Drag Queen Storytime at my local library (photo attached)

[Carla786]

I had a lovely trip to my local library yesterday. Spent a long time there choosing books, basically the whole time there was a very noisy toddler event going on in the next room. I didn't mind, they host a lot of stuff for various people & that's good.

As I left, I looked at the posters of various things they were advertising. I saw one for 'Mama G', clearly a drag queen, which I photographed for identification purposes. I thought this nonsense of drag story hours might be quietening down, but clearly not at my library. I'd never seen them advertise anything like that before 🤦‍♀️

Checking the photo when I got home, I saw the event had taken place that day, while I was choosing my books. I wasn't listening particularly hard, but from what I heard it sounded more like a 'panto dame' style event than anything sexualised. It still seems odd and inadvisable though. If a drag Queen wants to do panto style entertainment for kids too, he should have a separate line in that, rather than mixing it up. 'Drag queen shows ' are by nature sexual and adult, so 'drag queen' shows blur boundaries whatever the content/intention.

I've not read the full thread as yet... I consider DQST to be grooming. It's mocking women in front of and to their young children.
Drag today is not like old English Drag or pantomime.

That plausible deniability again. When will people wake up to these men?

Have too many adults been beguiled by the sparkles and sequins?

“If a man wants to wear a flamboyant costume (a dress, a wild tuxedo, or something else entirely), wear eye shadow and lipstick, and sing, dance, and do a comedy routine, then I'd say 'go for gold'.”

Thats exactly what my friend and most modern drag queens are doing 🤣 his name is a play on words that’s entirely gender neutral. He doesn’t think he’s “dressing up as a woman”, he’s dressing up as his character. You may as well just say you don’t agree with a man wearing dresses and makeup because there’s no possible way for you to win this argument without saying that. Because you cannot seem to understand the difference between a man wearing dresses and makeup as a costume for a performance, and a man dressing up as a woman. There. Is. A. Difference. And I’ve explained what that difference is when it comes to modern drag and the drag queens I know - no misogynistic jokes, no belief that he is a woman or even dressing up as a woman. Just a man that likes to dress up in flamboyant outfits, sing songs, and take the piss out of gay men. Gay men (especially camp ones) refer to each other as ‘she’ all the time in a jokey way. It’s just part of their campness (suppose you’re going to get up in arms about that as well 🙄) So whether he was performing in drag or performing as a camp gay man, people would probably still refer to him as she. It really doesn’t mean anything. Anywaaay, I’m officially bored of this conversation.

Grayson Perry has stated that he purposefully gets dresses made for him to hide the obvious.
All of the men who say they are "trans" that I have met have been older men with this sexual fetish, all autogynophiles.

You may have missed the DR costume involving amputated breast tissue being paraded on the stage by a DQ parodying a double mastectomy.

Or the offensive names they use which reference ‘fish’ which is how they refer to women - a reference to the claimed smell of certain of our body parts. It is misogyny on steroids.

What’s it got to do with children though? Gay clubs, that’s fine. In front of children? Not fine.

We have to look at the social media posts of many trans identifying males to see that it is very much a sexual fetish.

Mary Kate Delvey on X is a good account to look at - she has responded to the constant demands to ‘listen to trans people’ and does exactly that. She gets huge abuse for it from trans activists.

Where are you going to meet all these 'AGP' men, do you find them online?
The idea that Grayson Perry - someone who doesn't identify as trans, or gay, and as a turner prize winning artist is by definition someone who pushes the extremes - is being given as an example of how a whole group of people behave is just laughable. Grayson is very open about how the identity and how different this is.

What's with women on Mumsnet seeking out men who have sexual kinks? And what does that have to do with Mama g?

Grayson Perry has said clearly that he is a transvestite and that this is part of his sexuality.

So you agree, Grayson Perry has clearly said this is sexual for him, that he doesn't identify as a trans woman and he's not gay. He talks openly about this being different and unusual. So what's that got to do with Mama G

I was reflecting on this thread, and in nearly twenty years of working in children's services I haven't once come across a referral or open case where an alleged sexual abuser was a drag artist or trans woman. I know there have been some nationally as they've been very well publicised, but it's not something I've ever come across in my professional career. And it's not that people don't report - we get plenty about neighbours, family members, sports coaches, piano teachers etc. For the posters on here who, assuming they're posting in good faith, have described having irrefutable evidence that all drag artists are perverts getting off on grooming children, are you reporting it?

Perhaps because for some years women have been vilified for naming the particular misogyny of trans /drag. We are supposed to go along with the idea that they are stunning and brave, which we know to be a lie.

So women have been empowered to report teachers, sports coaches, politicians, their own husbands, but drag artists are untouchable? The same women who are confident to talk openly to them about their sexual fetishes to know about them, and declare them to be perverts, are the same who fearful of making an anonymous online MASH referral? I struggle to see that's credible.

Drag Race is a horrible caricature of women, inflated breasts, puffed up lips. Its vile.

No, I have been recently, most people still go to sit and read, it is just that Libraries are not used enough (as people now scroll shapes and bright lights on their phone all day rather than reading) and to remain open have to stage "events" to pretend they are viable, the amount of council tax being collected should (IMO) mean that libraries are open, and quiet, even if it is just two people and a dog reading, your idea that people wouldn"t go to a large building with rooms full of books to read strikes me as very odd!

They shouldn"t have to, there should be a separate soundproofed area for these events, libraries are big buildings full of books, it is obvious what the purpose of these buildings is mean"t to be.

It’s mainly about grooming the parents imo.

DQs being used to introduce children to gender ideology is one application of DQSH and the other is to get parents used to the inevitable boundary pushing we see within this primarily adult genre. It appears to have been successful for some - see the eagerness with which PPs on this thread defend or excuse blatantly inappropriate behaviour.

There is lots of plausible deniability being deployed and so many fall for it.

Drag Race has been marketed at children and there has been all sorts of inappropriate for them on that show. I get deleted a lot for reporting on verifiable facts.

Why are supporters so defensive? Why can’t supportive see the issues and agree that far more caution should be taken with children’s safety? How many convictions are required?

Because the precautions that are being advocated on this thread are banning the events, declaring all the men to be perverts and diagnosing them with discredited psychiatric illnesses.
The precautions being taken are having these performances in a public place, by people who have undertaken the usual employment checks to work with children.
And because most people outside of Mumsnet don't think that discussions of gender, or accepting people for how they feel, or want to look, is dangerous ideology.

Quite right.

It absolutely is. I'm angry and outraged that so many posters on here are defending it.

Do you think it's contageous? Sexual? Same as transwomen? And that that's contageous?

Utterly bizarre. If YOU don't like it, don't take YOUR kids to it. As toddlers were giggling along, parents DID take their kids. They were not forced or ambushed by a drag queen, but CHOSE to go, because they think it's a great idea.

Not your monkeys, not your circus what other parents choose to bring their kids to.

TV has an off button - you don't have to watch it.

What a lot of fuss over nothing at all.

Like the idea- attend event.
Don’t like the idea-don’t attend the event.

It’s all avoidable if it’s not your thing.

Also grooming?! Give over you muppets.

He said he was a transvestite and said this is part of his sexuality. I said this because I was answering @Verytall who seemed to be suggesting, though I may have misunderstood, that G P was simply a boundary breaking artist who could not be compared to anyone else.

Transvestitism is not just about being in drag but a sexuality. GP is not exceptional in this and can be compared to other transvestites, artist though he is.

Stop pushing queer no boundaries theory on to children.