Are you familiar with the Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSA)? It was founded by writer Michelle Tea with its stated purpose to “give kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.” The way it works is that drag queens (male performers who dress in women’s clothes and perform before an audience) serve as story readers for groups of children; typically at libraries, schools, and bookstores. This is not to be mistaken for cross-dressing. Cross dressing men generally attempt to actually pass as a woman. “Dragging,” on the other hand, involves an intentional performance, and generally has as its specific goal to undo the gender norms of traditional society by portraying the part of the opposite sex. There is generally no mistaking that drag queens are actually men. Their dress is usually VERY outrageous, and their performances tend to be quite vulgar. Additionally, many of these people are sexual deviants, and are into pedophilia.
When he/she came up with the DQSA idea, Tea did not like the fact that drag queens had a bad reputation. So he/she decided to create an event designed to provide some “positive” publicity for them – and at the same time help desensitize children to the drag queen lifestyle. In their DQSA events, drag queens provide story reading opportunities in order to entertain young children. It began as a small event in San Francisco, but now claims chapters throughout the U.S. and around the world.
My purpose in this blog, though, is probably different from what you might expect.
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