Drag Workshop at Kent Guide and Scout Jamboree

[feministscout]

I am a scout leader and I am a feminist (a reasonably grumpy vocal menopausal one so that might be while I feel like this). Kent Scout Jamboree clearly ran a fantastic event for 7000 young people last week but I was really shocked to see that they had booked the "Kent Drag Queens" and were running Drag Workshops and Drag Bingo (this is 14-17 year olds). I'll be honest I don't like drag, I find it extremely degrading to women, but each to their own when you are an adult. What I was concerned about what the pictures that were posted on Facebook of the event showing young male scouts in drag in sexualised poses. I wont post them here as they are minors. Scouting is meant to be inclusive. This was a multi cultural event with 50% of those attending being young women. I don't think drag is empowering young women. I think it reduces the female form to an object of mimicry. Looking at these young lads dressed up it clearly fuelled sexualisation and distortion of gender roles. they were clutching their bras and chests etc. I also think it encourages misogynistic behaviour, reinforcing negative and reductive views of women and their bodies. I wrote as soon as I saw these images to the organisers of the Jamboree expressing my views and got what is clearly a stock response that they had lined up saying it was basically an inclusive event similar to pantomime, exposing people to a diverse population and if members didn't like it they could go and do something else. Utterly missing the point this isn't just an LGBT issue but a feminist one too. Am I being unreasonable and a fun sponge here or is this something that should be questioned going forward?

Any suggestions on what to include when I email UK scouting as a concerned parent of a scout and a beaver?

Dear Scout Leader,

Any chance you can book Danny Beard for next year as he’s a fucking scream and my favourite Drag Artist.

FFS why?
I don't necessarily think all drag artists are a danger to children (or anyone else) but I hate it as its usually a gross charicature of women.
Why would anyone think this was a good idea?

Absolutely awful.

Drag is so oversexualised. Panto dames used to be very obviously men but nowadays they are more drag and sexualised and I don’t go to panto.

Were the guides also encouraged to dress up with extra big boobs and massive eye makeup, or was this a boy-scouts only thing? Not sure how inclusive this is really.

I hope you’re not a parent!

Yes, the idea that panto is meant to be the same as drag has not done it any favours.

Crazy that your username is @Doseofreality 🤣 maybe take a spoonful of you own medicine. Sounds like you need a dose of reality yourself.

Have you seen some of the drag artist’s names? Grim and misogynistic.
The fake boobs over made up taking the oiss out of women and catty jokes/remarks just in case we weren’t already stereotyped enough as a sex class.

I’ve seen the pics and was shocked. It’s only the boys in bras and make up and short dresses. Disrespectful and totally inappropriate at a children’s event.

I think posting on the feminism sex and gender topic would be a good idea. The posters there know a lot about how to compose an effective enquiry/complaint.

There are female drag queens out there....

Doesn’t look like any Drag Kings were there looking at the pictures. Irrelevant really. Children should not be posing in bras to mock girls and women. Adults can do what they want.

Ask them if they're thinking of booking the Black & White Minstrels next time. And then maybe an act that mocks disabled people the following year.

Women can do drag. Both as drag queens and drag kings. Chappel Roan, Lady Gaga, Elvira... very famous women who embrace elements of drag culture.

Young boys have always dressed up as women. From putting on their sister/mom's bras and dancing around the house, to the theatre, to stag nights, to charity dress up

Comparing it to a minstrel show is incredibly offensive

Encouraging minors to engage in sexualised behaviour is grooming. I acknowledge other concerns about this event but I thinking it's also a safeguarding issue. Anyone arguing that this is acceptable because it's "inclusive" should not be trusted to protect the interests of children.

Totally this!! And in general, people don’t know/understand the difference.

Safeguarding red flags all over this. I am shocked that anyone in their right mind thought this was appropriate.

Comparing it to a minstrel show is incredibly offensive

As plenty of people have said on this thread, drag is usually very different from the likes of absurd panto dames or dressed up lads out on a stag night having a drunken laugh - although I still highly doubt that you'd get white panto dames or stag night groups 'blacking up'.

So much of drag is specifically targeted at ridiculing and mocking women, and making stereotypical comments and jokes, with women the butt of every one. Without it, there's not really any kind of act, if it's just a man wearing female-coded clothes and standing there; or telling 'safe', 'neutral' non-victim-based jokes (such as in the context of a panto script) - how would that entertain people for an hour? Who would go to the effort of dressing up so elaborately as a gross parody of a woman just to tell knock-knock jokes or make political statements?

Many of the vile names, much of the 'ooh, aren't women pathetic' characterisation, making deeply misogynistic statements "but it's fine for me to do so, because I'm dressed 'like a woman'", commenting on how 'women smell fishy' - or just using the word 'fish' as a synonym for a woman.

You really don't find any of that offensive?

Do these women doing drag put on huge fake penses and fake body hair and make lewd jokes about men and their 'stereotypes'? Or do they do something else?

At this point who is actually signing their kids up for Scouts or Guides?

Honestly between this and the new look uniform adverts I have to wonder who is actually in charge here.

😂

This is wholely inappropriate for scouting. You should definitely report to HQ.

https://www.scouts.org.uk/contact-us/

What exactly is ‘Drag’ inclusive of.

It has nothing to do with any of the protected characteristics in the Equality Act.