Drag Queen Story Time

[LizzyStrata]

First time posting here, so not sure of the etiquette. My apologies if this is the wrong place to raise these concerns.

Reading Borough Council is planning to hold Drag Queen Story Hour events in our libraries during the summer holidays. I’ve written to my MP, my councillors, and the Head of the Library Service to raise concerns. I think drag is entirely inappropriate for children, as it is a form of adult entertainment, highly sexualised and misogynistic, that blurs boundaries and undermines safeguarding.

The response Ive had is simply that they have received very few complaints so no reason to cancel.

Has anyone had any experience of tackling their local library over this issue? Grateful for any tips.

Also, if you live in Berkshire ,would you be willing to write and share your concerns?

thanks!

It's very strange, as have only seen first seconds of video, but the drag queen's penis outline cannot be seen here, no matter his movements. Suggest to me that he did have an erection in this other image from an earlier event. twitter.com/PinkNews/status/1540671598042042368 Apologies for the Pink News linkie.

But I cannot understand the intention of your post. So, I am just guessing.

We should bear in mind that if Margarita P were ever minded to attend such an event (on whichever side), MP would be described as a Mumsnet regular.

NB: a pretty typical example of MP's concern for accuracy and ability to read links that they consider to be gotchas (spoiler, as the news story MP linked states in the second paragraph, the young woman was not responsible for the death), but MP represents that the young woman killed the man).

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4523725--1k-fine-for-attack-on-a-17-year-old-girl?reply=116439830

Was thinking about other entertainers who have/had acts not aimed/ suitable for children who have moved into writing children’s books and their approach to engaging with a family/child audience. Julian Clary and Madonna sprung to mind. Julian Clary certainly had costumes and content which nobody would consider child friendly, nor was that his aim, and he has written a series of children’s books. A quick look at images of him at children’s events and he is presenting a very different image to his comedy tours. Then Madonna, I love her attitude, loads of photos, video, books that you’d probably not share at school but she didn’t turn up in her stage costume to read her books. She got a shed load of criticism for her books but she was acute enough to present another side of herself.

Spending far too much time wondering at the lack of logic in giving such free rein to an individual who is getting so much publicity on the back of people questioning the wisdom of how the event has been presented.

And thanks @NitroNine and @ArabellaScott for your kind words. Am feeling very on my own and just upset at local people just attacking any questioning especially reasonable ones. It is a storm in a teacup and I think people just are being aggressive without stopping to think. I also can’t respond because of my employment and I hate to stand by watching it. I have made a silent protest by booking tickets and obviously not going. My council tax has funded the event, assuming this goes towards libraries.

It's the aggression and refusal to countenance any dissent that gets me the most, to be honest.

To me, it suggests cognitive dissonance. People are very quick to create a two-sided issue, make it a tribally-aligned viewpoints and create a battle. Then we end up with things like the vocal protests we're seeing at libraries ( - which, for what it's worth, I also don't think are a great experience for children, nor an effective way to counter queer ideology.)

Instead, we could be discussing the nuances and possible implications rationally and calmly, accepting that people have different views, and working out ways to navigate what is becoming a more and more contentious topic.

This dynamic has played out over all the various interlinked issues over the past few years. 'No debate' doesn't work for very long; it only forces people to 'protest' in order to allow the issues to be discussed, and quite often creates bad feeling and resentment, too, effectively keeps the temperature of debate turned up high.

Interestingly, when the issues are forced to be discussed calmly, openly and rationally, we are often finding people come to common sense conclusions - Maya Forstater's tribunal, the Cass Report, the Attorney General's statement on schools, etc.

www.theoldhamtimes.co.uk/news/20666236.drag-story-time-slated-return-oldham-library/
Oldham Library is set to host more drag story times – with dates currently unconfirmed.
The news comes after homophobic protests led to the cancellation of a similar event in Rochdale earlier this month.

Were they homophobic protests in Rochdale?

"That some people support adult entertainers reading books to children"

Was the entertainer doing anything of an adult nature when reading?

twitter.com/AidaHDeeDrag/status/1557025230601814018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Ignore that post.

@ArabellaScott this is exactly my frustration at both sides, the ‘no debate, be kind, we’ve made the police aware.’ and shouting unfounded slurs at an adult in front of small children. Both sides want the best for children, one assumes but nobody is listening to each other. Role models for children, or meeting adults or children from diverse backgrounds should be encouraged and supported in an age appropriate and respectful manner from everyone.

Am still unsure exactly what group is being represented by the dqst as the event appears to be more like the Gruffulo reading a story and stating this is inclusive as the actor/reader is from a protected group….how would we know? They are in a costume, nobody lives full-time as a Gruffulo anymore than a drag queen.

Nobody is compromising or listening. And in the case of Wokingham, the truth is very elastic as there have not been similar story time events or children’s events for other protected groups. At least not promoted by the council.

Well, I don't think any feminists have been shouting slurs at anyone, tbh.

There are frequent attempts to try and claim feminists are 'allied with' or 'aligned with' all sorts of groups - from Putin to US Xtian rightwing groups. Lately there have been claims those protests at DGSH have featured feminists.

I don't know any feminists that advocate for these protests - they are being staged by completely different groups as far as I'm aware.

Rebekah Warshbale was good on the somewhat complicated dynamics:

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/wont-somebody-actually-think-of-the

Did Leeds Libraries or Leeds council consider the ramifications of teaching children in attendance to treat the noise of a fire alarm as a cue to party?

I'm not sure what the typical age range would have been, but if they're old enough to remember the visit, they're old enough to take in a message that it's okay to ignore fire alarms if it's more fun to stay inside. In my personal experience of library story times, children may be as old as five.

Do you know her personally or are you going by a SM profile? Has she posted about this event and her actions?

Really? Who? So we can check it out for ourselves. We do tend to check things here on the FWR board, otherwise people will just post unsubstantiated rumours off other social media.

Please link who it was up.

We do tend to check things here on the FWR board, otherwise people will just post unsubstantiated rumours off other social media.

And there has been a recent local outbreak of, "I'm as GC as they come, fellow female earthlings, but…" followed by a fairly jaw-dropping strawman or mind-numbingly bad faith account of something.

Sorry I haven't RTFT.

I'm really confused. I have nothing against drag queens at all but my understanding is drag is a very particular and adult art form. It's not even being trans it's its own separate thing.

So why would it ever be appropriate to advertise this to children? It actually seems very offensive in this context to both women and trans women. Because what's the point it's making? That it's entertainment to be or present as a woman? Or that drag is an appropriate art form for children and not an adult, sexuality/sensuality plus adult themed comedy act?

It just doesn't really make a lot of sense and that alone is enough to make me question the motivation.

@ArabellaScott the slur I was referring to was the video from Reading when they were shouting paedophile outside the venue which was unnecessary. Perhaps slur was the wrong choice of word but it was inappropriate, in my view, in front of families.

This reminds me of the glory that was the Mr Blobby thread. It all started when MP linked to an article (in the Scottish Express, IIRC) that said the opposite of what they claimed it said about Mr Blobby...

After that, the thread became well worth the price of admission.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4443308-Sean-Gunn-tells-JKR-to-STFU?page=3&reply=113898461

Thymeandagain

Yes Thyme.

And as Embarrassing has said, we have had a slew of brand new user names making posts stating ‘I am GC… but’… and a slew of brand new user names posting claims that are cherry picked, unverified and end up being simply something they have pulled from somewhere else to vilify people they don’t agree with.

And there are the established posters who are doing the usual bad takes twisted to misrepresent what others have really done or said.

I now have taken to mostly fact checking any poster I haven’t come across before. Most of the time, it is just a misrepresentation or a blatantly dishonest interpretation.

Not that I'm planning on leaving my son with anyone that I don't know but for me a drag queen with a basic dbs where I am present is preferable to me than dropping my son off for a sleepover with your children with your white, straight, male, middle aged husband's present as statistically they are the group of people that commit the most sex offenses on children. It doesn't seem fair that you are claiming so many safeguarding concerns in a drag queen story hour but don't recognise that statistically abuse in the family home or family friends is much more common. There's always a risk

Well MargaritaPie was obsessed and so very confident, knew all the ins and outs of the Marion Millar case and exactly how it would go and then it um...didn't go MP's way and all MP's assertions about it went up in a veritable puff of smoke.

What if the drag queen is white, straight, male and middle aged?

Anyway, the issue for me is not that I think a drag queen is going to secually abuse my child. It's that I don't want to expose my children to sexually explicit and misogynistic behaviour and normalise that behaviour.

I don't think anyone is claiming that any library visitor is going to sexually assault children in full view of everyone attending. (Do libraries require DBS checks for people they host?)

However, you seem to be misinterpreting the stats on abuse to mean that abusers only want to abuse children they're related to, or children of friends, though. Those are the children they have access to.

As a sweeping generalisation, we all try to protect our children. When you restrict the people who have contact with your children to people you know and trust, that means the only people who can abuse your children are people you... know and trust. It doesn't mean that people you don't know and trust are safer.

Back in 1999, it was reported that

CARPET slippers can seriously damage your health, a report warned yesterday. Figures showed they cause more accidents in the home than any other type of clothing. A staggering 27,771 people landed in hospital in just one year because of slip-ups with their slippers.

That was probably a greater number that the number of people from the UK who ended up in any hospital that year for mountaineering injuries. Does that mean mountains are safer than one's house?