Clear distinction between DQ performances for consenting adults and inappropriate sexualised performances in front of children.

[Brisland]

While scrolling through, I happened upon this clip - Megyn Kelly discussing why drag performers are inappropriate and unacceptable around children.

I wish all those who think it is harmless, creative and joyful fun for children would listen, as she sums up the motive, result and reality of the damage to children very starkly.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_fAOaQuZg

Yes please!!!

Oh FFS!

I don’t want to exaggerate, but I believe that is braver and tougher than fighting in one of those trench wars from the past.

So, knowing all this, I can only watch in bafflement, in pitying bemusement, as a loose coalition of bed wetters, mouth breathers, and people who cry after masturbation have decided to attack drag queens all around the world. You poor fools, you tiny gormless dickheads, you do not know the storm of razor-sharp glitter and deadly death-drops you have called down upon yourselves.

This really is a catastrophising ideology for which no hyperbole is too much. "Tougher and braver than fighting in the trenches" my arse!

So, people that disagree are 'mouthbreathers' and 'cry after masturbation' ( nice bit of casual sexualisation there).

And will incur 'razor sharp glitter and deadly death drops'.

What happened to rational discussion?

So, drag queens wish brutal deaths upon people who don't want them twerking in front of their children. Well, that's me convinced that they are great and the best thing since microwave ovens!

Funnily enough, TW who want to express dissatisfaction at women do so through violent threats, too.

I don't have to demonstrate benefit to children from going to see the Super Mario movie - all that is needed is to establish that the film is not harmful to children (established via the rating system) and anything after that is a decision for parents.

Interesting example, because there is no rating system in place for these men and their performances.

If there was, and the rating board did their job, and somehow it was possible to compel them to not vary their performances, then I suspect the problem would be largely solved.

But what we have here is letting any random man turn up with his homemade production and stick it on, with glib reassurances of "oh yes, this is family-friendly!"

So it's weird for you to try to justify an uncontrolled system by showing a well-working controlled one. In the film analogy you need to be defending the right to show groups of child any unrated movie if you want to, not your right to take them along to a PG one.

Yes, quite 🤔

Continuing the film classification analogy - isn’t that exactly what was stipulated as the point of the thread?

That the performance of drag for consenting adults who can opt in to viewing the explicit and more covert sexual behaviours is absolutely acceptable for those who wish to avail themselves of that type of exhibitionism. (ie. Adults only).
There needs to be, however, a clear and unequivocal separation of that scenario as opposed to any of the drag Queen sexual innuendo/behaviour/costuming/nudity/etc/etc being performed anywhere near children? (ie. G or Children’s rating)

The very concept of drag queens is sexual & performative/exaggerated - and that is not suitable around children. I quite simply do not understand either the drag queens themselves who WANT to be around children when their whole persona is about sex, nor the parents who ALLOW their children to be exposed to such sexually explicit performances.

I don’t care if any consenting adult wants to be entertained by drag queens - they are welcome to it, it isn’t any of my business. I do care about impressionable children who can be significantly damaged by being exposed to such sexual material at a developmental stage where they are not ready to process it properly.

SinnerBoy I know. Bit of an own goal that article - let us near your kids or we'll end you.

Er, no thanks.

razor sharp glitter and deadly death drops

Oh dear, such a lot of self-righteous male anger - they’re getting very upset that we see right through them, aren’t they. Glitter just hoovers up and goes straight in the bin.

I don't particularly see how presenting gay men as weirdos with ridiculous clothing and bizarrely exaggerated mannerisms is supposed to foster inclusive attitudes towards homosexuality, personally.

I saw a male nursery assistant do a brilliant story time with an enthralled group of 2-4 year olds. He was brilliant - he had trained as an actor before going into childcare, and I’m sure the children learned more from his animal impressions, his accents, sound effects… than some scary person in sparkly clothes and a beard encouraging them to twerk…

I would have been equally terrified and outraged if I was a child having an obvious man saying he was ‘Miss Story time’ or whatever. I - like a lot of small kids - had absolutely no trick with ‘fibbers’ when I was little, and would call people out very loudly.

BabyStopCryin
Oh that's good to hear - some men are so well suited to working with small kids, it's a shame it's traditionally such a female-dominated field. And yes, it's about the reading and the delivery and the KIDS, not the reader's outfit or makeup or identity. Kids don't care about any of that. They just want to hear a good story. This is so much about other people's needs it's ridiculous.

And they ought to be educators or at the very least very child-friendly.

I’m not sure how an adult ‘act’ (because let’s face it, I’ve never seen a drag Queen on the tills at Tesco or doing my taxes) - and probably without experience of wrangling their own kids or trained to work with kids (looking at some of the safeguarding fails I have heard about) can engage fully with children and actually teach them anything. It’s all about them isn’t it?

It's so narcissistic.

I'd love to see a librarian with 20 years of experience getting kids into books and doing the Tuesday morning rhyme time be given the amount of fanfare and fawning these men are given.

Yawn.

I still remember the man who read stories at the local library in the small town we were living in when oldest two DC were toddlers, so 14 years ago. His name was Tim, he was lovely, so sweet and calm and the kids loved him. It was a great little weekly outing.

I’m still waiting to hear from any of the defenders of DQSH what the actual benefits are for children.

How do kids exposed to this, even if it’s not a twerking predator getting dollar bills stuffed in his G string, but a nice pleasant story from a normal person in drag, gain any education other than “some men dress funny to read stories”?

I am sick to the back teeth of/opposed to the kind of drag acts we're talking about here doing kids' storytime; but I have to say that I think having, say, a person who's obviously a man but is wearing a dress or make-up doing it is fine. Not AMAZING, or brave, or any of the other usual breathless accolades; I just think it's fine – healthy in fact – for kids to see and learn that people don't have to dress or present in a certain way because of their sex.

Having said that, I do concur with others' experiences and opinions that we still have a lot of ground to make up when it comes to just a man, in male-coded clothes and appearance, quietly getting on with storytime just as women do.

If it's about encouraging LGBT acceptance where is the carefully thought out programme of gay, lesbian, bisexual and yes trans identifying people, who have been CRB checked and actually had some training in how to be engaging with children?

Buried under a pile of glitter shed from the jumpsuit of a drag queen who's knackers are visible.

If you haven't seen it, you can still save yourself.

I have a hard time envisioning that. Come on down to Lesbian Story Time?

Lots of people, men and women, working in libraries are gay or lesbian, and that's not new.

But it's not really something they particularly are going to announce to the kids. It's generally not appropriate, it does nothing to make a better story time, and more than that, the kids don't care, and probably won't remember.

I think sometimes people have an unrealistic sense of how much kids at that age have organized thinking about social topics.

It’s about normalising drag. Nothing to do with LGB.

I don't disagree that it's not particularly necessary or appropriate to make this sort of stuff formal, but I do think kids will notice and assimilate things like, for example, Lauren the librarian being met from work by her girlfriend/wife Sarah. The more they see this sort of diversity and realise that it's all normal/equal/OK, the better, I think.

This X 1000 !

Actually it's even more surprising when you consider some OAPs would be quite into burlesque. They'd have a good old cackle. And it's a captive audience.

Mystery isn't it?

I'm wondering if there is a verified and fact-checked list of drag queen storytime presenters (in any country) who have been convicted of sexual offences anywhere?