Drag Queen Story Hour wiki entry

[corkernewyorker]

A somewhat incomplete article about Drag Queen Story Hour on Wikipedia. Anyone feel up to adding in a few references about links to the less positive aspects? link

@Comingoutfighting

Just had a look and it said my IP address is blocked from editing. Is anyone else getting that? Or is it that nobody can edit?

Check you don't have a VPN running. The article is currently editable.

I've just signed up and it's editable. I'm happy to make a few changes if anyone has any suggestions about what to write.

@cariadlet super. I'm not good at this, but I was surprised that there was no links to evidence about abuses of the activity by opportunists, nor much focus on the (valid) safeguarding concerns. And what about the concerns that drag is misogynistic in it's portrayal of women 'womanface'?

@corkernewyorker I'm in town at the moment. I'll try putting something together this afternoon. If anyone has any links, that would be great.

The wokerati get all worked up by "appropriating" hairstyles, clothing, names etc and yet men are allowed to appropriate women a-la-drag. How is that right?

Women must always bow to men's requirements.

What are the " (valid) safe guarding concerns?" - aren't the readings done in a public library with other adults and the children's parents there?

why is it any different to any other kids performer re: safeguarding?

@sailmeaway

What are the " (valid) safe guarding concerns?" - aren't the readings done in a public library with other adults and the children's parents there?

I'm reading up on this at the moment. I was vaguely aware of drag queen story hour but didn't know to much because I've only started coming on to the feminist boards fairly recently and the worst examples seem to have been covered in papers which I don't read.

One example is a drag queen called Flowjob who read a story to young pupils at a Scottish primary school last year. The headteacher admitted that when she tweeted about the visit, she was unable to tag the school visitor in the tweet, because doing so would have taken you from the school twitter directly to a highly sexually explicit twitter page.

A Renfrewshire Council spokeswoman admitted had it known about Flojob's stage persona it would not have allowed a visit to be arranged.
“All school visits are arranged and managed with the wellbeing of pupils first and foremost however it is clear in this case, the social media content associated with the speaker’s stage persona is not appropriate for children and had we been aware of this, the visit would not have been arranged. We are sorry for the concern this has caused.”

I remember that one, so in that case the performers SM wasn't appropriate and the school should have checked, as I'm sure they do with all SM for all visitors/performers to their school.
I wouldn't say that's a general safeguarding issue with the DQ story-time, is it? It's a one off.
I read the entry, and it does actually address some of the controversy around DQST

great video here

“Skinnytailedsquirrel

The wokerati get all worked up by "appropriating" hairstyles, clothing, names etc and yet men are allowed to appropriate women a-la-drag. How is that right?“

What a good point you are making.

Oddly, in John Lewis tha other day, a drag queen was handing out chocolates to passers by. I don’t know if JL had organised it, or if it was a random person.

There's also the twerking drag queen and the one that was getting children to lie on top of them

One problem is that drag queens have been acceptable for so long as pantomime dames.

Why is it appropriate for performers of adult entertainment with sexualised names to mix with children?

If you want to promote diversity, have women, old people, gay people, people of different races and with disabilities read to children.

I just don't see why this is supposedly positive. It's not encouraging inclusivity of trans people (or any other groups).

The safeguarding issue is the same old one of those in certain groups not having to conform to the same standards as everyone else, as uber woke local councils etc fall over themselves to invite such people to spend time with children.

There is a logical fallacy at play here: "not all people of a certain group are perverts" doesn't mean "all people in a certain group ARENT perverts".

Safeguarding checks need to be applied appropriately and consistently across the board to anyone working with children. "Free passes" shoulder be given to certain groups.

@sailmeaway

why is it any different to any other kids performer re: safeguarding?

“Any other kids’ performer”? How is a drag queen a kids performer?

Anyway, as well as the other examples noted in this thread, wasn’t there one example where photos of identifiable schoolchildren were posted on the Twitter feed of the Drag Queen, in the middle of other very sexualised photos and posts?

www.womenarehuman.com/former-ceo-of-org-sponsoring-drag-queen-story-hour-arrested-for-sex-abuse-images-of-children/

@cariadlet thank you for that very disturbing video. It's all quite (almost) unbelievable isn't it. What is going on?? After Saville one would have thought these kinds of things couldn't happen again.

It's terrifying.

Late afternoon I caught the first of two programmes about drag on Radio 4 today:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000y6nw

I can listen to the second tonight:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p09gt2s2

I am continually surprised how much drag is pushed by the BBC. You'd have thought with their history they'd be more circumspect.

@Skinnytailedsquirrel

The wokerati get all worked up by "appropriating" hairstyles, clothing, names etc and yet men are allowed to appropriate women a-la-drag. How is that right?

So you're saying that names and hairstyles and clothing are gendered? That's the new feminism, is it? How confusing for middle-aged feminists like me!!

@ScrollingLeaves

One problem is that drag queens have been acceptable for so long as pantomime dames.

Interestingly, Russel Grant was on the radio the other week, and was talking about the first time he was a pantomime dame. He said he spoke to a famous comedian who often played dames who said something like "the most important thing to remember is that you have to act like a man dressed as a woman, you're not doing drag".

Which I thought was quite interesting.

“SallySycamore

ScrollingLeaves
One problem is that drag queens have been acceptable for so long as pantomime dames.
Interestingly, Russel Grant was on the radio the other week, and was talking about the first time he was a pantomime dame. He said he spoke to a famous comedian who often played dames who said something like "the most important thing to remember is that you have to act like a man dressed as a woman, you're not doing drag".

Which I thought was quite interesting.“

That is very interesting @SallySycamore
Thank you. I never heard that.

@PumpkinSpiceWoman...errr I think you might need to read my post a bit more carefully.

As another middle aged feminist, I'd say that we should bring up boys and girls to express themselves by dressing how they want and shouldn't feel the need to conform to gender stereotypes. But to me, that just means that little boys looking through the dressing up box at nursery or school should be able to choose sparkly dresses if they want and that girls and young women shouldn't feel that they need to wear pink, have long hair, wear high heels, use makeup etc (although it's equally fine to do so if they want to).

I can't see the contradiction between that belief and the recognition that Drag Queens dress in a caricature of womanhood. Blackface is now rightly condemned. Cultural appropriation is socially unacceptable. Hopefully, one day, men taking the piss out of women by dressing in "womanface" will be equally unacceptable.