Children need education not activism

Let children be children

Trisha Goddard hosted a discussion on Talk TV on Sunday 12^th February (from around 1 hour 30 minutes in) about Drag Queen Story Hour because Tate Britain had hosted Sab Samuel’s Drag Queen Story Hour UK which had resulted in some ugly scenes. The sorts of scenes Women’s Rights Network have taken care to avoid - but we have observed.

Trisha and her guest were of the opinion that a man dressed as a woman is the ideal way to develop a love of books and reading in children. Families simply can’t get enough, it seems.

The counterpoint is that Drag Queens in the highly sexualised stage costumes that they wear for their adult entertainment shows are not age-appropriate for very young children. We have written extensively on the problems with Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) elsewhere: we’ve pointed out that it’s misogynistic, homophobic, and a Trojan Horse for Queer Theory for starters.

And if that’s not enough, there’s the issue of safeguarding, and the corruption of what is meant by “family friendly”.

It's also, undeniably, very popular with some parents and their children.

Sab Samuel was invited to share his thoughts and explain what his DQSH events are all about, and why DQSH is so important. He spoke at length on why he believes in what he’s doing.

He’s not completely wrong either

It might be a surprise to hear that I agree with some of what Samuel was saying.

We do pigeonhole boys and girls far too readily, and gender non-conforming children often find it difficult to fit in as a result. Samuel said he was very unhappy as a child because he wasn’t like the other boys, and as an extremely gender non-conforming child myself, I know where he’s coming from.

Samuel said he was bullied for his gender non-conformity.

This bullying is a clear signal that children are being taught – at home or at school – that there is a right and a wrong way to be a boy or a girl. And I completely agree with him that this should stop.

If a girl wants to play football and hates wearing dresses, or a boy wants to have long hair and wear a skirt, then let them.

Let children be children.

Which shows that DQSH is a good thing, doesn’t it?

Sab Samuel believes that by presenting children with this “fabulous” Drag Queen character, he is showing them that boys can wear what they like. He says he’s giving them the role model he didn’t have.

I think he’s wrong about that.

Wrong in part because very young children often don’t understand what they are seeing when they attend Drag Queen Story Hour. When asked, some children think that they have been told a story by a woman.

But some children will understand that this is a man dressed as a woman. What are they likely to make of it?

Are they being told that men can wear big hair, make up and sequins? Or is the message that a man who wears big hair, make up and sequins is actually some sort of woman? After all, “he” is now being referred to as “she”. And the addition of prosthetic breasts reinforces the notion that some physical transformation has taken place.

Against the current backdrop of gender identity ideology being taught in primary schools, of children’s books explaining how a sister can become a brother, does this help the small boy who wants to wear a sequinned dress to understand that he is a boy no matter what? Or might it encourage him to think that he is not a proper boy?

Wouldn’t it convey a clearer message if Samuel read to children in big hair, makeup and sequins without the prosthetic breasts and without the new pronouns?

In other words, as a flamboyantly and colourfully dressed man.

Drag Queens are really not like pantomime dames

And what of the claim that drag queens are just like pantomime dames? Pantomimes are children’s entertainments, aren’t they? Men dress up as women in panto so anyone objecting to DQSH must be suggesting that pantomimes are damaging too.

But the pantomime dame is remote from the audience, on a stage. Played by actors, the dames are part of a bigger story whereas the drag queen is up close and personal with the audience, and interacting directly. The drag queen isn’t part of a show, he is the show, and the book is a supporting character.

In panto, the dames are figures of fun – not to be taken seriously. They have terrible makeup and even worse bosoms.

The clothes of a pantomime dame are a far cry from the highly sexualised costumes worn by a drag queen – who often wears the same costume for his adult entertainment shows as he wears when reading to pre-schoolers.

And the names of pantomime dames are Widow Twankey or Dame Trott, not Flow Job or Aida H Dee. The double entendre names of the drag queens – like their costumes – do not change with their audience.

Let’s have an honest debate

When the suggestion was made that maybe getting firefighters, old people, disabled people in to read to children, and that “diversity” doesn’t begin and end with drag, Trisha Goddard’s guest claimed that this happens regularly.

But this is simply not true. I checked with a librarian friend who said:

I saw that bit on Trisha’s show yesterday. There has never in my 17 years [of being a librarian] been a ‘granny’, ‘policeman’, ‘scientist’ … storytime. Storytimes are run by staff or volunteers. The only ‘special’ storytimes we have ever had are DQSH

Another librarian confirmed this and added “The only time DQSH happens is with external funding it's never for free”. It’s not part of a bigger diversity drive.

Any suggestion of safeguarding issues is rejected out of hand and enhanced DBS checks are pointed to as evidence. All mentions of sexualisation are eschewed as a moral panic – ridiculous and laughable. This is about fun – nothing to do with sex, we are told.

And yet Samuel himself has said in social media posts that he is doing it for the “queer kids”. What he means by that is unclear not least because most of his audience are under the age of 7 – but it is an explicitly sexual reference. He also says that he was “the first drag artist in Europe to read stories to children in a nursery”.

Surely nobody thinks that pre-schoolers may be “queer”?

But Samuel says that as a five-year-old he knew he was gay – he just didn’t know what the word was. And he explains that DQSH can resolve children’s conflicted feelings about their sexuality. Most people do not believe that a five-year-old has any concept of sexual orientation, but Samuel clearly does.

So he clearly does think his show is about sex and sexuality after all.

More damning still, he says “I have had children come to me and say ‘I’m gay, I haven’t told anyone. Should I tell my parents?’”

So much for safeguarding, then, if children under the age of 12 have had personal conversations about their sexuality with the entertainer who is “just there to read a story”.

How was this unsupervised contact facilitated? Where were the parents?

DQSH is not education, it’s activism

When concerns were raised with Tate Britain they volunteered the information that Samuel would be reading children’s stories selected by them and not his own books - presumably because they recognise there is an issue with his books. But that didn’t happen as confirmed in a social media post.

I performed my OWN published books AND IT WAS FABOUS!!! #QueerJoy

This man is not an educator. His “community” is not the teaching profession. He is an activist, and his self-confessed goal is to connect with “queer kids”.

He is not doing this to instil a love of books and reading in small children, but to achieve his own #QueerJoy.

While those who should know better are looking the other way.

Read more in The Telegraph, at Breitbart.