A TikTok video has been doing the rounds on Twitter the past 48 hours, and I feel I must express to you the level of disgust it has induced in me. The footage in question is of a black drag queen dancing seductively in front of a rather frightened-looking small child (around six years of age) as her (presumably) parents and other adults watch the scene unfold before them while smiling and cheering encouragement towards the drag artist.
The little girl’s foot is shaking as the drag queen starts to embrace her…
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) February 28, 2020
Now I trust that you will be just as appalled by this as I was, otherwise there really is no decency left in the world. What kind of hecked up (I make no apology for my use of coarse language here as it is entirely justified) society are we living in where this can be allowed to happen? The video shows a fairly large group of people all apparently perfectly OK with what they see in front of them. I cannot describe my disappointment in the fact that none of them took it upon themselves to do the right thing. Not one person involved thought to step in and say: ‘Hey, you know what, this really isn’t appropriate, and I strongly suggest that you should rethink your behavior.’
No. They all stood by and smiled and clapped while this entitled little racist, transphobic BIGOT sat there and expressed her obvious loathing at the drag queen community.
As you can see here, the stunning and brave drag queen is slowly approaching the girl on all fours (a universally recognized pose communicating submission) in a good-natured gesture of friendship, clearly wishing to change this tiny fascist’s opinion of gender-non-conforming alternative lifestyle choices. However, the miniature transphobe is showing no signs of embracing the LGBT community, as her mother (?) and others look on with problematic indifference:
In this screenshot, you can clearly see the look of fear and disgust on the face of the child as she struggles to contain her intolerance of a proud black individual who has learned to celebrate their uniqueness and empowerment via the medium of gender-expression and denim hot pants. [N.B.: Notice that the mother appears almost delighted at her own child’s blatant and public rejection of drag culture as a valid art form]:
Here we see the astoundingly courageous drag PoC attempting to win the child over with a persuasive shimmy, often seen in peacock mating rituals as a means to dissuade potential challengers from becoming hostile. This does not work however as the girl merely turns her head away to signal that she has no interest in accepting or tolerating the lived experiences of those who choose to confront and subvert restrictive cisgender norms:
In this final heartbreaking scene, we see the drag PoC in a last-ditch attempt to win over the privileged mini supremacist with a physical embrace. This part of the video in particular had me weeping, as you can see how uncomfortable the child looks as the adults, who should really know better, merely smile at her shameful display of bigotry:
It astounds me that in this current year we still have to endure this level of ignorance. I even saw people claiming that the drag queen herself was in the wrong for ‘sexually gyrating in front of a small child’. I cannot imagine how it must feel to live in a narrow-minded world where a man dressed as sex worker dancing provocatively in front of a child while a group of adults watch and clap is seen as something ‘inappropriate’. No, what’s ‘inappropriate’ is the fact that this young girl didn’t slide even a one-dollar bill into that black drag queen’s hot pants. Talk about entitled.
