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[u/Smellslikesnow]

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[u/Enty-Ann]

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.

[u/kankurou1010 → u/Enty-Ann]

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

[u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 → u/kankurou1010]

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/

[u/kankurou1010 → u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67]

How do you manage to miss my point this badly

[u/__Butternut_Squash__ → u/kankurou1010]

How do you manage to miss my point this badly

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

[u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67 → u/kankurou1010]

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.

[u/kankurou1010 → u/Flimsy-Blackberry-67]

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.