Children being read stories by Drag Queens on World Book Day

I totally agree with Lass. It would be much much better to have a range of parents from different backgrounds come in and read stories to children. I think that there could perhaps be some particular value in inviting men who are perceived as having macho roles like firemen or soldiers to read emotional stories about love, caring and loss (given that most children at school are likely to be read to frequently by women). Drag queens I see no value in at all. Personally like other posters here I find virtually all performances with men impersonating women really objectionable. Horribly stereotyped and sexist and totally unfunny in the main. Also it's not exactly unmainsteam is it? It's been a staple of comedy for ages and it's very rarely done in a way that's even interesting.

dd and I watched a lot of the iceskating program at the olympics. There were lots of men in sparkly beautiful outfits moving in elegant and incredibly skillful ways. To me that is the sort of performance that shows boys and girls that men can present in different ways and be lauded and not laughed at.

Personally I quite like the ultra glamourous versions but drag acts are not oppressed. Drag performers are not trans; they are not even necessarily homosexual. Drag acts are actors.

You could equally well have mime artists or Kabuki actors or Chinese Opera performers or Morris dancers or mummers. All of these would be more suitable for a performance for older children. None of them have much or anything to do with diversity or inclusivity.

As CertainHalfDesertedStreets says you could have firefighters in uniform or police or soldiers (particularly say those from Scottish regiments in full dress uniform!)

Or you could have Goths or travelling people , whether traditional gypsy / Romany or Scottish tinker or New Age travellers (if the latter still exist)

Or people with Down's syndrome or Thalidomide victims - groups who actually are discriminated against.

What's it got to do with books?

Are there firefighters reading books? Aeronautical engineers?
Town planners?

No, just men with enormous great comedy breasts. The headteacher is a virtue signalling fool.

Fair enough, if a debate about the appropriateness is acceptable to those who accuse others of intolerance.

Do you think that thinking this is inappropriate for school is intolerant, or just a difference of opinion @DietCokeGirrrrrl?

I don't see how. If a person believes a particular attitude or belief is intolerant, they're entitled to say so. the person accused of intolerance might not like to hear it but that's part and parcel of a debate. Not everything you hear will be to your liking.

No, I don't think that disagreeing is the same as no debate. I think that posters who accuse those who object of being intolerant are attempting to stifle debate though.

What do you think this is if not a debate...? Do you think that people disagreeing with you is the same as silencing you?

By all means, if you think this is a mistake on the school's part then start a petition or complain to the board of governors or the council, or arrange a protest at the school gates with other parents. No one is stopping you from doing those things. You don't have to 'put up or shut up'. But not everyone will agree with you, and you might not win. That doesn't mean there isn't a debate! Part of living in a democracy involved you not always getting your way...

But what is their relevance to world book day? good question.

But nothing you've said has justified why you think you should be given special treatment compared to any other parent who disagrees with what a school is teaching for any reason and wants their child to skip an activity

Assassinated has given a strongly worded case to show her objections to drag acts by her ethical and philosophicl view point. The drag acts are actors- being a drag queen or an actor is not a protected characteristic so I think she has every right to withdraw her child from this. Drag acts have nothing to do with diversity or inclusivity.

I would remove my child and I would accept the consequences of an unauthorised absence. Luckily I don't give a shit about that, and could afford any fine.

It's misogynistic and inappropriate, it's nothing to do with world book day, it doesn't promote tolerance or inclusivity as it reinforces sex-based stereotypes. It's one individual head teacher's poor decision to do this, as a compulsory part of the school day. Perhaps you think that head teachers can never make mistakes and that parents have no right to point out where there are issues? We should just put up and shut up, no debate, right?

Assassinated - you have the choice to remove your child from that situation. You just don't want to accept the consequences (the unauthorised absence). But nothing you've said has justified why you think you should be given special treatment compared to any other parent who disagrees with what a school is teaching for any reason and wants their child to skip an activity.

But what is their relevance to world book day?

upsideup
Its an art or an expression of creativity and identity and not about being a woman at all
So it's just performance art and the fact that drag queens look like absurd parodies of women is just coincidental?

Drag rubbishes gender stereotypes, the idea that wearing makeup is for girls or that wearing a dress makes you any less a boy.
But drag queens don't look like men wearing makeup and dresses, they look like caricatures of women. If they were just men in makeup and dresses, they wouldn't need the fake breasts, and they'd look more like David Bowie in the 70s or Boy George in the 80s.

Perhaps they should edit their photos on Facebook to remove all the ones where they are wearing pornstar shoes, legs on show and so on.

And once again, you had the choice to go to the library, you were with your child. At school, being told that there is no choice, and if you don't like it you're intolerant? Not the same.

I'm saying they don't look hypersexualised. At the one I went to there was lots of big hair and makeup but absolutely no cleavage / leg / bum on show. They were wearing dresses that fully covered them, no pornstar heels or fishnets or anything. They were just really extravagant, fun costumes. Maybe you think makeup is inherently sexual but given that it's a tool used by everyone from teenage girls to prime ministers I'd disagree with you.

Will there be white men in blackface to promote tolerance of race?

You're not understanding what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the performers would do an adult performance as they would do in a nightclub. I'm saying that looking like hypersexualised caricatures of feminine women is not appropriate for adults in a school. Do you think that's mad as well?

@assassinatedbeauty yes, like I said upthread ive been to one of these at my local library and it wasn't remotely sexual in any way.

You've honestly all lost your minds if you think a school would sanction a sexualised performance to kids. You must see how mad you sound.

AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth

Actually, I have no interest in changing your mind. Why would I?
You will not win

I think the fact that drag queens are being invited into school across the country is suggesting that I am already 'winning'
The fact that you are so against this should be why you want to change my mind, Or are you planning on just get angry online rather than actually doing something to stop the children apparently being groomed by drag queens?

upsideup For your analogy to work, some men would go into the school and read stories to the kids.

Yes, if anything that is what drag queens are mocking, societies pereception of femininity, the expectations of how women should behave, not actual women and what it means to actually be a woman.
None of those things you mentioned a part of being a woman at all and drag shows that, male drag queens can do all that and still be male.

Even if that were the case - I'm not sure the average 7 year old would take away that message. I'm guessing they see a man dressed as a woman in the most flamboyant way and they are being invited to find that funny. I just don't get how a head teacher can have been persuaded that this approach is actually going to achieve the aims the organisation are claiming.

I don't see how reading stories about tolerance in drag can achieve anything more than anyone reading stories about tolerance. Even the potential gnc boys aren't being well served if the first gnc men all the children encounter are those who evoke an atmosphere of pantomime. Isn't that likely to invite more ridicule for the gnc boy if gender non conformity is presented as a caricature of a woman?

They are grooming children into the 8th rule of misogyny: Men are whatever men say they are and women are whatever men say they are.

upsideup

that doesn't make sense

if it's got nothing to do with actual women and femininity, and in fact is just to do with taking apart gender via extreme unrealistic stereotypes

then dressing up and acting as hyper masculine men has the same effect

think kenny everett and some of his characters - the american general for eg

and yet, that's not the way it goes. it's men dressing as women that, as you say, gets "attention". Why?

Because in our society it is seen as funny for a man to dress as a woman. Full stop. It is a joke in itself. Why?

I don't like pantomime "dames" at all, again, it feels to me just like a pisstake of women, and always has.

I don't see why "oho do you object to pantomimes as well" is being used as a "gotcha", loads of people think pantos are pretty crap. I didn't go much as a kid, went to one couple of years back with the inlaws and was boggled at the casual sexism, racism, it was really crap as well. Husband used to go a lot as a kid and he says he's never seen the point really and finds it all v cringey.

Funnily enough we went to one this year and it was a non traditional one I suppose you'd say, no men dressed as women (woohoo!) no sexism or racism (double woohoo!) and it was generally great. There were some girls playing boys but that isn't done in the same spirit as window twanky and that, is it. With the massive bosoms and the lechery and the hahaha son't fancy yours much and all the rest of it.

I think maybe for a lot of people if they went a lot as kids it's sort of water off a ducks back as it's familiar and reminds them of happiness and childhood and stuff but coming to it more or less fresh it really is very WTAF.