Drag
Queen Story Hours are becoming quite the rage in public libraries across the
country. You’ve probably read about them or seem them on YouTube. The library staff
sets aside time in the children’s section of the library for a man,
extravagantly dressed as a female, to come in and read a story—often one
promoting some sort of nontraditional sexuality—to young children. Many of
these drag queens are quite animated and not shy about performing for the
children as well.
These story hours have provoked a good deal of outcry for their goal of introducing children to diverse forms of gender identification—you can
be whatever you want to be, boy or girl, and love whomever you want to.
But I wonder why I have not heard any one protesting these drag queen shows for a
different reason. These men present a parody, a caricature, of a woman. With
their spectacular wigs, exaggerated foam-filled figures, overdone mannerisms, and
macabre make-up, they in no way resemble an actual woman.
What
the drag queen is, in fact, is a mockery of a woman. How is this okay? I marvel
that in our enlightened and careful age, men are allowed to parade themselves
in this farcical way, to chuckles and applause. If the same man were to
entertain the crowd wearing black face, he would be shouted down and socially ruined
(as he should be). Yet, he is welcome to present an exaggerated and tasteless
parody of women with impunity.
I
am not one who is offended at every turn, but as a woman, drag queens offend
me. If they perform in an adult theater where consenting adults buy a ticket,
fine. But they have no place performing
in a public library, where, in their massive pink wigs and fishnet
stockings, they can mock everyone of my gender.
All people, including women, have
enough opportunities to be made fun of in life without inviting someone into the
local library to do just that.
Photo courtesy of iStock.
