logicp_writings/queer/Grooming_Clowns_DQSH.md

Groomer Time

Introduction

Drag Queen Story Hour provides a generative extension of queer pedagogy into the world of early childhood education... (offers) educators a way into a sense of queer imagination: play as praxis, aesthetic transformation, strategic defiance, destigmatization of shame, and embodied kinship... *provides a performative approach to queer pedagogy that is not simply about LGBT lives, but living queerly*

The purpose is to embed a generative praxis into ECE which grooms children into embodied kinship with queer family.

Program

Through this programme, drag artists have channelled their penchant for playfully "'reading' each other to filth" into different forms of literacy, promoting storytelling as integral to queer and trans communities, as well as positioning queer and trans cultural forms as valuable components of early childhood education. We are guided by the following question: What might DQSH offer educators as a way of bringing queer ways of knowing and being into the education of young children?

Note the reference to "different forms of literacy", which is from the Freirean model which makes the assumption that literacy is a form of privilege used to reproduce structural oppression. The goal is for people to become literate in their liberation, and for the Queer Theorist that simply means making queer activists.

Gay Acceptance

• Hard to find visibly queer space / dangerous realities
• Gentrification of "historically queer" neighbourhoods closes gay bars and moves people online
• Gay marriage and military inclusion dominate as principle goals of LGBT civil rights; ignores queer poverty, violence against queer/trans POC, and anti-LGBT policies Queer activism is not about gay acceptance, because it must remain fluid and ambiguous. Even gentrification benefits privileged gay (mostly white) people while queers in poverty must struggle.

DQSH ... between queer activism and broad cultural acceptancec. .. creates spaces for young children and families to immerse themselves in LGBT-themed stories, and does so in ways that seem to genuinely reflect queer ways of being and relating - rather than as a neatly marketed product. We believe that this makes DQSH worthy of closer study. We argue that the programme creates a pathway into the imaginative, messy, and rule-breaking aspects of drag for children without necessarily watering down queer cultures.

It positionsits itself as being concerned with broad acceptance only to seem viable for young children, but it ultimately doesn't want to be watering down queer culures.

Performer read a handful of childrens' books and lead children in movement and craft-based activities (making wands/tiaras). Book selections often include queer/trans characters, gender-transgressive hemes, or narratives about not fitting in... Some translate drag's penchant for taboo to kids ideas of silly topics, like making a mess, or potty time. Occasionally, a queen performs a lip sync of songs from a children's film.

Great to remind us that drag has a penchant for taboo, and that it can be found in the idea of children making a mess and having potty time.