Are Drag Queens Suitable for Children?

Throughout history, there have always been men dressing up in women’s clothing as a form of entertainment, so-called drag queens in the modern vernacular. I’m not here to criticise what people do for a living, or do in their free time, however, I would classify this type of performance, especially of the burlesque-style, highly sexualised variety, as a form of entertainment for consenting adults. It’s not my cup of tea, but if you want to go along and watch a drag queen dancing or whatever on stage, well that’s up to you. But, I would not classify drag queens as a form of children’s entertainment.

When my kids were younger, my wife, or sometimes myself, would take my children along to the local library to their weekly, or bi-weekly, story time events, and they were quite good. There was usually a conservatively dressed female librarian, although sometimes there were men, who read a nice wholesome story to the children. The children enjoyed going because they could listen to a couple of nice stories, as well as play with the other children. The parents often enjoyed going because it was a chance for them to have a bit of a break and chat with the other parents or whatever.

But over the last year or so, the conservatively dressed librarian is slowly being replaced with drag queens at so-called Drag Queen Story Time events. No matter what side of politics you’re on, we have to all admit that Drag Queen Story Time is highly controversial. And it makes sense why. People typically view drag queens as a form of adult entertainment. Now that’s not me dissing drag queens. They’re free to do what they like, as long as it’s done in an appropriate setting. Obviously, the debate isn’t around the existence of drag queens, but rather, should drag queens be in the public library reading to children.

To me, an analogy would be a prostitute reading to the children. I’ve got nothing against prostitutes, each to their own, but it’s not appropriate for them to be reading to children in their prostitute’s attire. I wouldn’t accept a stripper reading to the children either, regardless of whether they’re female or male. Now if Craig the stripper happens to also be a librarian, but acts and dresses like a librarian at story time, well that’s fine. Just as if Susan the librarian happens to be a woman of the night, but comes to her library job dressed appropriately and doesn’t mention her prostitution to the children, well obviously, that’s fine as well. The issue isn’t with drag queens per se, it’s that they’re being put in an environment that many people would say is inappropriate.

Of course, where did all this start? I think you can guess… America. In 2015, Michelle Tea created the first Drag Queen Story Hour in San Francisco with the stated goals of promoting reading and diversity. And as we all know, when America sneezes the world catches a cold. It’s taken a bit of time, but certain Australians are now trying to push Drag Queen Story Times around Australia. But, there’s been a lot of pushback. “Hills Shire Council votes to stop supporting drag story time events”, “'Fear-mongering': Sydney council bans drag queen storytime events at heated meeting”, “Victorian councils to hold emergency meeting on far-right targeting of drag queen storytime events”, “Pop-up drag queen story time held in Shepparton after official event cancelled”, “ABC’s Drag Queen Story Time Cancelled at Rockdale Library”.

Labelling people as far-right for not supporting Drag Queen Story Time is not going to win them any supporters. Most people who are against this are just regular folk.

Many civilisations before us have collapsed, and one thing that scholars have noted, is that towards the end stages of a civilisation, there is social and moral decay. Nations are founded on some form of religious or spiritual worldview almost exclusively. Religion, or spirituality, provides the set of standards that govern a nation. But when societies start abandoning this religion, or abandoning their moral standards, as many would argue is happening now in the Western world, when the traditional beliefs of a nation erode, the nation dies. With social decay comes cultural decay. With cultural decay comes moral decay.

Look, I think most Aussies are pretty laid-back and accepting of many different things. I’d say that most Aussies have nothing against drag queens as a concept, when the performance is held behind closed doors in an appropriate venue such as a bar or nightclub, but when you try to force these forms of essentially adult entertainment on our children, expect pushback. We might be laid-back, but there’s limits to what we’re willing to accept.

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn