth have an ugly track record of turning their backs on talented female celebs. If that’s what’s beginning to happen to the RuPaul’s Drag Race icon – who has been consistently great throughout the competition – then we need to head it off at the pass.
It was Ashley Roberts last year; relegated to the dance-off for three consecutive weeks despite some truly jaw-dropping routines. Not even a perfect 40 in the semi-final was enough for the public to back her.
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In the years before that, Kellie Bright and Denise van Outen also struggled to convert plaudits from the judges into actual votes as the contest neared its end; and Alexandra Burke and Natalie Gumede suffered the Sunday result show’s red light of doom even after topping the leaderboard on the Saturday.
What’s especially alarming here is that compared to most of those previous frontrunner casualties, this is early: Alexandra and Ashley, for example, didn’t face their first of multiple dance-offs until Week 10, three weeks later than Michelle and pro partner Giovanni Pernice.
It’s 2012’s Kimberley Walsh who is more comparable: it was week six when she came joint-second with the judges and still had to see off Fern Britton in the bottom two. Considering there were 10 couples in the running at that point, she must have flopped hard with the public for her combined total to be among the lowest.
So what gives?
Yes, I know what you’re (probably) thinking: those celebs were all accused of having too much previous dance experience, which is no use when the British public love a good old reality-TV-friendly ‘journey’ (as proven by recent winners Ore Oduba, Caroline Flack and Stacey Dooley). This lot, it seems, were just too good from the outset.
And while Michelle hasn’t been put through quite as much of the tiresome ‘experience’ debate as, say, Denise and Ashley in previous years; she has been technically impressive from the get-go. Her lowest score so far is 29, and she has the second-highest average of the series so far (33.3, behind only Kelvin Fletcher with 34).
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Not much of a so-called journey, I admit, but it reeks of sexist double standards that it’s only really the women who are punished for regularly turning in high-quality, high-scoring performances. Why are equally consistent males like Louis Smith, Harry Judd and Danny Mac sent straight to the final?
And if you do want to focus on stars’ prior experience, why did no one mind that 2015 winner Jay McGuiness attended dance school from the age of 12? And why, when the tabloids were subjecting Alexandra Burke to relentless misogynoir in 2017, was nobody talking about the fact that eventual winner Joe McFadden had been in multiple West End musicals – just like her?
I’m not saying the guys should face the same struggle as the women. I’m saying the women should get the same support as the guys. If Alexandra were a white male, she probably would have won the glitterball on the spot for that iconic Proud Mary jive, not trolled for her confident stage presence.
So is this the beginning of multiple dance-offs for Michelle? Will she be repeatedly snubbed by viewers in the same way?
I really hope not. As a 51-year-old mother, bona-fide LGBTQ+ ally and all-round queen (her, not me), I’ve really been rooting for her.
And you never know, maybe Sunday was just a case of too many fans assuming she was safe and not bothering to vote. Maybe a killer routine in Blackpool this weekend – to Madonna’s ‘Vogue’, no less – will be the perfect opportunity for her and Giovanni to win over new fans.
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It is a tight race this year, and with Kelvin, Karim Zeroual and a not-to-be-ruled-out Saffron Barker also in the running, I’m certainly not implying Michelle should have the win all sewn up. But by no logic should she be in the Dance Off already.
And hey, the public have occasionally seen sense and U-turned in the past: Kimberley may have faced the Dance Off in week six but, by the grace of the Girls Aloud gods, she made it to the final scot-free after that. Same with Debbie McGee after she was put in danger in Blackpool two years ago.
And there’s one even bigger example of a high-scoring female overcoming an early snub from the viewers: remember when Abbey Clancy was in the bottom two mid-series despite similar scores to Michelle… and went on to win the whole thing?
It’s not over yet, and Michelle is still very much a fierce competitor – provided viewers break this nasty habit and start giving strong female stars the support they deserve.
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November 13, 2019 at 06:03PM
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Michelle Visage is the latest victim of Strictly viewers' sexist double standards - Metro.co.uk
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