Iowa mum attends school board meeting in matching outfit to Drag Queen school visitor.

[TheClogLady]

An Iowa mother attended a school board meeting dressed up in the costume of a drag performer who had performed for students at the local high school. Kimberly Reiks went to the Ankeny School Board meeting wearing a black, high cut body suit, with one shoulder showing, and tall black boots.

Reiks' purpose was to show the school board what was being permitted at local schools, and to show that this was not at all acceptable for school-sponsored entertainment. Reiks, who is a founder of the local Mama Bears, demanded that the board apologize and pass a resolution "to make sure that this doesn't happen again on school grounds," the Des Moines Register reports.

eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/10/04/iowa-woman-wears-drag-school-board-meeting/8175521001/

thepostmillennial.com/mom-wears-skimpy-drag-queen-outfit-to-school-board-meeting-to-protest-explicit-performance-for-students

I think it is potentially a very effective strategy, but wouldn’t most parents there look at her and think the cheerleaders wear about that much and they have to try out to get into the squad and then all the other students watch them and clap?

It reminds me of Posie’s advice for how to approach meetings with school staff re: sex education materials or inappropriately themed books

eg The Proud Trust’s sexually explicit dice game.

(Paraphrased, obvs)

Take the source material along to a face to face meeting and sit directly in front of the teacher/head/governors and just read it all out loud, exactly as printed.

And don’t stop as soon as they look uncomfortable, just keep ploughing on with it.

And when you are finished, look them dead in the eye and ask, ‘In your opinion, is this book/leaflet/game/worksheet appropriate for X year old children?’

and then follow up with
‘How about x year old children with SEN?’
‘How about x year old children from conservative religious families?’
How about x year old children who go home and Google what they’ve been taught that day?’
How about x year old children who are being secretly groomed by adult predators? And those at significant risk of being groomed?’
’How about x year old children who have already been victims of sexual abuse?’
‘And x year old children who are currently being subjected to sexual abuse?’

and then give them some safeguarding alliance/transgender trend type printed material and ask for another meeting in a week’s time when they’ve had an opportunity to read the ‘homework’ you are giving them.

And I guess, if all else fails, attend the follow up meeting dressed in a drag inspired outfit!

I think the outfit did make a very good point, though if it was simply a man in female non performance clothing I would not have an issue with them talking to secondary aged kids. I remember showing mine Priscilla queen of the desert when they were around 8&10, they thought it was funny that men dressed up as women, the dialogue went over their heads. We are pretty liberal but thigh high boots and skimpy bodysuit I would disapprove of on men and women in school

@TheClogLady I’ve done this. Not with the materials you mention (although I have seen these and been horrified), but with something along those lines. The senior teachers I was talking to visibly squirmed, and very hurriedly agreed with me.

It’s worth trying - get the school etc to “put their money where their mouth is”.

Yes, but you made a choice to show this film to your OWN children in your OWN home. It’s totally different if you are exposing children not your own to inappropriate, sexualised material etc in a SCHOOL setting.

I agree. Just because someone does one thing you agree with, it's important to take a broad view of their actions and affiliations otherwise you could end up supporting someone who, on the whole, is not someone you ought to be supporting - and actually, that could end up undermining the message you are 'aligned' with (or providing support to those you are not).

Are you saying that you only ever openly agree with someone if you have somehow - no idea how - managed to check their stance on every possible issue? What then happens if you agree with them having done your due diligence and then - horror! - they come out with something that you are really against? Do you then backtrack?

It must be exhausting keeping track of everyone’s views on everything.

It's perfectly possible to agree with people on one issue but not on others. If you only supported someone's stance if you agreed with everything they stand for, you'd never support anything.

Gosh this

I like to hold my breath while swimming under water. I hope you don’t drown whilst trying to decide if I’m pure enough to agree with 🤦‍♀️🙄

I mean, by this standard of needing to be totally 'aligned' all vegetarians also agree with the genocide of Jews (Hitler was a vegetarian). Which is obviously utterly ridiculous.

I don’t entirely disagree with you but I do think there is a cultural/social difference between a cheer uniform or a sports/swimming outfit, or a gymnastics/ballet leotard even if the square inch body coverage isn’t much different.

Plus, an individual unknown-to-the-school adult dressed in a cheerleader costume on school premises is still a questionable situation and not really comparable to students of the school performing as a cheerleading team on a field/in a gym in their uniforms.

Would it be OK for this mum to turn up at the school board meeting wearing a cheerleading costume? I reckon it would still be pretty inappropriate.

What if she dressed as cheerleader to volunteer for the PTA? Or to chaperone a dance?
Or to perform on a stage for a group of teenagers who have been ‘grouped’ together on the basis of adult-world themes of sexual orientation and cross gendered presentation?

Would it be appropriate for one of the teachers to wear a cheerleader costume to teach a class?
How about the black leotard and boots outfit?

And even without all that context I desperately hope a school cheer squad is less adult-themed-provocative in both costume and movement than the professional squads are and if not, that’s a problem that needs to be looked at too!

We don’t really have an equivalent to cheerleaders in UK culture, so it’s hard to imagine what it might be like in school context - hopefully not a bad as the little-girl pageant stuff (we don’t really have that either)!

As far as I can tell, all this 'you shouldn't be aligned with this person because X' is a deliberate tactic trying to shame women into not supporting other women who are trying to make children safer.

Women say 'no'. Child safety is too important.

I'm sure I don't agree with this woman on everything. Maybe she has views I find pretty awful on other issues. Don't care, child safety is my number 1 issue. It is for most Mums.

I don't agree with KJK on everything either but the more the MRAs try and tell me I shouldn't agree with her on child safety because she's right wing (or whatever other bollocks they've come up with) the more I realise that some people are ACTIVELY trying to undermine child safety and to attack those women trying to protect children from harm.

It's pretty clear that they don't see woman as fully human because they don't understand that we are - in fact- intelligent enough to understand nuance and - shock! - agree with some people on some issues but not others.

If you're not aligned with this woman on this point. THEN you're aligned with groomers, those who wish to sexualise children and paedophiles.

That's OTT, but reminds me of something James Lindsay said the other day, in his latest Benjamin Boyce interview, wrt calling people "groomers".

When I use a label, I'm not classically an essentialist, but I want that word to capture the essence of what's going on.

And so why do I call people who are grooming "groomers"? I'm playing a little there, but the reason is they're groomers. They're essentially engaging in the psychological grooming of children.

So that's why. And I'm playing a little bit there, because... they've decided that racism can be structural, so I decided that grooming can be structural. If there's an entire apparatus that upholds a small number of people grooming, but most people aren't directly involved in grooming, aren't they structually groomers? According to their own logic, yes. And I do believe in that point from Alinsky, you should hold your opponent to their own standards.

In that case, all those supporting gender ideology must be aligned with the pro pedophilia community?

This! A thousand times this!

Great job

I have no idea on the club she is part of but the visual impact is effective

What opinion could she have that would undermine our shared view that sexualised adult clothing and behaviours should be kept out of schools?

I can’t think of anything except finding out it was all a smokescreen she’s actually a Paedo? In which case I would just say that that’s horrifying she should be held fully legally accountable.

Even if she’s pro gun, Republican, a tradwife, a stripper, a Catholic who disagrees with a gay marriage and is anti abortion, who looks up to Steve Bannon and watches Pewdiepie on YouTube while eating offal and letting off carbon emissions and kicking puppies and stealing charity boxes…

it will still be true that adult sexualised behaviours have no place in schools

🤷‍♀️

This is highly effective. Far more effective than anything so far. Good for her.

Whatever else she's part of, we are united on this issue. MRAs want to divide and conqueur.

This is really effective.

the problem is not gender non-confirming clothing. Presenters who do not conform to stereotypes and present diverse ways of living can be positive role models. We want to get rid of the shackles of pink and blue.

the problem has always been that the presenters are not simply gender non-conforming, they present a sexualized caricature of females.

Yes, very well put. And (now that my eyes have been opened to the paedophile manifesto) it's important not to let anyone hook "removing children's sexual boundaries" onto "being progressive and left wing".

FFS! Why are more people bothered about the word align rather than what the actual post is about.

Its ridiculous!

She made her point well!

I've tried to find what reprehensible views Iowa Mama Bears have that I am aligning with as no-one here will say what they are.

According to the statement on their private FB group it seems they are opposed to gun regulation and opposed to children wearing compulsory masks in schools. So perfectly mainstream views that many people (including liberals) in the USA and elsewhere have.

Is there anything I am missing?

“We don’t really have an equivalent to cheerleaders in UK culture, so it’s hard to imagine what it might be like in school context - hopefully not a bad as the little-girl pageant stuff (we don’t really have that either)!”

Incredibly gymnastic; nothing like the movies. It’s sort of a cross between circus skills and gymnastics, lots of teamwork, tumbling skills, some dance. Those skimpy outfits are usually sports clothes with a short skirt added over the shorts. Any guys will probably be in the equivalent of tracksuits, because they’ll be doing the strength work and major lifts.