Kids Have Been Watching Drag Shows For Millenia

Years ago, I was in a relationship with a woman, we’ll call her Jane, whose mother is one of the most mean-spirited, ignorant, and vindictive people I’ve ever met. 

I certainly wasn't the only person who felt this way. 

Jane’s friends felt it, Jane’s family felt it, Jane felt it, but she became fiercely defensive if anyone brought it up. Even when Jane's mother was mean-spirited, ignorant and vindictive towards her, I had to be careful not to agree too enthusiastically while she complained to me about it. 

Over the years Jane and I were together, her mother's behaviour grew steadily worse. And nobody in her family ever spoke to her about it. The desire to defend a member of the family was greater than the desire to address the misery she was causing everybody around her.

In my article, Okay, Seriously, Can We Talk About The Sexualisation Of Kids?, I wrote about a growing trend of inappropriate sexual behaviour around or involving children. I gave numerous examples of this phenomenon, most of which didn’t involve the LGBT community. But I also pointed out that in a few cases, the LGBT community was, wrongly, being used as cover.

Don became a little defensive. 

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Don:

So, I love your writing. Always have. Been following you for a while. But on this topic, it just feels like you went after low hanging fruit. A cheap shot. If there was ever a more manufactured "crisis", I can't think of it. Kids have been watching drag shows for millenia. The eggregious examples you cite are few and far between, and wildly outnumbered by actual outrages like teachers having to pay for their own supplies. Write about that.

Oh and clowns. Kids watch clown shows at school all the time. Some kids like them, some not. Stephen King is the only one I know of who suffered permanent damage.

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Steve QJ:

“Kids have been watching drag shows for millenia. The eggregious examples you cite are few and far between”

A) this isn't true.

B) even if it were true, why does it matter if the egregious examples of children being made uncomfortable b adult displays of sexuality are few and far between in your opinion? Isn't the issue that it's happening at all in schools? And increasingly often?

And C) drag shows were only one of numerous other more serious problems I listed. Why you imagine that this is a less pressing problem than teachers paying for school supplies I cannot imagine.

Are you really comparing clown shows to performers wearing dildoes in front of toddlers and teachers wearing giant prosthetic breasts? Why do you feel compelled to defend this in any way shape or form? I write about lots of things. This is the only article I've ever devoted to this topic.