Drag queen story time

[RagingBall]

Manchester central library is holding drag queen story time over Halloween. How can I convince the council that this is a crap idea?

Can you elaborate your objections here?

Manchester central library is holding drag queen story time over Halloween. How can I convince the council that this is a crap idea?

Point out the overtly sexualised nature of most drag queens, as well as the negative and offensive representation of women.

Even if not successful, they need to be aware that not everyone thinks this is just harmless fun.

Ask the library what the content will be, what books will be read and if the outfit will be sexualising women or mocking women.

I asked as I heard for our local DQST that there would be 'original material' and I wanted to known if there would be twerking/teaching twerking or if kids would be asked about their pronouns.

I got my answers and didn't attend. You'll be marking your card but you probably won't be the only one asking.

The council probably won't care, mine didn't, but if you feel you can challenge it then you could ask about the DBS check.

Ask if they have carried out a safeguarding assessment. Convicted paedophiles have been caught trying to do Drag Queen Storytimes.

Raise safeguarding- ask whether safeguarding checks will have been done, and that appropriate behaviour will be encouraged. People without appropriate safeguarding experience have been known to encourage children's physical interaction in a way which is not appropriate.
I don't think I've ever seen photos of children crawling over a stranger in any other context.

Drag is for adults

I would make that point, and seek assurances as a PP has said, that the outfit won’t be sexualising or demeaning towards women. Will the speaker be wearing a stuffed bra for example? If so, why? A man can dress in drag perfectly well without needing to ape women in this way

In what way does drag have anything to do with children's stories?

You could ask is this part of a programme of community story tellers where many different members of the public will be telling stories, or is this part of their half term programme of scheduled children's entertainment where other children's entertainers will be performing? The difference is relevant as safeguarding/DBS and vetting of suitability for role/supervision will be different. How have the library chosen these storytellers - are they part of the local community, part of a group that has been approached to ask them to do this, or are they advertising their story times to libraries and agencies, ie as children's entertainers? Who has checked the content to ensure suitability and what is the age group?

Worth raising the issues that have come up with this in other places and asking how they are ensuring those issues don't happen here. And that's not even going into the many reasons why drag can be perceived as questionable to all kinds of parts of the community, women and trans people in particular. I'd be interested to know if someone has properly thought this through and done the due diligence in booking.

You've reminded me to post a link to a paper I found a little while ago, which compares drag to blackface. There's a lot of good points you could bring up:

scholarship.kentlaw.iit.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=3209&context=cklawreview

Apologies - that doesn't seem to link directly, if you search 'drag' it's the first result by Kelly Kleiman.

That is brilliant.

Sorry, but why is this even a thing? Since when has it been normal for drag queens to go to libraries and read to very young children (cos lets face it, it's not like older children go for story time is it.) Why is this something encouraged and endorsed, who does it serve (in the council's eyes).

Echoing what others have said.
Drag is for adults
Will there be twerking?
DBS checked?
Risk assessment - given that a convicted paedophile was a member of a Drag Queen Storytime
Will the performers be dressed in appropriate clothing?
Is the parodying of women sending out a positive message to children?

And check that it isn't this group from the US:
www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2019/october/librarys-drag-queen-story-hour-strip-show-goes-viral

"Activist Mommy" Johnston called it "utter insanity" and asked, "Whatever happened to puppet shows and craft day at the library?"*
🤣

Honestly I think councils are doing this for woke points and to meet some kind of diversity target.

I haven't looked into this for a while but I remember reading about how it was a man who started it, following the US trend, and that he wasn't a parent and that after launching there was a high level of interest in a short space of time...from people looking to perform. I'd have to look out the article but it was local Bristol news, where this guy launched it.

FWIW I don't find the drag queens in the UK libraries quite as sexualised as the US ones but it makes it no more appealing to me, I still think it's insulting and completely out of place in libraries. I see Drag as taking the piss and as my kid freaks out at well-loved, life sized cartoon characters Drag Queens would give him nightmares!

It's all part of normalising stuff that in the good old days, kids wouldn't be exposed to....and don't get me started on Drag kids or pup play at family friendly Pride.

Honestly I think councils are doing this for woke points and to meet some kind of diversity target.

I agree. Unfortunately hiring more women, disabled and people from different ethnicities is just not woke enough.
You could ask what would happen if a female librarian or teacher turned up to work in a mini, heels and extreme makeup and did a highly sexual dance for the kids.
If it goes ahead I would turn up and secretly record it then put it on social media.

I find drag offensive always have from a tiny child. I do find it the equivalent of blacking up.

That’s what it is taking the piss out of women like you would with someone’s race, stereotyping and so on.

“We love diversity, we have men, men in dresses, sexually suggestive men, sexually suggestive men in dresses. Everything a young child needs.”

I saw on Twitter that black women didn't like the comparison of misogynistic drag to, for example, the black and white minstrels, and requested that we didn't use it. I do feel that drag is yet another episode of the oppressing class mocking and insulting those with much less power and just another part of the long, shameful and sordid oppression this privileged group has for millennia inflicted upon women.

I saw on Twitter that black women didn't like the comparison of misogynistic drag to, for example, the black and white minstrels, and requested that we didn't use it.

It's a fair comparison though, whether she likes it or not. A privileged group mocking a less-privileged group for cultural capital.

Yes, I see a lot of parallels myself.

Good luck with getting the council to stop this madness. But watch out that they don't just replace it with pup-play creeps.