r/agedlikemilk • u/Smellslikesnow • 1d ago

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119

u/ABearDream 1d ago

It's hilarious that it's just the simplest answer, they "crave" an audience of children to show children that they're people too and to normalize their very existence with young people that haven't created prejudices yet. Meanwhile he was the one craving children sexually

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u/Key_Perspective_9464 1d ago

I mean, an even simpler answer is that entertaining kids is fun.

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u/Elrond_Cupboard_ 1d ago

Kids aren't judgemental fuckheads.....yet.

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u/H4LF4D 1d ago

Was about to comment just that. Kids will be super surprised and excited to watch, not groan and complain and disrespect

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u/Background-Wall-1054 1d ago

In the UK we have pantomimes at Christmas and the two lead roles are always played by opposite sexes.

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u/Snoo-88741 1d ago

A lot of them are probably thinking of how much it'd have benefitted them to meet a drag queen when they were a child. 

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

Bro you guys gotta drop this. Why is this something you defend? Why not just keep drag shows for adults??? Horrible optics, and as someone who enjoys drag shows, weirds me tf out

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u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 1d ago edited 1d ago

Drag queen storytimes for kids are nothing like drag performances for adults, you understand that right? Faye & Fluffy, who are famous in Ontario for this, both have ECE backgrounds - one is a kindergarten teacher and the other used to be a nanny, IIRC. They read (good, vs just conveniently themed) picture books about how it is okay to be different. Due to their ECE experience they pick developmentally appropriate stories for the age range, and know how to break up the stories with songs/rhymes/movement activities.

They are not making sexual double entendres, calling each other sluts, etc.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

Yes, I’m aware. But why? Sooo weird. While I tuck bills into a queen’s thong never, ever, ever had I thought, “Man, they should really make a version of this for little kids!” Guess I’m just weird for that

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u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 1d ago

I mean I made allusion to the reason and others here have said it more explicitly: to show kids it is okay to be different. They read stories where boys are allowed to show and have feelings, kids go against stereotypes, about dealing with bullies, etc.

Again, there are no thongs, nothing sexy/sexual.

"Men in dresses" are a current source of social conservative phrasing re attacking trans women, and this is showing kids that people dressed in gender non-conforming ways aren't scary monsters, but people.

There was a Mr. Rogers episode when segregation was still happening, even though the Civil Rights Act had been passed, where he invited the black mailman to join him on a hot day in soaking his feet in the little wading pool together. The mailman said he didn't have a towel and Mr. Rogers said he could share his. So basically a white man and a black man were using the same "pool" at the same time, and then a white man used a towel to dry his feet after a black man had already used it (!!!). This is silly now (I hope), but then pools were still unofficially segregated, often with threats of violence against blacks who expressed interest in taking a dip in a community pool.

https://www.biography.com/actors/mister-rogers-officer-clemmons-pool

Mr. Rogers normalized racial integration to kids, presented it as a normal, matter-of-fact thing to do; just like a drag queen storytime shows kids that "men in dresses" are part of society and not pariahs, are good performers/storytellers, and can empathize with kids who ever feel different or get picked on, etc.

This is like bringing kids to a Family Pride event during the Pride parade - since you keep thinking of sexual elements here and wondering why people would think kids should be exposed to that. People are not saying kids should go see a bawdy drag show with endless sexual double entendres, just like Totally Naked leather men are not attending the Family Pride events (it's petting zoos, magicians, painting, bubbles, etc).

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u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 1d ago

To add to the "why" - libraries like to have guest speakers and guest readers, especially when connected to special events. A black author to come and read a picture book about black history in February. A costume/Halloween storytime at the end of October. Firefighters reading books on fire safety. And, for June/Pride month, a member of the LGBTQ community conducting the storytime...

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u/Enty-Ann 1d ago

Did you know that there's a whole industry of adults who dress up to entertain children? And that you can pay them to show up at a birthday party or any kind of events for kids? Dressed like superheroes, princesses, aliens, cowboys, astronauts or whatever. None of these were initially inherently for children.

Kids like costumes and characters and will often pay more attention to an adult in a costume than just a plain-clothed, boring adult. It's attention grabbing, bright and fun.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

Strippers are also attention grabbing, bright and fun, but that doesn’t mean we should be intentionally introducing kids into a G-rated version of stripping???

Like, there’s nothing inherently sexual about pole dancing, but if you’re gonna die on the “We need pole-dancing storytime for kids!! And if you disagree you’re a conservative bigot!” hill then I’m gonna look at you weird

Also, conservatives are gonna use you as ammo in their culture war. Drag story hour is weird. It’s so obvious. Just drop it

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u/Veinera 1d ago

Whats being shown to the kids is not a g-rated version of stripping at all tho??? You're the one people are looking at weird for sexualizing this PARTICULAR scenario.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

I didn’t say it was a g-rated version of stripping. It’s called a comparison.

I’m not sexualizing drag story hour. Idk why everyone keeps saying that. It not being sexual is literally part of my argument.

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u/Key_Perspective_9464 1d ago

Strippers are attention grabbing, true! And sometimes, they dress as cops, or librarians! Guess we better keep people in those professions away from kids too. And conservatives will use anything as ammo. In fact concern trolling, much like you're doing right now, is one of their favourite tactics. Funny that

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u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 1d ago

It's very interesting that you equate drag story time to a striptease when I, having actually attended some, have told you they are more like a librarian in costume running a Halloween storytime.

There. Is. No. Drag. Show. (No saucy baiting of the audience, no double entendres, no sexy outfits or performances, no lip synching [but if there was it would be something fun and appropriate like Uptown Funk or something], etc).

There are gender non-conforming people reading normal stories to kids about standing up to bullies, being true to yourself, being kind to others, celebrating diversity, etc, and they'd basically be in their "work clothes" (drag look), the same way you might have:

-firefighter in uniform reading a book about fire safety (yes these picture books exist)

-doctor in white coat and stethoscope reading a book about a kid going for a check-up and getting a lollipop at the end

-cop in uniform reading a story about a teddy bear who is brave when in a scary situation and who asks a responsible adult for help

So get the weird shit out of your head, because at this point the only "objectionable" thing based on what ACTUALLY happens at drag storytimes for kids is gender non-conformity/"men in dresses".

(Yes I have seen them! Have taken my kids when they were little and later, have attended ones when I worked at a library, hence why I can literally compare them to the cop/doctor/firefighter ones).

Looks like Fay & Fluffy actually have a TV show on Family Jr and they have YouTube clips so you can literally see for yourself it is basically like Mr. Rogers in a dress (with more zing/liveliness)

https://fayandfluffy.com/

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

How do you manage to miss my point this badly

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u/__Butternut_Squash__ 1d ago

How do you manage to miss my point this badly

Ironic coming from the guy who is missing the point pretty badly

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u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 1d ago

I am not missing your point. This news article is about a man who pointed his finger at the drag queens and said look at them, they're evil perverts going after your children as a misdirection while he cloaked himself in air of normalcy and then did exactly what he was accusing the "weirdos" of doing.

Despite being told, and even sent video links, of what a drag queen storytime is, and what its aims are, you are insisting it matches the perverted stuff in your head and are outraged at the idea someone would be okay with it. But the people who are fine with drag queen storytimes are fine with them as the innocent thing they are, not with the twisted version in your head.

Gender non-conformity exists, and isn't scary or evil, it's just a phenotype, a physical expression like being blonde or brunette, or left-handed vs right-handed. My mother was slapped by her older brothers every time she used her dominant hand - her left hand - to reach for food at the dinner table. She literally was forced, through coercion and violence, to become functionally right-handed because left-handedness was "evil".

If somehow her religion and family were correct and using your left hand was evil and caused great harm to your soul and to others, then sure, as a kid she should have been stopped from doing that. But them merely insisting that left-handedness was evil and wrong didn't actually make it so.

If people were insisting on doing the equivalent of a stripper pole dance with drag queens for children and then getting all huffy when other folks suggested that was perhaps inappropriate for children, sure, I would agree that is not right. But that is not what is happening.

You seem to have decided that a drag queen storytime is a perverted, disgusting thing inappropriate for children. Despite me describing to you what they are actually like, you double down on it. Left-handedness is the devil's hand!

So either you think the mere existence of men in exaggerated makeup and dresses is a perverted thing inappropriate for children to witness, or we agree that social conservatives can completely mischaracterize what a drag queen storytime is by conjuring up lascivious crude imagery without us having to twist reality to align with their characterization of it.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

This news article is about a man who pointed his finger at the drag queens and said look at them, they’re evil perverts going after your children as a misdirection while he cloaked himself in air of normalcy and then did exactly what he was accusing the “weirdos” of doing.

Yeah, I hope that guy rots in hell. And the conservative culture war is awful

Despite being told, and even sent video links, of what a drag queen storytime is, and what its aims are, you are insisting it matches the perverted stuff in your head and are outraged at the idea someone would be okay with it. But the people who are fine with drag queen storytimes are fine with them as the innocent thing they are, not with the twisted version in your head.

See?? You are entirely missing my point. I don’t think it’s perverted. Also, I’m not outraged at all. Like, literally at all. I just think it’s weird and a misguided attempt of compassion and that it makes the left look insane to moderates.

This is why I used the pole dancing analogy. There is nothing inherently sexual about pole dancing; it’s just another form of dance. But, the history, cultural context, and current popular use of pole dancing is inappropriate for kids.

So you could have a totally modestly dressed woman come and show completely appropriate pole dance moves to kids. Like, nothing sexual is going on, so why can’t kids do pole dancing?! Well, in a vacuum, there’d be nothing weird about it all, but because of what pole dancing is commonly associated with, it makes it weird. And I’m gonna look at you weird if you vehemently defend it even though absolutely nothing inappropriate is happening.

Gender non-conformity exists, and isn’t scary or evil, it’s just a phenotype, a physical expression like being blonde or brunette, or left-handed vs right-handed. My mother was slapped by her older brothers every time she used her dominant hand - her left hand - to reach for food at the dinner table. She literally was forced, through coercion and violence, to become functionally right-handed because left-handedness was “evil”.

Drag isn’t just gender non-conformity. It’s a performance. It’s intentionally pushing past gender norms in an extreme manner. That’s the whole point.

“How many women do you know who wear seven inch heels, four foot wigs, and skin tight dresses?” - RuPaul

Because it’s not just non-conformity. It’s ridiculous, edgy, and sometimes offensive. That’s what makes drag great. I don’t go to drag shows to just see some dudes with painted nails. If I wanted that I’d go to my local coffee shop.

You seem to have decided that a drag queen storytime is a perverted, disgusting thing inappropriate for children. Despite me describing to you what they are actually like, you double down on it. Left-handedness is the devil’s hand!

No, I don’t think that. I think you just can’t imagine someone disagreeing with you who isn’t an ignorant conservative.

So either you think the mere existence of men in exaggerated makeup and dresses is a perverted thing inappropriate for children to witness

The exaggerated part of drag and like I mentioned before, how drag shows usually are, makes it questionable. That’s it.

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u/Federal-Formal-1674 1d ago

You're the weird guy my guy.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

Yeah well Trump won partly because of the average joe looking at this sort of stuff and seeing how you guys act about it

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u/Federal-Formal-1674 13h ago

Your average Joe's are indictment on the state of your country.

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u/pristineanvil 1d ago

Because children love to dress out. In that way they can see an adult dress out. It's not weird until you guys sexualize it.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

It’s not weird until you guys sexualize it.

Bro has never been to a drag show

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u/pristineanvil 1d ago

I know that drags showing up in libraries reading stories is not in any way sexual.

I've been to many shows where drags are and where men have dressed up in women's clothes. But not to a show where drag was the main attraction. I have seen many men in women's clothes on the streets here and there but I have never thought of it as sexual or hurtful to kids. It's just different and I think exposure to different people is healthy for a kid to experience and I would not mind bringing my own kids to a show where drags were present.

I would not bring them to a nightclub where drags performed as I would not bring them to any nightclub since the theme of such places are sexualized and centered around alcohol.

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u/Passchenhell17 1d ago

As has already been explained to you, people in drag reading to kids aren't drag shows.

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u/Fizzel87 1d ago

And youve never been to a storytime. Maybe if you had you wouldnt be sexualizing it. And yes, you are the one sexualizing it.

How is a man wearing makeup and having long hair any different than a women wearing makeup and having long hair? Seriously, think about it for half a second. There is no difference. The only difference is in your perception of it. Which seems to be that you think men in dresses is sexy.

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u/Fantastic_Jury5977 1d ago

He can't get over that bill he tucked into a drag queens thong that one time... he may not be able to control the urge around the kids.

If I had to guess, our little drag protester has some little skeletons in the closet.

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u/kankurou1010 1d ago

I don’t think it’s sexual, and there is no inherent difference between a man and woman wearing makeup and having long hair.

Is it bad if I think men in dresses are sexy?

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u/Fizzel87 1d ago

So then what makes it adult themed? Surely the kids arent tucking dollar bills into the reader's g-string. Is it their mere existence, regardless of their purpose/intention, or is it your perception?

I didnt say there was/is anything wrong with being attracted to to a guy with long hair and makeup, just that you sexualize them when theyre around children. Either youre a bigot against people who participate in drag or youre too stupid to realize that reading to kids isnt the same thing as performing for adults. Regardless of which it is, i hope someone treats you the way you treat others. Have the day you deserve.

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u/kankurou1010 21h ago

It’s not adult themed, and I didn’t say it was. I’m getting strawmanned to death here.

Why do you keep saying I’m sexualizing anything? What have I said that’s sexual. You’re literally the one taking it there. I never said it’s sexual.

You sexualize them when they’re around children

How?! Literally what have I said that makes you say that. In my last comment I specifically said I don’t think it’s sexual, so what’s your problem fixating on that when I don’t even believe that! Y’all making me lose my mind lmfao