Newsflash: Women dressing up as women is scary for some women!

[geminiwench]

Hear more at 11!

My friend, to celebrate Pride Month
engaged the local library
to host Drag Queen Story Hourand she is quite surprised

Comments

[geminiwench]

Here is the trap I see in that thinking.
50 years ago, 18-20% of people thought LGBTQ "life styles" (hey, its how they worded it!) should be decriminalized, where the majority 80% felt it should remain a criminal act (because it is immoral) to be LGBTQ, and felt they should not share the same rights to relationship protection. When they were the majority... one of the powers they had was to say, "We're right! Look how MANY of us there are!" and the reality is... they were strong in numbers, surely... but does majority support make you *right*?
Now the numbers have flipped. The majority now agree that LGBTQ+ people are human enough to share all the human rights of other humans. But being the majority isn't what makes us right... but it IS what makes us more 'comfortable'. And the people who are used to being called Freedom Fighters are now called 'bigots' and they don't... understand what changed EXCEPT that they are *very uncomfortable* right now.. and don't know WHY.

Yet they don't/won't identify with the alienation gay people have historically felt, somehow!

I wouldn't believe what I believe, if I didn't believe it was the right belief to believe.

So do "they" (whoever "they" are.. and whatever "they" believe).

The protestors want to arrive (without children) to fill up the children's reading rug so poor, innocent children who are brought by their godless parents don't have to be "subjected" to humans in non-trademarked personally-created character outfits reading stories about self-love. For some reason when they brought this idea up to Director of the city libraries and they were SHOCKED to find out that the public library does not ALLOW adults unaccompanied by children to attend child-centric events unless they've signed up as a volunteer and passed a background check. Oh! Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children!!
HA!

[daphnep]

I'm not saying majority support makes a thing right.
I'm saying that majority support for a thing I believe to be right helps keep the despair away, when the minority is in power and really awful.

[geminiwench]

How dare you say things I can't argue with!

[daphnep]

My despair is sometimes big enough to argue for both of us. ;D

[geminiwench]

I have never recovered from listening to the Lincoln/Douglas debates (as performed by Straithairn/Dreyfus, which is a great way to experience it) which completely revealed to me the Conservative vs Progressive method and *how* those debates are purposefully derailed by privilege in an act of malicious sabotage of subtlety and a concerted misdirection of actual purpose.

If it helps, the Drag Queens were the popular winners... getting HUGE waves of support, with supporters outnumbering detractors about 10-to-1. However, the fact that SWAT roof snipers are detailed to a library to protect a children's story hour SHOULD be as unnecessary as the National Guard deployed to escort a black child to school.... yet, we know our history don't we? However, the news preferred to report on the 'controversy' and the 'ire of protestors'.

My favorite tactics of support were two-fold.
The protestors were across the street and could pray, sing hymns, hold signs, or pound a drum... but whenever they brought out their megaphone to speechify, the supporters would raise as a communal choir of 300-400 people singing children's songs and completely drown them out, even when they brought an amp to raise their volume... they couldn't be heard above hundreds singing "On Top of Old Smokey" and "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain".

Also, because the protestors brought their dead-babies-super-imposed-on-roast-beef anti-abortion signs, (because drag performers and/or gay people... have a lot of abortions??) "The Angels" came,.. they wear large 8 feet tall, 4 feet wide wings, and stand in a line holding hands with their backs to the protestors so everyone is saved the sight of hate signs and their violent propaganda.

There is lots of hope... except, hope isn't clickbait, so hope doesn't get shared by media no matter how **popular** it is.

[limonatafic]

they were SHOCKED to find out that the public library does not ALLOW adults unaccompanied by children to attend child-centric events unless they've signed up as a volunteer and passed a background check - I snort-laughed!!!

Sometimes drag can strike me as sorta misogynistic (when the call is coming from outside the house, anyway) and idk yet how to resolve that fully but in the MEANTIME this is RIDICULOUS and I hope these 70 "people" each apparently claiming to represent 7.144 mothers are promptly shut down AND disinvited from craft time!! (which like. 500 is kinda a low goal, I feel? So it's vaguely amusing to me that they set such a low goal and are still failing utterly. Amusing and worth some schadenfreudey celebration!)

[geminiwench]

I think calling drag "misogynistic blackface" was their only entry into polite conversation since you CAN call out sexist/racist action, but you CAN'T call gay people 'faggots' anymore or call story-time a "gay agenda about pedophilia" and still get published in the newspaper.

So they SAID "misogynistic blackface" to the paper, but what they yelled from street corners is "Homos Go To Hell" and "BEWARE THE GAY AGENDA!" so.... I think I can read their 'subtext'.

I've never met a drag queen who was willing to go to all the work of drag (tucking, pantyhose, heels, sculpting underwear, bras, wigs, fake-eyelashes, full-face makeup) because they want to joke on women. It's just too much work (and dangerous to do outside of safe spaces!) and too expensive for a hate-joke. It doesn't add up.

We've SEEN what it looks like when Frat Boys cross-dress for a joke on Halloween or for an event... and it might be colloquially known as dressing drag... but it is not the same as a Drag Queen performance.

Did you know SHAKESPEARE is the person who *coined* the term "drag" as a stage direction for males performing professionally on stage as females? Ha! Learn something new every day!

[limonatafic]

God, I hate that kind of dogwhistling garbage. Those people sound like THE WORST and I hope the event went well enough despite them? I couldn't tell when it was scheduled so idk if it's happened yet.

Well, as I said, it's not something I know a lot about and I'm hardly espousing some sort of "everyone's going to hell" or "doing it with bad intentions" perspective. I don't think it's setting out to hate on women, and I know there's a long and valuable political history, but I guess I meant that sometimes aspects of how that occurs can seem maybe not ideal, or a little complex at least. Anything that helps break down gender stereotypes is something the world could do with more of, though.

[geminiwench]

I did a music show of Pacific Northwest musicians who are gay, gender-queer, or allies... and I found a great interview by Kurt Cobain. How in High School when he became friends with a gay kid (that everyone else apparently already knew, and Kurt was sorta obtuse about or "just didn't notice") and how he when he became friends with this guy, he saw the way the bullies began treating HIM differently. More beatings, more jokes, fewer people willing to talk to him.. and that it actually, saved his life because now he saw... there were weirdos like him. He wasn't alone. He wasn't GAY, but that didn't matter to Kurt, he'd rather SAY he was gay and see their open rejection than be straight and have their secret hatreds hidden from him. Now they had a **reason** to hate him, rather than just his being *different*, and now he had a way to understand it. And he also now had a friend, and that was a game changer.

The event went off WONDERFULLY! There were 50-60 people yelling about abortions, and a War on Bible, and "Sodomites Go To Hell!" signs. The reading room held 125 people and was filled to capacity hours before the event with supporters, with at least 400 supporters on the lawn having a rainbow-themed summer party.

I'm always confused when fundamentalists want to fight messages of love, peace, and deeper understandings of what **culture** IS and what it IS NOT. If you're not dealing in the world of love, peace, or understanding... what is left for you to be talking about? Fiery signs about hell, condemnation, abominations, and perversion.... clarified their message. Hilarious because the bible thumpers were surprised the cops considered THEM the real threat, rather than drag queens blowing bubbles. SHOCKING!