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

@snibbleagain tbh that's just the price you have to pay as a parent if you disagree with the curriculum. If your opposition to an event that the school has deemed appropriate is such that you can't let your kids participate, then take the hit on the unauthorised absence. Parents don't get total control over how and what their kids learn in this country (thank god, otherwise who knows what might happen...)

@upsideup do you th

Diet
"If you aren't keen just don't let your children go!"

Don't let them go to school? Really? That is your answer? Conform to your shit or not be educated.

Now that's progressive

"Have you every spoken to a drag queen and learnt about drag?"

No, but I've seen it on telly an enormous amount given that it's a popular form of entertainment.

And ever since I was a child I have found it uncomfortable and felt that it was taking the piss out of women.

Now you tell me I need to get a man to tell me, a woman, why me reacting negatively to men dressed in stereotypical women's clothes, with over-played feminine voices, mannerisms etc, is in fact the wrong reaction?

WTF

Is this some more of the re-education we've been hearing that so many women need?

..think you're the only person that has ever seen a drag act?

@DietCokeGirrrrrl it's not in the curriculum. There will be a myriad of ways to deliver content on tolerance and inclusion, this is one head teacher's individual choice.

And have them marked down as a day's unathorised absence...

Because thats what it is? If you dont want your children to be taught about religion then you could withdraw them and it would be an unarthorised absence, why would you expect it to be any different?

This is starting to sound like the excuses for "banter". If we don't laugh along, even when the joke is at our expense, then we're humourless and "taking it the wrong way".

Upside

What the fuck does it matter to a child's education if I or anyone e;se have spoken to a drag queen? You have some weird fucking agenda here, which to be perfectly honest, I have no interest in unpicking. So keep your drag queen education for your own kids thanks, and let them become enlightened on your watch

And the answer is still NO for my kids

No, you can withdraw your child from religious worship without it being considered an unauthorised absence.

Yes, if anything that is what drag queens are mocking, societies pereception of femininity

I don't think drag acts are mocking anything. To refer back to that stupid article about appropriation drag acts appropriated the ultra glamourous style of female Hollywood actors and before Hollywood the ultra glamourous style of female music hall entertainers.

It's absurd to say that it isn't using the idea of woman and femininity as a negative

See above. I don't think it is being used as a negative unless you think femininity is always and in itself something lesser. I don't.

The issue here is that you don't like an activity which has been deemed totally appropriate by the school. I think we can safely assume there won't be any sexualised antics going on unless the school board have absolutely lost the plot. It is genuinely no different to taking your kids to a pantomime (except fewer ageist jokes at the expense of old women...). If you have such a problem with this that you don't consider it acceptable you can choose to 'protect' your children but you have to accept the unauthorised absence just like you would if you felt uncomfortable with your kids being taught about religion or sexual education or any other topic parents sometimes get in a twist about.

Now you tell me I need to get a man to tell me, a woman, why me reacting negatively to men dressed in stereotypical women's clothes, with over-played feminine voices, mannerisms etc, is in fact the wrong reaction?

I actually got taught about drag by my female dsd, who dresses up in drag and designs costumes and does makeup for drag events. You dont need to be taught by a man but you dont seem to understand the concept, Drag queens are apposed to gender stereotypes as much as you! They are mocking societies expectations of what being a woman is, the are most definately not mocking what women or what being a woman actually is.

This is a lot of shite.

There is no amount of gaslighting that will persuage me that I am some kind of prude objecting to this. Datun has it spot on: it is grooming. I don't know what the fuck the agenda is here, but I'm not having it.

It's about time you fuckers get it into your heads that we will not all stand by and let our kids be groomed because we are fearful of some fucker telling us that we are not 'progressive' enough, or, worse 'rightwing'.

Enough.

"The only shit imposed on you children would be that they can wear a dress and makeup and still be a boy and that wearing a dress and make up isnt part of being a girl."

"wearing a dress and make up isnt part of being a girl."

At what point is this taught? I'd say it reinforces very strongly and in the worst possible way what the expectations are around femininity, and simultaneously that they are ridiculous.

This is a difficult enough conflict to get to grips with as an adult, let alone as a child.
Be pretty but not too pretty
Wear makeup but not too much
Wear heels but it needs to be effortless - no stumbling! hahahaha
Be sexy but not too sexy
Be demure >> to be otherwise is hilariously obscene
and so on

If femininity didn't exist then what would drag be based on? What would be the joke?

Advocating teaching tolerance of misogyny in schools? Srsly? Will they bring on a minstrel show next?

If you dont want your children to be taught about religion then you could withdraw them and it would be an unarthorised absence, why would you expect it to be any different?

Because you can withdraw your children from religious activities.

"They are mocking societies expectations of what being a woman is, the are most definately not mocking what women or what being a woman actually is."

Funny how it comes across so incredibly strongly that way then.

Assigned, people having a different opinion to you isn't gaslighting ffs. The world is full of different and contradictory views. No one is mentally abusing you and trying to convince you that you're insane because they hold a different view to you.

The point is that a drag act is inviting us to think that femininity and sex-based stereotypes are negative and therefore it's funny that men perform like this. Obviously I don't think it's negative, which is why I don't find drag acts to be funny or entertaining.

Since when is promoting misogynistic parodies of women to children considered appropriate?

You can withdraw them from religious worship type stuff.

not sure about actual RE.

I wouldn't keep my kids out because I'm not that sort of person but I'd need to have a crack at explaining why it's so fucking funny for men to dress as women and that gets into gender hierarchy which is not a great thing to have to tell at the age mine are.

Anyone got a better explanation as to why men dressing as women is SO funny, in a way that women dressing as men is not? Apart from drag, men dressing as women is popular on stags, when raising money for charity etc. I would love to know why this is a "thing" if not due to hierarchy.

What is funnier, me dressing as a man in a suit, putting on a deep voice, maybe having a moustache, or me dressing as a monkey, with a fur outfit, scampering around and making gorilla noises? I think most people would find the monkey funnier.... Why would that be I wonder.

I've felt this way since I was a little girl.

So have lots of other women.

Men saying oho you just don't get the joke... And having some women back them up... It's just same-old same-old, you know?

RTFT diet.

They are mocking societies expectations of what being a woman is

I disagree. I don't think drag acts remotely do that. I think they appropriate the standards of an ultra glamourous style which is unrealistic for most women and frankly most women are not expected to meet.

the are most definately not mocking what women or what being a woman actually is

I agree. I think it is an appropriation and a celebration of an unrealistic form of glamour and style.

I am unconvinced this needs to be brought into a class room.

I wonder how much women would be accepted if they dressed like that and tried on exaggerated woman-voices and tried to read stories to kids. I wonder how they'd be described by magazines and newspapers. I doubt it would be positive coverage.

The point is that a drag act is inviting us to think that femininity and sex-based stereotypes are negative and therefore it's funny that men perform like this

I don't think they are doing that.

The awful Dick Emery/ Mrs Brown type acts are mocking women. I don't think the RuPaul type acts are saying femininity is negative or funny.