Drag Queen at a Primary School - continuation thread here - https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4490413-Drag-Queen-at-a-Primary-School-Thread-2?watched=1

[Lennyllama]

What are your views on a drag queen visiting a primary school for the day? Think thigh high leather boots with short revealing dresses and a dance show. The drag queen spent the day at school. Did a show for KS2 and then went around to individual classes to read a story book. The school had a themed dress up day. The theme was This is Me. Parents were not informed that this would be happening and were not given the option to opt in or out of the experience. The school has a very diverse mix of cultures and religions. This particular queen is easily found online, the kids were told their stage name and their content is rather steamy.

YANBU- It’s inappropriate
YABU- It’s appropriate

I have name changed for this.

I fully agree that a teacher should be reprimanded for deliberately exposing themselves. That's not what the DQ did though

The outfit was a sparkly dress over a leotard so OK mesh sparkles, but nothing was exposed, there's a leotard underneath so the mesh part is cancelled out. I know that reads silly but hopefully you see what I mean

And you still can't answer my question of why men in drag don't have to conform to the school rules about what is appropriate.

@ImWithBinty You haven’t addressed the way it made my DC and her friends feel? Is that irrelevant?

And your argument about this being a wardrobe malfunction is laughable! The chances of your arse falling out of your clothes is greatly increased when you’re not really wearing any.

And yes, it was intentionally deceptive and underhanded. They announce every visitor that will be meeting our children in advance. This is the first time that I can think of where they haven’t. Do you really believe that keeping us all in the dark wasn’t intentional? They knew parents would be up in arms about it but they wanted to do it anyway so they kept quiet.

@Bintymcbintface but nothing was exposed I literally just said half his ass was visible.

@Bintymcbintface

Little kids shouldn't be online without parental controls and supervision. It is not the fault of the school or the performer if a kid goes onto their website, that's on the parents...

If school has in effect signposted kids to look up and easily find sexual content then yes, it's on them. We know how easily kids can do these things and if you know anything about how safeguarding in schools works you'll know that part of why it exists is because so many kids have no supervision in any area of their lives, it's damage limitation.

Given teaching staff have repeatedly been told to be careful with what they wear in many schools - no tight ott sports wear, not too revealing, no visible thongs when bending over, I can't see how this is appropriate.

Why not get a paraOlympian in for the day?

Because an invited performer isn't subject to the same rules as the pupils and staff of the school. Can a teacher or pupil go in their pyjamas to school? no. Do parents up and down the country daily do the school run in their pjs? Yes

I have already answered this.

So someone that wears skin tight lycra like an athlete would be perfectly alright. But a drag performer in the same thing with sparkly mesh over the top of it isn't?

@Havers radio silence. Tonight I will be emailing the LA.

They told the kids the name of the performer, presumably whilst introducing them, that would be normal... Its not like they handed out pamphlets with the Web address

@Lennyllama if your DC felt uncomfortable then does that mean it's necessarily bad? Perhaps it indicates something unusual and against the norm, which this is. Did they feel threatened? That would be different.

I didn't comment on the wardrobe malfunction point.

You didn't answer my question about why. Why why why would they arrange this if not to broaden horizons?

@WarriorN

Given teaching staff have repeatedly been told to be careful with what they wear in many schools - no tight ott sports wear, not too revealing, no visible thongs when bending over, I can't see how this is appropriate.

Why not get a paraOlympian in for the day?

Now that would be awesome

This is me:

Female car engineer
Male nurse
Para Olympian

@ImWithBinty I’m sorry, I got my Binty’s confused. It wasn’t you that commented on his ass being on show.

I don’t know why. I can’t think of a single good reason why they felt that this would be a good idea. I can’t think of a single acceptable reason why an x-rated performer would be a good example to our children.

[quote Lennyllama]@ImWithBinty I’m sorry, I got my Binty’s confused. It wasn’t you that commented on his ass being on show.

I don’t know why. I can’t think of a single good reason why they felt that this would be a good idea. I can’t think of a single acceptable reason why an x-rated performer would be a good example to our children.[/quote]
You haven't said how it was an x-rated performance...

@Bintymcbintface

Because an invited performer isn't subject to the same rules as the pupils and staff of the school. Can a teacher or pupil go in their pyjamas to school? no. Do parents up and down the country daily do the school run in their pjs? Yes

I have already answered this.

Yeah but you were told earlier that that's incorrect and that school visitors are subject to the rules of the establishment.

@Bintymcbintface

Please explain how kids are unsafe having a drag performer do a dance and read from a children's book.

They know their name dolly trolley, so what? it's not a rude name, it's not even remotely suggestive... The website has slightly more revealing outfits yeah but nothing so risqué that a child would be traumatised, so I'm still struggling to see how there's any kind of safeguarding issue, besides young kids shouldn't be online unsupervised or without parental controls being set up so should they see anything that would be inappropriate, that's on the parents that should have been supervising them, not the school that told the kids what the performers character name was, nor the performer themselves.

Because it is exposing children to an extreme sexual stereotype and demanding them to accept it. If a huge number of adults don't even accept it why is it ok for children to be conditioned to? We do not send our children to primary school for this.

Drag Queen Storytime is a self indulgent, egotistical, 'look at me' show on behalf of the DQ. Storytime is about children and stories, not some glammed up egotrip for an out of work adult entertainer.

Same old prejudices being passed as concerns for children.

I assume the performance will be age-appropriate. I am sure that Queen is not planning to pole-dance and do a strip -tease and I doubt very much that they would be wearing revealing clothes to see kids...

If you have a problem with drag, be honest about it.

Kids should learn about diversity.

Some mind-blowing ignorance here about what drag is actually about. They are perfectly able to adapt to the audience and not all drag queens go around wearing next to nothing.

As for drag being misogyny, I despair...

As someone who has been victim of male violence several times in my name, including sexual and physical assault, I can tell you that this violence never came from a drag queen or a transgender woman, it always came from middle class men who were married with children and had perfectly respectable appearances.

What has happened to some feminists that they are forgetting what the real issues are and are going on a bizarre crusade about minority groups which are going through the same struggle as women?

When was I told that was incorrect beyond being informed that some teachers do in fact wear jeans? Were there examples of parents being spoken to about their attire?

This performer performs adult routines, under the same name. Any child who enjoyed his visit may easily seek out more online content under that name, because that is what people, including children, do. You enjoy someone's work, you look for more of it.

The only way this won't happen is if the drag queen's visit was actually really boring, and not fun at all, or if all pupils' internet access is strictly limited wherever they go.

We have been repeatedly told that the drag queen's adult performances under the same name are irrelevant unless he actually replicated them in front of the children that day.

Does this reasoning work for anyone else? Because I have seen people claim children's authors shouldn't make tours of schools after making comments on their twitter accounts or after publishing books that met with some disapproval.

Could you also speak to your MP?

They are perfectly able to adapt to the audience and not all drag queens go around wearing next to nothing.

But not willing to adapt to the audience by having a different name for the segment of their business pitched at children?

OP I am so with you on this. I know another prospective parent who called the school today to ask about this. They could not believe that a primary school would think this was acceptable.

Do actors change their names for when they're in U and PG films so they're separated from their 15/18 films when googled?

I'd get changing the name if it was something like tits mcgee but dolly trolley isn't at all suggestive or inappropriate.