The Family Sex Show to continue, despite widespread outrage

[MatthewJTaylor]

The twitter account for the theatre group behind the Family Sex Show (@ThisEgg_) has revealed that there are performances planned of the Family Sex Show despite the cancellation of the national tour and they are looking for more venues to take them on.
It seems that the Bath performance(s) is/are running.

The company they used for advice, that apparently is used by schools, had playdoh vulvas on their website. Or it did.

All I hear is the letters DARVO singing in my head to the tune of the farmer with the dog BINGO. Boo hoo those mean people don’t want us to expose ourselves in front of their 5 year olds, what is wrong with some people eh???

Have requested withdrawal of the screenshot for privacy reasons. But the Twitter thread contains a link to these resources. They are shocking.

'The decision has been made by venues to cancel the tour of The Family Sex Show this Spring 2022. There will be performances for an invited audience at The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath ahead of subsequent public performances in the future.

These public performances would have offered safe and positive learning to children, young people and guardians about rights, bodies, sex and relationships, advised by safeguarding and educational specialists.

Audiences were given information about the content before booking, so that they could make an informed decision to watch the show.

It is regrettable that violent and illegal threats and abuse directed at the company and venues by a small group of people with extremist views has prevented families from opting to attend something that was transparent, consensual and legal.

We believe that what has happened is reflective of structural and societal attitudes towards Relationships and Sex Education as well as art, culture and who is allowed to create and what we are allowed to engage with in the UK.

The creative team will spend the next two weeks finishing the show, ready for a time it might be able to meet a public. We also want to respond to the events of the last few weeks and how we move forward. Removing work that celebrates freedom of expression from stages cannot be the answer.

For audiences who booked, or wanted to come to the show, we are sorry, we hope you will be able to soon.

For venues who might want to programme the show, we hope you will.

In the meantime, anyone who wants to explore some of the themes of the show for themselves, we have made some pages on our website to support that here: thefamilysexshow.com/the-zine'

www.instagram.com/thisegg_/

@Absurdle

Use the internet to find some examples of animals that masturbate.

What could possibly go wrong?

precisely.

horrendous.

Links in that zine to an activity making genitals out of playdough.

squishsquashsquelch.com/2018/10/28/playing-around/

thefamilysexshow.com/loving-ourselves

This is unreal. It starts off with completely nonsexual harmless self-care stuff then escalates to asking what body parts the (presumable child) audience likes having touched and ends up with “what sexual practices would you like to try?”

There’s no indication of the age it’s intended for but the simplistic language seems geared for younger children.

I’m not saying this is a worksheet designed for a pedophile to groom his target with but I’m unclear who the fuck else it could possibly be for.

Absurdle

Exactly. The language is for young children. The show is for young children.

Plain sight.

I’m extremely relieved that the tour has been cancelled. As for the ‘invited audience’… who knows. I assume friends and family and theatre staff. Hopefully not a school or similar.

@Absurdle

Use the internet to find some examples of animals that masturbate.

What could possibly go wrong?

Have they never used the internet?! It's not a fucking Encarta encyclopaedia.

Honestly,this makes me feel ill. I am so disgusted with this ideology . Wee ones can't consent. I dread to think who will attend these manky shows and the consequences for the children involved. How the hell did this filth get Arts Council funding ?

“what sexual practices would you like to try?”

If it wasn’t so serious the quote tweets would be like live comedy.

Someone just wrote: “It could be any one of us next.”

Yes, it could be. If you decide to try to persuade 5 year olds to do worksheets about animals playing with their genitals, people will take issue with that.

Sorry (not sorry).

Bloody hell that page about bodies and touch

thefamilysexshow.com/bodies-touch

First question “What sort of things do you touch that make you feel nice and warm?” Suggests fluffy slippers and hugging best friends as answers.

Then a note about people being different “If one day, you don’t want to be touched in a particular way, that’s absolutely okay. You decide what feels good for you.”

(I’m sure they point to that and say look we’re teaching about consent but that language sounds creepy to me given what we know about CSA and how children feel confused and guilty for going along with it)

Then launches into masturbation as a topic as PP mentioned above. Suggests researching animal master action on the internet!

And suggests modelling genitals out of playdoh.

New paragraph “The vulva is what is commonly and mistakenly called the vagina.

The vagina is only the tunnel inside the body - where you might insert a tampon. The vulva is the outside part of some people’s genitals. Remember: not all women have vulvas, and not all vulvas belong to women. Have a go at drawing and labelling your own vulva!“

A child reading this could be very confused about which bodies have a “tunnel”. It the obligatory not all women …

Loads of technical details about clitorises, labia, urethra - this is not language that is accessible and appropriate for all ages. Mentions that it feels nice for some people (which people?). A child reading this would be very confused.

Then “now have a go at drawing a penis” (no mention of who has a penis). Again a description that is not accessible and (again it feels nice for some people)

Then from Penis discussions like to a video showing people hugging behind a screen and then shown to be same sex couples, mixed race couples with slogans like love love no gender / race / disability/ religion.
I don’t mind the video, it’s a bit twee but ok.
However the positioning of the video just after penis discussions then a “How did the video make you feel?” makes me feel like these people don’t understand child safeguarding at all. The way they have jumped from topics about nice touch to master axiom and genitals if it isn’t deliberate grooming, then is incredibly naive and they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near child education.

Bloody autocorrect. Master action and master axiom should have been masturbation

incredibly naive and they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near child education.

Yes. They're either blissfully unaware and utterly naive, in which case need to go and do some reading/training; or the alternative is they are doing this in full awareness of how it undermines safeguarding and children's boundaries.

"It's messy, but it'll be alright", I'm having real problems with that one!

From their website If some of your pleasures are sexual, are there any sexual practices you might like to try? A show for ages 5 and up.

Yeah, I googled it. Yeah, I don't want my kids seeing any of the results.

How are the police not involved with this?

Has anybody tried Googling 'animals that masturbate'? I'm scared to try. Don't want that in my search history.

This is a set of resources aimed at 5 year olds that tries to get them to think about animals masturbating.

WTF??

Is there anyone we report our concerns to?

Awful, awful resource. Interesting that the standard disclaimer about women & vulvas is added, but not men & penises?

Hopefully screenshots attached!

This time?

I just saw this too @FOJN
How anyone can think this is ok is nuts. Search and draw a masturbating animal FFS, and obviously the results will include men too.

Maybe the Children’s Minister Will Quince?