It's such a DRAG
The Arsenal of Narcissism does not benefit children's lives or development
I’ve started to refer to our education approach in terms of developing children’s ‘arsenal of narcissism’ I think it’s pretty appropriate.
Children need adults to start adulting. They need us to provide boundaries and child-centric opportunities and experiences within that boundary. And when I say ‘centric’ I don’t mean to that INDIVIDUAL child but for the experiences relative to childhood. There is so much distraction at the minute, and what kids really need is ‘kid stuff’. So when culture war shite rears it’s seductive evil head like a hypnotist aiming for your wallet ask ‘is this the best for CHILDREN’? If we don’t they will suffer and society along with it.
You will find in the social justice manuals for schools, in the arts programming geared for young children, in the pantheon of political causes and disasters our kids are supposed to engage with there is a distinct lack of acknowledgement that these programs are for children. In fact strip away the infantalized graphics of any LGBTQ+, anti-racism, climate catastrophism brochure in schools and you will find there is virtually no difference to the adult one.
As I have said time and time again, these are adult agendas using our children as their weapon. Children DO NOT benefit from ANY of it. In fact the continued push takes up valuable developmental time and resources.
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I am now (STILL) faced with the challenge of finding summer activities for my son just one week from the start of school holidays. My son who is 11, who loves football. (We’ve got the EUROS on, the EUROS!) You would think there would be an abundance of free/affordable summer activities for him here in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. Hardly. I managed to get him into the football centre 2 miles away before it got sold out (within days of being listed) for two of the 5 weeks. I don’t know what I am going to do.
And yet what do the Glasgow City Council education committee focus on? Not education -that’s for certain. The last education meeting waffled on about the UNCRC (United Nations Rights of the Child) and how great it was. “Right to Play” ha ha ha. They are frickin comedians.
As I have often said -nothing is more metaphoric of the deep, dark irony of that (expensive time consuming) UNCRC program then the fact that the ONLY council sports field locally costs £70 per hour to rent. If they cared about children they wouldn’t be so hyper focused on (the perception of) virtue and they would free the goddamn field. Bastards.
One of the things that has always particularly bothered me in the luxury class ‘arsenal of narcissism’ is their celebration of Drag. I am not ‘opposed’ to drag performance in and of itself. But I equally don’t ‘like’ it. Me not ‘liking it’ used to be considered a valid matter of taste. We cannot all be expected ‘to like’ all the same things.
Back in the day when Drag was considered part of the offering on the ‘Variety circuit’ drag artists even might have had a responsibility (!) to be in service to their audiences(!). They would have adapted their routines based on audience response (!). My Great Grandfather worked the vaudeville circuit in the early 1900s as a singer and comedian. Hoofing it was hard labour, he needed to ‘prove himself’ in every venue in order to be re-booked.
I often think how much has been lost (not least to artists) in the politicising of entertainment. Drag is now a political act. It is heavily unionised via Equity, the union for the performing and entertainment world (with upwards of 50,000 members nationally) and it is seen as the Drag performers ‘right’ to make the public view their outlay. Children in particular.
In fact any opposition to Drag is now framed as the result of ‘right-wing extremism’ as noted here in Motion 2 (two!) for the 2024 Equity AGM. (one would think they would be more concerned that a good percentage of theatres are going to shutter with funding cuts come October 2024?)
Even Glasgow City Council Full Council Meeting in June 2023 refers to anti-drag sentiment being the result of a ‘right wing’ movement. (Note this was in response to parents opposing drag queens coming into schools, one can surmise that Councillor Gallagher will treat any parent constituent who expresses concerns about their child as right-wing, ie. bigots).
This march into our cultural, educational and community pantheon has been going on for sometime. If you are wondering why drag seems to be everywhere. It’s because it is. It’s because they’ve gone political, not because they are any good or that people even want to see it.
Reading through the book “The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht” I am thrown back into my own early forays into challenging gender ideology and the normalising of sexualised materials in family settings. Seeing what was happening was like waking to a ravenous alien in one’s child’s bedroom and no one seeming to care.
Drag presented for babies, toddlers and children was one of the first to bring out my Mama bear (danger danger) instincts. At the time none of this was being spoken about publicly. But I could not let it be. It was children and they were being exposed to inappropriate material by a seemingly very unhealthy individual…
In April 2018 I was made aware that there was a Drag Queen Story Time event scheduled at local social enterprise charity Merry Go Round for Glasgow’s Southside Fringe Festival. Merry Go Round sells pre-loved baby clothes and toys, as well as hosting events to support families such as breast feeding support for new Mums, a sling library and more.
The event was to raise money for the notorious trans charity Mermaids (of Susie Green “I castrated my son” fame).
At the time I was a community councillor for the area, Pollokshields, and several parents approached me knowing my links in the community. They were concerned not just that this was a Drag Queen Event (which they saw as inappropriate and sexualised) but also that this particular Drag Queen was actually a female who had “transitioned to male” and (after the fact) had created a female persona (keep up) AND that they were raising money for a controversial charity Mermaids.
Some of you may have seen a similar story featured recently on Ru Pauls Drag Race in all it’s grotesque glory. Malcolm Clark does a scathing analysis here.
Similar to Fawna Love, Kade Gottlieb is a female who believes herself to be a man, but chooses to perform as a pornified caricature of a woman. (I know what you are thinking, “PERFECT for my family event, gonna hire someone similar for my kid’s baptism!” etc etc. I mean who doesn’t think a bit of porn is good for babies?! )
Fawna Love’s social media profile featured such nuggets as '“pop my pussy like a basket-ball”. (I think ‘pig’ refers to something quite gross too in the porn world, not gonna bother googling that thank you)
As a long time maker of work for children I saw this as grossly irresponsible not just on behalf of the organisation but the artist herself. I am of the belief that if you are an ‘adult entertainer’ (I am talking about 18+ content when I say ‘adult’) then you make work for adults exclusively. These days children are online, and might ‘go looking’ for you, and what then?
Which brings us back to the very inappropriate Fawna Love Drag… person.
At this stage I thought a bit of sensible chat would be enough to shine a light on the failings in their endeavour……
Note: I didn’t even address the mind-f**k of ‘girl becomes boy pretends to be girl’ presented to children in the name of ‘inclusivity’. It’s one thing when these are presented as ‘play’. Children will watch performance and know that the performer is in the land of make believe, but in the case of drag - there is no pretend. Drag Queen Story time is the politicising of children’s play space. They are not consenting to that. That are not able to consent to that. They are children. Yet this sensibility seems to have gone out the window.
Often what individuals cite ‘what kids like’ about drag is the costume and the fact that boys can dress up in sparkles. That’s what dressing up boxes are for. The added layer of ‘inclusivity’ is completely irrelevant and is (as stated) about the ADULT aims and ADULT validation. It’s not about the kids clearly.
And I speak with a certain amount of experience. From 2020-2023 I created a series of performance ‘interventions’ involving costumes and creating local dance happenings and discos. One of my most famous ‘interventions’ was the “Disco Chicken” . The main aim of these projects was to have fun, to get people dancing and to inspire creativity. I am not a great seamstress. Most of my costumes are made upcycling other clothes with a hot glue gun, some hand stitching and a lot of sequins. In other words, things kids can copy.
The other thing to keep in mind is that (as a female) I make costumes with a certain amount of self-preservation. I could not wear 99% of what drag artists wear in order to keep myself safe. There is a kind of strange male entitlement to be able to magnify a pornified version of women that most women will not have (keeping in mind even if I could it’s not appropriate for kids… or my own sensibility).
So clearly I have no truck with dressing up, in fact I LOVE IT. I think giving kids more access to better dressing up boxes and creative resources would make the world a sweeter place. It certainly would be more fun.
Which is why I find drag to be such a well….a drag. Because whilst entering from a place of ‘we are here to ensure that you are inclusive’ it simultaneously makes sure that inclusivity is *their* version. So not inclusive then.
I thought my letter was quite sensible. (It was). It was querying the choice from a pragmatic standpoint. They were raising money for a questionable charity Mermaids:
In addition how this particular form of entertainment was unnecessary for children (as noted previous) and lastly it did not support their mission as an organisation.
This was their response.
1. The appropriateness of drag queens for a very junior audience.
Yes VERY junior audience. Babies in fact.
Drag queen story time is a well established, global event designed to introduce concepts of diversity and inclusion to a junior audience.
Because babies are bigots! Stop it with our efforts to ensure wee Jimmy doesn’t continue his transphobic bigotry!
The storytellers use children’s books from an established and reviewed booklist and present ideas and concepts which are in keeping with Merry-go-round’s ethos to treat people, our customers, as they wish to be treated.
“Established and reviewed booklist” by WHOM? This magazine perhaps?
In addition, our ethos of supporting families absolutely includes all family models and we believe this event sits supports our objectives of inclusivity.
It’s those bigoted babies again! This reminds me that Glasgow Teacher training includes a module where teachers are instructed that EVERY lesson needs to be a ‘mirror and a window’. So EVERY lesson needs to represent EVERY child. Maths, Spanish, Physics etc etc etc. My pal calls it the ‘wheelchair shot’. She points out that if an alien was to touch down in this culture they would think 85% of people were in wheelchairs (inclusivity innit!) with the amount of graphics including people in wheelchairs these days. Take note!
Fawna’s personal social media content is not necessarily appropriate for children, however the event now has it’s own page on Facebook and interested parties are directed to that page, not Fawna’s page.
“Not necessarily appropriate” - she said ‘POP MY PUSSY’ - WHAT PLANET ARE YOU ON? It’s ABSOLUTELY not appropriate. And if a parent thinks that screenshot IS appropriate call social services!! I mean why stop at Fawna Merry Go Round?, why not advertise on Only Fans? As long as the entertainer has a separate page, no biggie!
We are confident that Fawna is receiving all appropriate training and guidance from Drag Queen story time and that the content will be age and objective appropriate.
Oh that ‘age appropriate’ word again. Meaningless. Especially when you look at the dubious history of Drag Queen Story Time as outlined forensically by Malcolm Clark here:
SO MUCH CONFIDENCE IN THIS ENDEAVOUR (not at all).
2. The appropriateness of Mermaid’s as a charitable donation option for this event.
As is always the case with issues that attract a great deal of media coverage, there are many perspectives presented on the topic of transgender youth and on Mermaids itself. Following further research it is our belief that much of this reporting is biased and lacks objectivity. We have satisfied ourselves that as the only national charity that is providing support for transgender youth and their families Mermaids is an organisation that Merry-go-round is willing to support for the purposes of this event.
Really there is so much more I could say on this. What is clear in the space between 2018 when I challenged Merry Go Round and today 2024 is that we, societally are no closer to giving children what they need. And where will that leave us, societally as they *do* transition into adulthood? For all their ‘rights’ and ‘manifestos’ they remain children and they need us adults to provide for them.
I ask you to challenge your schools, your politicians, your community organisations with ‘Is this good for children’? If we got better at that, I do believe things could improve for a happier, healthier, more robust future for our children and the world at large.
*The letter was signed ‘The Board of Directors of Merry Go Round’ they intentionally made themselves anonymous whilst I was exposed to them. Thankfully I can retrieve their names from Companies House: Laura Thom, Lynne Dent, Samantha Jane Moir, Louise Allan and Ross Burns. It is possible one (all have changed their minds on this, I hope so).