WAGNER: The larger, political purpose of Drag Queen Story Hour

Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is an event where a drag queen (a man dressed up as a woman) reads children’s books to young children. This concept was invented by a left-wing activist in San Francisco in 2015.The idea spread quickly and was soon imported into Canada, as far-left American cultural practices commonly are (such as gay pride celebrations themselves and the rainbow flag.)The idea might seem cute. A funny-looking man reading pleasant stories to children, making them giggle and keeping them happy. What could be wrong with that?Well, the far-left doesn’t invent new practices just to entertain children. There’s more going on than meets the eye.Thankfully, a helpful and important book has just come off the press entitled, The Queering of the American Child: How a New School Religious Cult Poisons the Minds and Bodies of Normal Kids. It’s written by Logan Lancing and James Lindsay. This book is an analysis of Queer Theory and how that theory has come to dominate the public education system in the United States.Since public educators in Canada ape every fashionable educational trend in the U.S., it’s likely here, too.As Lancing and Lindsay explain, understanding the purpose behind DQSH requires, first of all, a basic understanding of Queer Theory.It’s probably correct to say that the core dogma of Queer Theory is that the concepts of sex and gender are social constructs. That is, those concepts are artificially determined by the power-holders of our society.In other words, the beliefs we hold about what a man is and what a woman is are completely fictional. They are imposed on us by society, which reflects the interests of powerful people who create the “truth” that we are expected to believe.Our beliefs about sex and sexuality are “made true” to us by those with the power to impose cultural concepts. We are being oppressed by their views of sex and sexuality.As Lancing and Lindsay note, the progenitor of Queer Theory, Michel Foucault, “believed that people in power had developed and used scientific disciplines to create an ideology of heterosexuality that tricks people into believing that heterosexual relationships are natural and normal.”But it’s only a trick. In this view, heterosexual relationships are neither natural or normal.However, due to the social power of the dominant messaging of society, we internalize these ideals “and force our minds and bodies to adjust accordingly to conform to social expectations related to sex, gender, and sexuality. Under the constant threat of being labeled abnormal or deviant, our minds imprison our bodies, requiring them to act a certain way in the world.”Put another way, everyone is born as a blank slate, but through societal pressure they are forced into their roles as a male or a female. It is cultural influence, not biology, that makes people perform their expected sex and gender roles.In short, “Queer Theory explicitly argues that there is no such thing as normal sexuality, and any justification rooted in biology or science is a ‘fake fact’ used to control people.”Therefore, people need to be liberated from this control. They need to be shown the truth that they are imprisoned by the ideas of sex and gender dominating our society. Once freed from conventional conceptions about sexuality, they will be able to live as their true selves, unencumbered by society’s constrains.What does this have to do with children? Well, Drag Queen Story Hour is a way of subtly introducing them to the Queer Theory way of thinking.Children are usually raised and educated believing in the normal categories of male and female. From a Queer Theory perspective, they are being imprisoned within societal expectations and need to be set free from those expectations.DQSH can shock children into questioning those expectations. Sitting before them is a man dressed as a woman acting as an authority figure. As Lancing and Lindsay write, “The point is to convince kids that ‘male’ and ‘female,’ ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ are empty categories that can be filled with anything a child wants to fill them with. The drag queen is the physical embodiment of this learning objective.”That is to say, the children are receiving the ideological message of Queer Theory: “The program is designed to make children think gender and sex are social constructs that must be mocked and broken.”The children can then question whether they are really a boy or a girl, as they were always taught, or perhaps some other gender. At the very least, they have been introduced to the fundamental idea of Queer Theory. Why should they accept the ideas of male and female imposed upon them? These are, after all, simply concepts that imprison them within someone else’s perspective.The point is, though, that DQSH is a way to introduce children to the far-left ideology of Queer Theory. Children are considerably less able to exercise critical thinking than adults, so they are likely to absorb the message and accept it as true. This will then colour their thinking and influence their views.As such, they will see traditional sex and gender roles as oppressive and oppose them. In this way, Queer Theory gains a foothold in the thinking of the children and leads them to far-left political views.Is there more to DQSH than entertaining children? It would seem so.

WAGNER: The larger, political purpose of Drag Queen Story Hour

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