A library thought it appropriate to book this 'entertainment' for children and I feel sick

[flashbac]

I thought it was a joke, a photoshop job, a hoax even but it's not.

WTF

A children's entertainer in a library with this costume?

twitter.com/StandingforXX/status/1414247886242598912?s=19

What the hell is this?

Why are people voting YABU?!

The sort of people who put on these displays to children may also come onto Mumsnet to defend them. It's all part of breaking down children's boundaries, and women's ability to safeguard them.

Fucks sake.
Whoever booked this should be given a formal warning. The staff at the library all need safeguarding training as a minimum. For library staff they don't even seem able to spell...medalsome monkey?

If you look at the “arts” company website, it’s full of posts about how fun these acts are for family events, etc.

And so many of their characters “just love to be stroked and cuddled”.

Whoever booked the event is totally out of order. But to then claim, on their twitter feed, that they shut it down ASAP is outrageous. Firstly, their “hilarious “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” post. Secondly, there are shots of BSD monkey in front of the library desk - making it blatantly obvious that people saw what was on offer way before they were unleashed out the doors and to the audience.

How on earth anyone can be selecting YABU on the vote is beyond me.

@EarringsandLipstick

To be fair, as it's not mentioned here, the library has apologised unreservedly. The apology is a pinned tweet on their Twitter account.

Funny how they apologised after the complaints started. Before that they thought it was quite funny didn't they?

@Sonarl

Anyone who actually thought this was ok at an event aimed at children a) doesn't have children b) has sexual fetishes that they really should keep to consenting adults in private

People who don't have children aren't sexual deviants…

6% think it's ok?

I know, but it isn’t that the world has gone mad. There always have been groomers of children hiding in plain sight.

You can tell from the photos it's not erect.

Can we please stop making shit up?
@Lockheart
Its NOT a flaccid penis. Hanging the wrong way but definitely engorged.

TBF dildos tend not to be flaccid....

Flaccid or turgid it's a dildo and inappropriate to the audience of children.

There are many people, including the performers at fault here. The person booking clearly did very little research, the performers themselves should have either said no- or modified the costumes, and the council should have been less jovial about it whilst it happened.

@Lockheart

Theres already a substantial thread covering this in Feminism, I believe.

I don’t think that safeguarding is only the duty of feminists. This needs a wider audience.

Started at Drag Queen Story Hour now we here...

It’s in Feminism in the sex and gender section, and has really nothing to do with either. Much more appropriate to be in AIBU - be really interested to hear the reasoning of those who think it’s ok for preschool aged children to see swinging dildos

People who don't have children aren't sexual deviants…

No one was saying they are!

I feel absolutely sick that this paedophilia type of grooming was permitted in the first place, deemed funny by the library staff, trivialised by some people.

This is a safeguarding issue. It’s not an artistic expression of telling a story to children. It is a sneaky and sly way of introducing sexual abuse. It is grooming.

Paedophiles are predators.

They:
Groom children
Groom families
Groom communities
Gain access to children in whatever way they can.

All this so that they can get away with hurting, harming, sexually abusing, raping and the torture of children for their own sexual gratification.

Somehow, there are so many victims of these predators who were not protected and safeguarded, or had any justice or had the perpetrator/s held accountable.

Grooming is not harmless or trivial and it does lead to much, much worse.

Anyone who voted YABU or has come on here to stir up shit is a sick fuck.

Usually nowadays on Mumsnet you will have your post deleted if you use the word 'grooming' in relation to this type of thing.

Clusterfuck.

From before they deleted it:

Following is a copy and paste from an educational website. I highlighted sexual material in bold because a dildo is sexual material and directly pertains to the actions of the person who wore it and jiggled it about and from some accounts encouraged children to touch it.

Examples of grooming behaviour may include:

openly or pretending to accidentally expose the victim to nudity, sexual material* and sexual acts (this in itself is classified as child sexual abuse but can also be a precursor to physical sexual assault)

How grooming happens
There are many different ways in which grooming can occur and it may even be parents, carers or other adults who supervise young people, who are targeted by this behaviour.
While the below information describes some of the ways in which grooming can happen, grooming will not always look like this. Offenders are deceptive and manipulative in the way they work, so it is important to draw on a range of information, such as the warning signs of sexual exploitation, if you have concerns.

www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/health/childprotection/Pages/expolitationgrooming.aspx

I only copy and pasted one paragraph that I thought was relevant. In the actual article there are many more examples.

Our children are truly under attack from all sides.
I could genuinely weep

It will be downplayed as an accident. But with kink openly included at Pride, this is only going to escalate.

Exposing children to dildos on adult males is not a sexual orientation. It is a paraphilia. It is paedophilia and it has no place in any society I want my children to live in.

Inclusive is not abusive.

This is all so weird.

Why not have just ordinary people who know how to read to little kids?

The drag thing as well some of the performers should have been checked more.

But why drag anyway? If they want LGBT+ role models why not locals with interesting jobs who happen to be a lesbian?

I mean storytime is little kids right? A picture book and some bland story about a mouse or something.

Why all this stuff which is just.. ???

The kids will be baffled by it all surely.

And why are libraries etc not doing any checking?

Where are they getting the suggestions/ idea to do this from? I can't imagine many people when looking for a storytime reader would have these groups as a go-to!

WOW!

In our house our kids know that boys and girls are different in terms of genitalia and we are quite open about getting dressed in front of one another etc BUT WTH!! If this happened in front of me and my kids we would be leaving and putting in a complaint.

Disgusting!

My biggest concern here is to do with the man who happily wore (and, I am presuming, had the costume made) this around kids. WTF is his intentions and his thought process.

Totally F*ed up in every way.

And as a random aside. Why are blokes so dick obsessed? Drawing them over everything, this one waggling a fake one, the ones who show them to you in the park or on the bus, unsolicited dick pics...

We're really not terribly interested. Put it away FGS.

@NiceGerbil - because drag is cooler than having some ole hairy lesbian- they're not 'rainbow' enough to prove you're inclusive.........