Overview

Nikita Dragun VMAs Leashes refers to beauty YouTuber Nikita Dragun bringing three men on leashes to the 2019 Video Music Awards. Although guests have brought humans on leashes to award shows before, Dragun's fanbase and other VMAs viewers criticized the choice for being demeaning and an act of reverse sexism.

Background

On August 26th, 2019, MTV broadcasted the 2019 MTV Video Awards and updated fans with tweets upon guest arrivals. That night they tweeted a video of Nikitia Dragun walking the red carpet with three men on leashes crawling (shown below). The tweet garnered over 21,300 likes and 3,100 retweets in two days.

Notable Developments

On August 26th, Nikita Dragun^[1] posted a picture of her look to Instagram saying, "'hiring' one boyfriend didn’t exactly work out the first time… so this time i hired 3" (shown below, left). The post garnered over 915,000 likes and numerous negative comments in two days (shown below, center). That same day in a tweet she explained that her inspiration came from Snoop Dogg's 2003 VMA appearance and Marilyn Monroe (show below, right).^[2] The tweet accumulated over 15,400 likes in two days.

The next day, Dragun defended her choice of bring along three hired men on leashes despite being called racist and trashy. In one tweet she stated, "reverse sexism? sexism is prejudice + power. men are the dominant gender with power in society. my VMAs outfit was a statement on me as a woman taking that power. might i add with consenting paid male models. help me understand how i’m sexist towards men? make it make sense."^[3] (shown below, left). She also continued in conversation with those commenting negatively on her posts (shown below, center).^[4] Finally she posted a photo of herself at the VMAs to Instagram^[5] which gained over 725,200 likes and included a long statement defending her actions:

"i wish i could’ve told my younger self i would be walking down the #vmas red carpet and that it’s okay to dream big despite what everyone says. this has truly been a dream come true. growing up a little boy in springfield virginia to now a big girl living her hollywood dreams! “why is she at the VMAs” because i’m a bad bitch that’s why. i know everyone has had plenty to say about my look but i’m glad. i wanted to make a statement on the power of the woman. it makes people uncomfortable and some might say ReVeRse SeXisM… but sexism is prejudice + power. men are the dominant gender with power… and it’s time women take back that power. xoxo Nikita Dragun"

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References