Drag Queen Story Time at the British Library

The British Library has lost the plot several times over. Maybe the staff should read some books to regain it. Preferably not any written in the current century.

@Newuser123123 I hope you don't mind me using your comment

"By allowing an adult male sexualised entertainer whose act is based on a cruel and sexist appropriation of women you are discriminating against women and children"

in an email I am having with a local day nursery who are intent on having a drag queen come in and read to the children. It sums up my thoughts completely in a more eloquent way than I could say it.

No words!

Wow excellent video wow Rochdale council learnt nothing

The night bus seriously wtf

That section with the Night Bus person. WTF? Someone is paying for all this utter shit presumably.

I don’t know whether it has been posted here, but in case not journalist Sonia Poulton has just put up on YouTube a half hour film she has done on Drag Queen Story Time

Their policies are all here www.bl.uk/about-us/freedom-of-information/5-our-policies-and-procedures

Code of conduct covers anyone doing any work. Noticed that code of conduct excludes them getting involved in anything publicly controversial ...

British Library personnel are subject to pre-employment disclosure screening and reference checks.

This applies to permanent staff, contractors, interns, agency staff and volunteers who may come into unsupervised contact with children, young people or vulnerable adults.

OK so we can see that under this, technically any performer could argue against a check perhaps? Plus the whole prickly issue of 'dead names' and legal name changing.

And who needs to concern themselves with that, when woke cookies taste so good?

'Can you killjoys keep the noise down, please, can't you see we're being progressive over here??'

That's the subtext i get from that email.

Well the BL do have a safeguarding policy for staff if you care to do an online search for it (it's a PDF)

Indeed, Friends...it's just like those same, boring old lessons that promise to be learned.

Which never seem to materialise.

Accusing someone who has raised concerns about safeguarding of being 'offensive' really does need referring to a higher authority. It's the Rotherham dynamic all over again.

(Obvs I'm NOT saying that the outcome would be the same, just that authorities can't use diversity outrage or Lang's sacred castes to derail appropriate scrutiny.)

I did ask them to explain the whole ‘being who you are’ theme - the male person in drag - who are they?

Agreed, I'd kick it up the chain of command to see what happens. Social media jobs at least are generally held by rather young people, maybe that applies here too? What would interest me would be to see if even at the very top it's considered appropriate to interact with concerned members of the public that way, but only in regards to this issue.

Also agree that drag made suitable for small children isn't really drag at all. If you do that what you end up with is the Widow Twanky, which is definitely not what seems to be going on in the photo with the child leading a performer around on a leash.

Yeah, I think you're right, actually, gum.

I'm driving myself mad here...

"All of DQSt's performers have been DBS-checked to the appropriate level."

Well WTF does that mean?

Ordinary check or enhanced check? Or no check at all like visiting authors who are supervised?

Why not just say which level of check?

I'm second-guessing, ameanstreak, but they could be thinking of something like a pantomime dame performance where the aim is to be very child friendly, with a few blue jokes floating over the kids heads to entertain the parents/adults.

Something else puzzled me about her letter. This point she made:

Drag Queen Story Time’s performances are specifically designed to be suitable for younger audiences, with language and costume appropriate to the age group.

So what is the point of it being 'drag', then? That's just a fella wearing a dress and makeup, isn't it?

I always thought drag was a caricature of a woman dialled up to 11, with costume and language to match?
If that's missing from the performance, what's 'drag' about it??

Maybe I'm driving myself mad...

I would expect to get the sack or, at the very least, a stern talking to and a warning, if I responded to a customer in that tone, calling their opinion “baseless and offensive”. I think that email response needs to be forwarded on to someone higher up in the library, to any directors or patrons, perhaps? They’re probably not even aware of what’s being sent out.

Exactly Lang - how can genuine enquiries regarding safeguarding of children be offensive??

Surely there's nothing more important than the welfare of children? If Lang taught me anything, it's that.

Same old and old really. Cut and paste response and not answering questions.

They have a thing coming up ‘unfinished business’ to do with women’s rights. I did ask if it was ‘women’ or women And if they would address the gender V sex ‘war’.

I don’t think they are planning any Drag Time Bingo though...

Let me guess Paw...radio silence from the BL?? 🤨

When people try and shut me up about safeguarding kids - I get suspicious and also it's likely to have the opposite effect.

Agreed Kittens

Also, replying 'I'm offended' to a safeguarding concern is a red flag in itself. It's not appropriate to respond to parents raising safeguarding concerns with 'what you've said is offensive' - that's designed to prevent people from speaking up about safeguarding. Red flag.

I completely agree Kitten, the 'outraged' tone is unprofessional and i can only assume that some companies hire 22 year olds to interact with the public and this is a 22 year old's knee jerk reaction.

And the irony is, my comment isn't baseless in the slightest. There's lots of evidence to prove otherwise.

I did think about responding again, but I haven't got the energy now; it would be flogging a dead horse.

Although, on the plus side, I have been in touch with my local council and read their upcoming library events schedule and I'm pleased to report that they are Kool Aid free. 👍
I was prepared to go nuclear.