Last week, it was announced that Discovery Plus will be launching a new show called Generation Drag, centered on the stories of five teenagers and their families as they prepare for a performance in Denver, Colorado, celebrating “teen queens, kings, and non-binary performers ages 8 to 18.” In the trailer (embedded at the bottom of this article), we see the kids primping and posing in brightly colored wigs, skimpy outfits, and winged eyeliner.
I’m all for supporting childrens’ self-expression and letting them experiment with different outfits and outlandish makeup. I certainly made some questionable decisions in my youth. And as someone who spent many of my formative years in drag clubs, I am fully on board with adults doing as they wish. But the trendiness of drag culture today is yet another way in which gender ideology and the transitioning of gay children are being glorified as forward-thinking. Some boys will naturally gravitate toward the campy caricature of femininity because they are gender-nonconforming (this is likely due to their being exposed to lower levels of testosterone in the prenatal environment).
In a best-case scenario, parents are merely supporting a child in his creative endeavors. But skeptics have the right to raise an eyebrow when children and their families are being rewarded with public validation and more in exchange for this attention and acceptance.
You may wonder how is this any different from child beauty pageants. It’s not. Both involve minors, in many cases, pouting and gyrating while wearing little clothing. One key aspect of drag culture is its over-the-top, sexualized nature, which is usually performed comedically and would be fine in the context of adults interacting with an adult audience. Children, however, do not fully understand this dynamic, nor should they have to.
Woke parents who are in favor of their gender-atypical sons (and so-called “transgender” daughters) presenting in a stereotypically feminine manner would be horrified if their little girls were to do the same. It’s hypocritical. Indeed, in the name of consistency, anyone fawning over the idea of drag kids should be in support of teenage girls performing as strippers.
I recall how straight people used to judge me, a heterosexual woman, for hanging out with my friends who were drag queens. Now, parents are all too happy to appropriate the culture as though it’s been theirs all along. It’s not “brave” to cling to the coattails of a phenomenon long after it’s become mainstream and socially acceptable.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
<mediadc-iframe data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1651437901038,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07a3-de22-a173-2ffbeb100000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1651437901038,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07a3-de22-a173-2ffbeb100000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"iFrameEmbedCode":"","_id":"00000180-815e-d77c-afc8-ed5f8d140000","_type":"00000161-b425-d761-a563-f7e77e270000"}”>iFrame Object
