Drag Queen Story Hour

[Distractable]

I thought these had all stopped, but I've just seen one advertised at my local library. massive sigh My kids are no longer that age, but I wonder if anyone has any experience of objecting to these. Is there any point in drawing attention to the massive inappropriateness of toddlers being read stories by people who normally perform very adult shows to adults? Do they ever get cancelled if people object?

We need to keep writing in everytime to those libraries laying out the reasons why we object. Eventually a grownup might read the letters and stop it happening. I would suggest what they are doing to ensure they don’t have a rainbow dildo monkey incident

I don’t understand why this is needed. Drag is for adults not children.

Why didn’t they ask local grandparents or parents with free to time to do story hour.

I think it’s inappropriate because drag is adult entertainment.

Yet another example of the frog in boiling water. Desensitization to sexualization so children will not have any idea what actual appropriate behaviour is. Adults going along with this are already desensitized to this, hence them allowing it.

You would not allow your child to attend a porn show… that’s adult entertainment as well. You could argue if the drag performer was dressed in their “everyday clothes” fine.. but they are in full on drag costume.

Even if they had lovely child friendly names what is the point of children being read stories by a man dressed up as a parodies of woman? I just don't get it.

“Monitaurus

I complained to the local authority concerned and my formal complaint was examined but rejected , on the grounds of diversity being important. I asked when the next sessions by older lesbians would take place but curiously drag queens are the only people offering diversity. Many objected but it went ahead anyway .”

Yes, and where is the story time from someone with Downs? Who is deaf? Or, blind? Very old? Or, evidently from a different culture?

It is an obsession to promote Transness.

@kittenkong just wanted to say that your niece sounds awesome!

God - she is also pushing 6”, strawberry blonde and very pretty. She also zips around on a jeep and has a gun (US based).

Other side the family obviously…

Can someone answer this.. when did diversity start to mean drag queens?

Diversity used to mean different ethnicities and different nationalities.

For me it would be me going in and read a book about Sweden to British children for example. That’s diversity no? Or someone from America or Senegal, or Korea reading a book about their country… that was what diversity used to mean.

Now it’s never about anything other than men (usually white western men) who are playing dress up or acting as something other than men. How is representative of diversity?

You can argue all you want that a man in a dress is diverse, but it’s not.

It used to mean the types of people you could meet on every day life. Some of whom have obstacles - ie deaf, blind, etc.

I can’t say I’ve ever met a drag Queen in my day to day life.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a4441460-Aibu-to-not-like-drag-Queens?msgid=113830547#113830547

If you click on this link, it will take you to photos from the official facebook account of Aida H Dee, who also founded Drag Queen Story Hour in the UK, and tours a lot of libraries.

These photos seem to be mostly from library visits.

Worked out how to find the pictures myself now.

Really grim. You can clearly see the outline of his penis in a couple of those photos.

ADHD?🙄

He has ADHD. I'm not convinced that it makes the performance beneficial to children with ADHD.

Isn’t it the point of diversity that the stories themselves are “diverse” not the readers. So books about boys and girls, different family types, disabled children as heroes, different countries etc.
I thought that would be what the library meant by diverse. I think children’s books in particular are very good at this but it would take someone familiar with children’s books to pick a nice diverse selection.
DQST seems to be more about the DQ than the ST

@KittenKong

God - she is also pushing 6”, strawberry blonde and very pretty. She also zips around on a jeep and has a gun (US based).

Other side the family obviously…

Are you trying to say he's quite a tall person?

I don't like the sound of this "pushing six inches" of something.

Arf’ yes - almost 6”!

Drag acts are adult entertainment. I don't see how having a drag queen reading a story is beneficial to children.

"Yet another example of the frog in boiling water. Desensitization to sexualization so children will not have any idea what actual appropriate behaviour is. Adults going along with this are already desensitized to this, hence them allowing it."

This. 1000 times.

I work in public libraries, and I would say there a a few things going on behind this.

One is that there is a lot of pressure in general for libraries to show they are promoting different identity groups in some visible way, including in their children's programming. So you get something like African history month and it is all about how you get some library programs about African or black culture. So you get a drumming workshop or an African cooking workshop or whatever.

And the LGBT+ is now in these circles the most elevated oppressed group, so there is a ton of pressure to include them in the programming somehow. With adults it's not too difficult, but how do you include sexuality issues with kids of various ages? What part of gay culture could we include? And maybe drag queens seem a bit like clowns, and a bit fun.

I also think that it probably reflects the fact that a lot of people don't really understand, if drag is a cultural product, what it's supposed to be about. Because if you understood that it would be clear that it's about how sexuality interfaces with cultural gender expression, and that is not something small kids will appreciate or even understand.

They've also mainly been exposed to pretty sanitized versions on RuPaul.

And I would also agree that when they get complaints, they are assumed to be from homophobic religious fundamentalists.

Forgetting the fact that the library is also meant to be a comfortable place for religious people and you don't often see Catholic or Muslim storytime - that as far as I can see is simply false. Lots of the people who object to this are not any of those things. I've seen plenty of people who are LGB or T who do not think it's appropriate. So it might be really nice if maybe people who represent those groups could complain to libraries. And maybe especially men, because unfortunately they may dismiss lesbians as TERFS. I have a couple of gay male friends - both of whom work with kids a lot so understand what it means to be appropriate - who think the whole thing is appalling. I've suggested to them they should speak up though I don't know if either have.

It's still going on... Chipping Norton Theatre added: “We have no reservation in programming this event"

www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/20033012.chipping-norton-theatre-gives-statement-drag-queen-show/