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this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2024
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They don't need to be all encompassing for anything. A brightly dressed adult is just interesting to children, and people in general like reading to children because it's fun and it promotes literacy. People use puppets to read to kids after all.
It's also not about promoting being trans, it's about making the kids aware that people are all different, live different lives and do different things. It's why you get school visits from firefighters, various cultural presentations, science presentations etc.
You wouldn't say a native american speaker was promoting being native american.
First of all, you don't need to be LGBTA to be Queer, secondly, when it comes to normalising acceptance drag queens are brilliant. When I was a kid Olivia Jones (or Lilo Wanders?) was in like every second talk show round, having funny wholesome meta-takes.
Or, differently put: Imagine a 2.10m unit moderating a presidential debate in full drag. Heck, imagine a native american doing it in full regalia. As long as that's not possible in the US because the adults would freak out you have to start with the kids so that they won't freak out when they're older.
Judith Butler aside, trans folks generally don't want to be performers. They tend to want to be who they are and be accepted as such, blend in as their gender, not stand out as breaking norms.
Yes absolutely. I think you meant to reply to the other poster though.
If it’s not about creating empathy for trans people, then I am against trans reading hour. Sorry, but I don’t care if kids like brightly colored stuff or someone would like to read to them.
My own preference is that role models should give you a goal or aspiration. I don’t think becoming a drag queen should be an aspiration, the same way I don’t think becoming a reality tv star should be an aspiration. Do I care if my own kid would want to be a drag queen? No. If we’re talking about creating goals for children’s future, then performance arts (while interesting) are not the goal that I would choose. That’s just my STEM bias, I guess.
If someone is both a scientist and drag queen, that’s awesome and I think we should celebrate that person. For most people, the barrier to entry to become a drag queen is zero and should not be a goal for future generations. Even reality tv stardom seems to require more skill and talent then, apparently.
Edit: I am not for giving kids role models for things which apparently don’t require skill or talent. Come to think of it, a lot of performance arts require skill and talent. Does being a drag queen require any skill or talent? If I am wrong, let me know
It is about creating empathy for trans people, like I said awareness about differences etc. And like I said, not really a role model because they don't promote becoming trans or being a drag performer to the kids.
Drag performances definitely requires talent.
Bully for you, not doing things because they are fun and excluding activities that don't serve a utilitarian purpose. This is reading hour for kids, not a presentation at Harvard. Last I checked, things need to be fun to get children engaged.
Why are you thinking it has to be a role model situation?
That’s a good question, I am getting it from here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_Queen_Story_Hour
Preferably, kids should have high talent and high skill queer role models, simply because the world is tough and I don’t want progressive kids to end up shark chum.
To clarify where I am coming from: I am an advocate for queer rights, and that includes anyone who does drag. So if we’re bringing in drag queens for story hour, maybe a compromise is that the performer should be something else too, like a ballerina or firefighter (as mentioned my preference is STEM). I don’t care, but simply being a drag queen is not enough. I am sorry
Why isn't it enough? And the next paragraph after your snippet says exactly what behavior they are modeling for the children.
Creativity and individualism.
Why can’t we find outlets for creativity which require skill or talent?
But we did. Drag requires skill.
That's a pretty flimsy argument lol, I think again it's a bit silly to just assume a drag book reading is immediately going to lead all the children to look up to drag models and want to emulate it.
Yeah it is but apparently nifty doesn't get the whole value of charity+acceptance+individualism+reading or something.
Some drag queens do make a career out of it. And have fun doing it, I might add.
Or people just take it on as a fun hobby. Do you also have a list of approved hobbies kids can learn about?
And you do realize that it’s not a zero-sum game, right? You can introduce kids to drag queens and firefighters and doctors and astronauts; there’s no rule where you’re required to just pick one.
And, y’know, oh no, Heaven forbid kids don’t get read to by one of your ‘approved’ roll models once or twice in their lives. By that ‘logic’ should regular librarians be banned from reading books too? And maybe most parents, if they’re not in STEM?
You may need to take a step back and look, really look, at your beliefs here. Because you’re veering very close to the helicopter parent attitude of controlling every single hobby, habit, and interaction of your kid to force them into your mental ideal, and that is way, way more unhealthy for kids than a one-time Drag Queen Reading Hour.