Children being read stories by Drag Queens on World Book Day

[AssignedPuuurfectAtBirth]

One of whom refers to himself as "Bristol’s Resident Slag".

WTF now?

www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/parents-anger-over-drag-queens-1254111

How does men dressed up as hypersexualised stereotyped parodies of women help reduce misogyny and increase tolerance?

It would be so much more interesting and relevant to have a variety of real people of all different kinds coming in to read stories.

AssassinatedBeauty

You dont seem very tolerant? Maybe if you had more experiance interacting with drag queens from a young age like I was and my children are you would be? I think the fact that there wouldnt be a thread on mumsnet being outraged at a window cleaner talking to children but there is for drag queens perfectly shows why it is more neccesary.

You seem fairly judgemental.

I'm not particularly keen on performance that relies on a negative misogynistic stereotyping of women. Why should I be? That's got nothing to do with how tolerant I am of people generally.

Nobody is outraged. People are questioning whether it's appropriate for primary aged children on World Book Day.

If it's about the HT being turned on, as suggested by another, then I would remove my child from the school, sounds creepy.

I think sexism is the biggest crisis facing us today. They don't even mention it.

I'm with assassinated beauty

People should be free to wear what the hell they like and my kids are being taught that.

But ondont sure what the article would refer to them as drag queens if it was just people dressed up as book characters which anyone who has seen a panto would not bat an eye at seeing men and women dressed up as anything and everything.

But drag queens are different are adult entertainers and that kinda stereotype nonsense the kids can do without.

Why do it of its not all about the lgbt stuff. Which the trans makes a mockery of given its roots in homophobia.

My kids know about men marrying men and women marrying women.

The T has no place in schools.

The head is taking the piss

upsideup
The Black and White minstrels used to be hugely popular in the 1960s and 70s - on mainstream tv on Saturday nights etc. Gradually, people came to understand that white people dressing up as parodies of black people was offensive and insulting and gradually it died out - quite rightly.
I think that men dressing up as grotesque parodies of women is also offensive and insulting and wish that it would also die out. Sadly for me, some people, like this headteacher celebrate and promote it. It's not a 'hill I'm going to die on' but I do disagree with you and I don't think that young children should see this type of representation of women presented to them as 'normal'.

My friend is one of these storytellers. They are tame. They volunteer in libraries and read stories. I think the children see them as panto characters. They are drama students. I think it’s harmless really.

Why do kids need to be taught about 'misogyny' by...... drag queens? Just... Why? Are they getting in some feminist story tellers to do a session with the kids too? Or would that be too dull?

This just screams 'try hard' to me, it's just unnecessary. Kids don't need to be taught about drag.

It is the same drag queen act that was in the papers a few weeks back? Going into nursery schools?

Where one of them had a friend called 'Poppin' Cherry'? A euphemism for breaking a virgin's hymen.

Because if so, the act was aimed at three and four-year-olds and they said, explicitly, they were educating the children on what constitutes a hate crime.

So why the references to drag queens if they aren't, and are simply drama students dressing as various different characters? What is "drag" about it?

shedalight

But is it not that being a woman actually has nothing to do with wearing a dress and loads of makeup? That it is only 'dressing up', an art for preformance?

Yes it's the same group.

Men in women’s clothes are teaching kids as young as two — including one who dressed as Alice in Wonderland — at seven Gov­ernment-funded nurseries to stop them committing hate crimes in later life.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/news/4896260/drag-queens-nursery-schools-teach-kids-transgender-issues/amp/

Miss Beaver - one of the drag queens involved in the ‘Drag Queen Story Time’ project

Do you think this will be a reference to the character of a beaver in a children's story or do you think it will refer to something else?

I honestly don't know how our schools can be this naive.

Men, dressed as hyper sexualised women, with names like beaver and popping cherry, teaching little kids that if they feel uncomfortable around the opposite sex in a confined space, they'd better be careful they aren't committing a hate crime.

AssassinatedBeauty

Because thats all drag is, its just a slang term for dressing up as a character of the opposite sex. Over time it has developed into its own art and proffesion, and the term drag queen is just another slang term used to descibe people who do it. In a pantomine anyone who dresses up as character of the opposite sex can be seen as being dressed in 'drag', it doesnt have to be sexual.

upsideup
That's right - being a woman is nothing to do with make up, high heels and glittery dresses. But not if you look at the portrayal of womanhood that these drag queens present to 4 year olds.
And I still can't see any difference between their parodies and the Black and white minstrels ? Can you explain the difference and why the latter is unacceptable but drag queens are OK? Cos I'm really confused.

It's bizarre. Any other situation involving safeguarding you'd think those responsible would say "let's just apply some common sense, and if there's a sense of anything dodgy, we won't go ahead".

But once there's a trans aspect, no, it is forbidden to apply common sense. The only option is to charge ahead believing that all must go well.

shedalight

Because having black skin has everything to do with being black.
Wearing a dress has nothing to do with being a woman.

I think it looks fun. The ‘drag queens’ are larger than life characters that demonstrate non conformism in a cool fun way. I’m sure they aren’t doing jokes about being slags or anything ‘adult’. They should women dressed in non conforming ways too.

It's not simply "non-conformist". It's the hyper-stylised, sexualised parody of a stereotypical feminine woman. Have a look at the pictures on their Facebook page and see if you think they are dressed as female characters from storybooks, or not.

It would be great to have lots of different people dressed in lots of different ways. This isn't that.

So no one can see the connection in hyper sexualised men in dresses telling children that if they see hyper sexualised men in dresses in their private spaces, they can't say anything because it could be construed as a hate crime?

Or grooming, in other words.

upsidedown
But they're dressing and impersonating women for entertainment. It's not just the clothes, it's the fake breasts, the voice, sterotypical mannerisms, over sexualised behaviour ?

As I said upthread - this is not the feminist hill that I'm going to die on. There are a myriad of ways to promote kindness and tolerance and understanding and presenting men dressed as grotesque parodies of women is not one that in a million years I would ever recommend for little children.

Shedalight. Exactly

I went to a children's event at the Museum of London and some drag artists did an age appropriate performance which the children enjoyed. Not sure what the issue is?