Alaska on Taylor Swift: “If She Thinks She’s Queen of the Snakes, She Is Terribly Mistaken”

In the days leading up to the surprise announcement of her upcoming album, Reputation, Taylor Swift posted a number of cryptic snake videos on Instagram and Twitter…

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Aug 23, 2017 at 7:01am PDT

….and her fans were all

Haters: taylor swift is a snake
Taylor: *posts a video of a snake*
Me: pic.twitter.com/ljrjPcC9ci

— andrea (@starIighttswift) August 21, 2017

TAYLOR SWIFT IS NOT FUCKING AROUND SHE CLEARED ALL HER SOCIAL MEDIAS AND POSTED A SINGLE VIDEO SHE IS HERE FOR BLOOD

— summer (@slaylorstan) August 21, 2017

We claimed the snake joke and now queen Taylor has joined in. Hi sis @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/H7xp2WNRhN

— REPUTATION UPDATES (@holypizzaground) August 21, 2017

Of course, there already IS a snake queen in our midst, the sssssssssneaky Alaska Thunderfuck, who appropriated the serpent symbolism after her underhanded Allstars 2 shenaniganssssss left the Drag Race fandom COMPLETE SHOOK.

FADER magazine asked her about all that, and if she had any advice for Tay-Tay…

FADER: After fans swarmed your comments with the snake emoji, you began using it yourself, wearing snake jewelry, mentioning it a bunch — basically reclaiming it. What was your thinking in doing that?
ALASKA: You have to take the tragic and turn it to magic. People used to call me a horse face. Then I adopted the horse as my spirit animal. Something that brought me pain and anguish ended up bringing me strength and joy. So when I got bombarded with snakes I got a new spirit animal. Lucky me.

Do you think it was a successful strategy to diffuse the situation?
It’s really all you can do. Go through the pain and embarrassment until you get to the other side. Otherwise you spend your life hiding from it, constantly reminded of it whenever you see it, and going to pieces over it time and again. If people are laughing at you, you might as well be in on the joke.

Were you surprised to see Taylor Swift basically doing the same thing? Do you have any advice for her as someone who has essentially flipped a ‘villain narrative’?
Straight people love to steal from drag queens. It happens all the time. But luckily I love to inspire young artists. The truth is, people who have longevity are able to be aware of their public perception and take it and use it and make it work for them. So bravo to Taylor. I never stopped liking her and I still do. But if she thinks she’s the Queen of Snakes, she is terribly mistaken.