Drag Queen Story Time - and a business opportunity for the GC

I am not Sue if this has been mentioned but apparently Rochdale Council cancelled DQST at short notice. I can’t link the tweet by Aida H Dee but this is a screen shot.

He is angry about this, has called on people to write to the council, and gives its address. If you get on to the actual tweet and read the responses, a lot are from people to say they have written to the council to thank them for cancelling.

I thought I’d do this too as I find what has been going with children so upsetting. There has also been too much false information about how it is just anti-vaxers and far right people objecting.

(If anyone wants to write, though the council address is given, it might be worth double checking.)

Sorry, slight tangent, but why on earth is drag so widely accepted?! It seems to be such an unpopular opinion to hate it. I get why swathes of women (people?) haven’t peaked* with the trans stuff, #bekind and all that. But drag is so obviously offensive. I sometimes feel like I’m living in an episode of the Twilight Zone. It’s disgusting. But there’s a market to take kids to have stories read to them?!

Love the idea of GC story time btw! Even outside of a rebuttal to DQ Story Time. The irrelevance of gender is a wonderful lesson.

*is this terminology right? Hope “peaked” makes sense

Absolutely. The Times has been fantastic in all of this too. I do think that the DM is less beholden to its readership, than the G is. I don't think it panders so much and I think that's because its readership doesn't have a mob mentality. We're a bit of a mixture maybe, perhaps it has a broader appeal so it can be less tied to one political viewpoint, i.e. I'm a centrist I think the DM is a decent paper. At least it doesn't pander to one elitist perspective.

Sorry, I didn’t mean that this DM has too much of a dramatic slant, I meant that maybe the DM has a tendency to be a bit that way in general.

nononsense29 · Today 22:43
Notice the Guardian didn't mention all of his shameless bullying of women online, the sexual content on his story time social media and even his post "love has no age". Huge red flag here but not even worth a mention in the article. I hate to say it but the DM is far more fair and balanced.

Yes, it is more fair, balanced, and detailed. In particular it didn’t dismiss protesters as all being far right anti-vaxers, but took the trouble to list the various agencies who are concerned by this. I don’t apologise for reading articles like this in the DM. Even if it has too much of a dramatic slant sometimes, it at least brings up enough facts to follow up on.

Notice the Guardian didn't mention all of his shameless bullying of women online, the sexual content on his story time social media and even his post "love has no age". Huge red flag here but not even worth a mention in the article. I hate to say it but the DM is far more fair and balanced.

Yes and for less than £150 per hour!

Disgusting to pay this much in a cost of living crisis, especially given the content.

I’ve been saying this for ages at various times of FWR.
How about reading the wonderful Rachel Rooney’s My Body Is Me.
An agency could hire all sorts of people to read stories. If I didn’t work full-time, I do it 😁

More poncy drivel from the Guardian, pandering to the left as usual. Women / parents getting mispresented and treated like senseless bigots. We're not following America, kids twerking and doing "sl*t drops". Shaming concerned parents is a disgrace. Wonder if there is / will be an equally scathing article about how we are against the teaching of gender ideology in schools? No doubt we'll be called bigots yet again, despite all the children needlessly damaged by it (Tavistock).

Toomanytrees - Today 20:01
When the story becomes a vehicle for indoctrination, no matter how right or righteous the cause, children will tune out. Stories chosen should be the ones children like the best.Q

I think you are right. Libraries are about great stories.Having someone read them very well should be the main thing.

But the thing is that a Drag Queen is putting themselves and their own identity on the forefront, plus a junky indoctrinating story. So it seems the library managers are not after wonderful stories and brilliant readers, but social messaging.

This sounds great!!!!!!!

"It makes me feel depressed that these hateful people exist in dark corners of every country. These people do exist and they inspire me to keep going and to write more stories. This is the exact reason I do what I do." said Sab.

What a disgusting way to talk about women with concerns about children's safety.

@ToGanymedeAndTitan

Did I say black people & white people experienced racism in the same way? No. Because I’m not stupid. Might help I’ve literally spent my life experiencing & observing the differences [depending on which family members I was with], but then people do generally seem to be copping on a wee bit these last couple of years that pervasive systemic racism is indeed an issue that desperately needs addressing. (In case it’s not clear, white people are not impacted by that racism [though it should perhaps be noted racism is frequently used as the descriptor for the systemic oppression of the Irish Traveller Community].)

Oh & I say a wee bit, because, for example, the BLACHIR Report should have been all over the news - it got (having just searched) - a tiny bit in BBC Midlands 🤨 According to Hansard, it was not mentioned in Parliament at any time between the formation of the working group in 2020 & the start of the summer recess in July. There is local news about Owami Davies but no huge outcry.

There are people who disagree with the Final Bow For Yellowface campaign because they don’t think it’s the same [type of thing] as blackface. Or they think it’s not as bad. Or it’s “art” or “culture”. Blackface is the group with power punching down; so is yellowface; so is drag. All of them involve grossly offensive caricatures & profiting from the people being mocked. It doesn’t matter if there are women who say they’re fine with drag or they don’t see a problem with it: go back to the heyday of the minstrel show & ask some black people if it bothers them? Plenty will tell you they don’t care - at least, not enough for it to stop them being on the stage/in the audience.

Frederick Douglass’ 1848 condemnation of “the filthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature, in which to make money, and pander to the corrupt taste of their white fellow-citizens” could reasonably be updated to be applied to drag artists. Women share the objections of that great reformer, albeit based on the sex of our oppressors rather than their race.

(Oh & just in case anyone is so utterly crass as to suggest it - “filthy scum” is simply what Douglass said about white people; there’s not some sort of sneaky homophobia at play. That accusation keeps getting bounced about, so for clarity, whatever adjective[s] Douglass had used, I’d have quoted him; & ofc not all drag queens are gay)

Fabulous ideas here.

I cannot believe so many libraries were paying for DQST when in my DC's day a librarian read the stories and I'd she was off another mum would step in.

Great that so many libraries have the spare cash and have bought all the books they need.

BBC News - Cardiff's Drag Queen's story hour greeted by rival protests
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62521726 Far right groups and anti-vaxxers/anti-lockdowners protesting... Rather overlooks feminists who have issues with misogynistic portrayals of women.

Story time should focus on the story. The story should captivate and engage the children so that they will become interested in reading. Surely in a library there is a staff member who can tell stories well? The money saved could go to buying more books. When the focus is on the person reading the story, especially one in a grotesque costume, then the library is in danger of frightening and/or boring the children. Both will be a turn-off. It goes without saying that sexualized performances have no business in a library. When the story becomes a vehicle for indoctrination, no matter how right or righteous the cause, children will tune out. Stories chosen should be the ones children like the best.

It can include all kinds of women- true diversity, just not focusing on men.

There’s no reason it should be just about young, white, hetero able bodied women which means many many stories. See if any women who work in male dominated careers want in, see if any sportswomen- including disabled atheletes- want in. Tales about ordinary women who raised kids alone (appreciate many kids see single mums all the time but a nice bit of celebration wouldn’t hurt) female explorers, ordinary inspiring women, superheroes etc

inspiring for girls and normalises girls/women being capable and inspirational for the boys.

why not?

Well done to everyone who has dared to speak out and said NO to DQSH. This bloke bullies women online, he's also raising money for Mermaids. Look up what they do. Not OK. Also, if any other bloke hung around the kids' section with the outline of his penis showing clearly through his trousers, he'd be asked to leave. But instead, libraries have invited him in for a paid gig! Mixing sex / sexuality and children? Haven't we learned our lessons from blurring boundaries? Laughable that he pretends it's everyone else making this sexual. He's taking the pss.

It's in two parts. Highly recommend

Amy Sousa talks about this!
Known Heretic on youtube- compares Brenda is a Wolf book with Little Red Riding Hood- on exactly this point.
Hope the link works:

Diversity Story Time is a great name. And there can be a very wide range of storytellers and stories, covering all backgrounds.

One key feature is they have to be good entertainers. Being too earnest and feminist won't work. And drag queens, for all their faults, are primarily entertainers. So having some costumes, theatricality and comedy will all be important.

Brilliant!

Can the readers for Feminist Story Time please include some butch lesbians? Lots of young people grow up without ever meeting a butch lesbian these days, especially one who uses female pronouns.

Brilliant ideas here, yes, dinosaurs , witches, famous serious women, and fairytales as suggested. Wish I was in the country to join in. it would be very interesting if they paid too…could be the start of a central fund for those who need it….