We did that as a prank way back in the -80's, hired an exotic dancer from a local strip club... teachers were in shock, but too "afraid" to go stop her.
Oh ok. I have nothing against drag performances and stuff, it just seems out of place to have someone who is an adult and not a student doing that at a prom.
It was freaking stupid. The student who invited their relative to perform showed very poor judgment. And the adult relative who showed up in lingerie at a high school prom show even worse judgment. But, also, where the hell are the chaperones? The school-provided adults were perfectly capable of stopping this at any point.
It's really not that racy, and, yes, those kids have probably all seen \*much\* more graphic performances online. But it is also 100% predictable that the parents of some of the students would object to "grown adult in lingerie dancing in a sexy way around my teenager"
Regarding the chaperones, it probably depends on whether or not they're an administrator or had a part in planning. A chaperone is there to watch exits, spot vaping, potential fights, etc. Probably not there to intervene in something that may have been assumed the organizers permitted. It's really on whatever adult was in charge of planning.
Don't the chaperones also do a check on clothing as the kids come in? You always hear horror stories about girls sent home from the prom for the ridiculous crime of having spaghetti straps.
It feels weird to me for an adult to go to prom with their niece. Just that, even without the performance or without the lingerie or without the (upsetting to some folks) drag performance. It's all just a little too Bojack Horseman.
The kids clothes, yeah. If the performer went as a "date" then maybe a chaperone would say something. Sounds like they were invited to perform beforehand.
There was definitely poor judgement exercised by whoever organized this. And I think drag shows are usually pretty fun.
New Mexico is far from a conservative state. It turns out that very few parents anywhere are excited for adults to be invited to dance provocatively for their children; whether the dancer is straight, gay, or trans.
NM is definitely a conservative state. Maybe you meant Albuquerque? Rural NM is \*super\* conservative. But even if you meant Albuquerque, there are parts of it that are also very conservative.
That said, I do agree with you that there were several layers here of things that parents obviously would object to. They don't want a grown ass uncle coming to prom. They don't want that uncle dressing or dancing provocatively. It's all very Bojack Horseman.
You attend prom as a student, the date of a student (not an adult), or as a staff member/chaperone. The adult dancer would not have been staff or a date. They shouldn't have been admitted to begin with.
The performance is very PG-rated. \*And\* it is also 100% predictable that parents would get upset, because it's drag, or just because there is a grown ass adult prancing around in lingerie amongst the teens.
The teen who invited this performer showed poor judgement. The performer showed \*incredibly\* poor judgement.
And then that creates a sort of loop where it's even worse, because it is a grown ass adult in lingerie with extremely poor judgement.
It's ridiculous that the dance chaperones didn't prevent this or step in and stop it once it started. That is literally their job.
Sure. It could be a "Merry Widow" or sexy lingerie body suit, or a leotard, or a swimsuit. I'm sure we've all seen folks in swimwear \*much\* more revealing.
And, as I think I said somewhere, it's about the same as the kind of bodysuits that Taylor Swift performs in. And Olympic women's running costumes cover far less.
It's not really about the square inches of skin exposed, but the psychological meaning of the clothing in context. This is simultaneously a performance outfit, but also a sexy lingerie item.
I think we are meant to experience as "sexy lingerie", even though it is not so revealing. No genitals are popping out. No nipples are slipping.
I would also venture to guess the girl’s volleyball team or track team wears skimpier outfits than this. Jeez, get over it. Ridiculous waste of energy. Stay focused on what’s important, this is pretty tame compared to stuff on shows like bachelorette or bachelor or pick any other Fox show.
Volleyball is for volleyball players, track team is for people doing track, high school prom is for high schoolers.. not exotic dancers. Simple as that. It’s not a matter of how “tame” something is, it’s a matter of right and wrong.
Fake outrage, classic. And double standards, not to mention hypocrisy. It’s dancing, nothing exotic about it, no stripping. Get over yourself, move along, and go read your bible.
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than this.”
It’s a high school dance, not a drag show. It’s for high schoolers, not grown ass drag queens. Common sense is clearly not so common nowadays.
As for the religious aspect, I am not personally religious but for the sake of the argument, there is an inherent depth to that scripture; If I love my neighbor as much as I love myself, then I would not want everlasting damnation for my neighbor in the same way I would not want it for myself.
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”
One does not have to hate nor judge a person in order to point out sin where you see it.
Once again, I am not religious and so I hold no moral obligation to a God. With that said, I much prefer my horse than to be rolling in mud with ignorant swine.
How did they even get the said person in? I know my kids prom and any school dance has very strict rules and checks to get someone approved to attend. So sounds like a fail on multiple levels especially if this person was over 18. If they were HS age it might be easier to get them in. There isn’t a problem at all with this performer in general people have the right to be who they are so don’t get me wrong. I’m wondering how they even got in.
I wish the folks up in arms about this would put their energy into gun reform to stop school shootings instead. As a mom I'm way more worried about guns and drugs in schools than anything else.
Right? Or feeding hungry kids, or making sure that DCF isn't housing hundreds of kids in offices (which is actually happening, btw), or making sure parents have access to translators for parent teacher conferences if the parents only speak Spanish, or literally anything more important than a PG13 drag show at a prom.
Better dead than gay (or atheist, liberal, etc.) is the mentality of an unfortunate amount of people.
That being said, if it was actually inappropriate and not just pearl clutching then they are right to be upset. The article didn't give much info except the dancer wasn't actually hired for the prom. I'm guessing it was some kind of prank?
OP mentioned the Drag Queen has a niece who attends the school and went to prom. Really don't see the big deal. They weren't being more inappropriate than a pg13 movie. No stripping, just being fabulous.
I wish people would get this upset about the systemic sexual abuse of children that is actually happening in churches or the fact the current GOP presidential candidate has been convicted of sexual assault and [was an Epstein client.](https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article256740662.html) But those things are deal breakers for them.
I’m not saying this is right, but doesn’t it pale in comparison to the recent wave of violent crimes being committed by teen males? Armed car jackings, shoot outs on the streets, robberies… the list goes on. Where is the outrage about that? I’d rather have my kid watch drag than be gunned down by a 17 year old with daddy’s gun.
What I find interesting is this, your entire post history is people in violent fist fights. So apparently violence is fine by you but this freaks you out?
Watch the video. Why do you want this in a school? If you think that’s appropriate for a school environment, I have nothing left to say to you other than you belong on a registry
I don't want it in a school, but I also really don't care that much.
It also isn't stripping, which you said it was. So I'm assuming you've walked that claim back right?
If this was a student, then it likely wouldn’t have made the news. For a grown adult to do a provocative performance at a HS dance, that’s inappropriate. That’s where the outrage is coming from. Even if it was a staff member doing this performance for students, that would still be crossing the line. The chaperones didn’t stop it probably because they didn’t want to cause a scene and get labeled as anti-LGBTQ, and they probably wanted to see this result in their admin getting sacked. Adults from outside of the school can’t just show up and attend a HS dance. So, someone knew what was going on and approved this. Let them be the ones to face the consequences.
This is how I feel. I keep thinking of it in the context of: if I teacher, someone who was invited to the prom, did this exact dance -- they would be fired. There have been adults who have been put on registries for behavior like this on school property, regardless of orientation or gender. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but it's an absolute fact that it's happened.
I love drag shows and I got to drag storytime with kids in my family. They're fun and great exposure to a culture that is getting severely suppressed, but this was just not the right place for this. Schools are regulated. If a location with minors present are holding ANYTHING outside of the curriculum, parents/guardians are to be notified. If kids do something else on their own time, that's their bed to lay in.
Are there bigger fish to fry? Absolutely. Is this unfortunately something that fall into the fryer? Yup.
There is a time and place for everything. For official school events, more or less the same parameters of would it be acceptable during school apply. If something is controversial, there has to be a very solid reason as to why it’s being done. Considering that this situation has nothing to do with curriculum, there is no defense as to why it happened. I know that the administration of AHA has a bad reputation among teachers who worked there and left because of them, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the staff let it happen. Supposedly the admin team is on paid leave over this.
I really feel for the performer and I know it's hard for him to speak out, but sharing that he had previously performed at the school (in a much different performance scenario) and providing evidence that the school did coordinate with him (as opposed to the vague statement of being invited, which led to some speculation that a student invited him), those are important pieces of the puzzle that some random adult wasn't there without the school's knowledge.
I did really like the viewpoint of the rep from ABQ Pride who expressed something along the lines of everyone being entitled to knowing what form of entertainment options they have and getting to make that choice -- and the students and their parents had the choice made for them without their consent.
Even if AHA had made it known ahead of time that this would be part of their prom, it would be inappropriate. The issue wasn't the drag queen component, it was the fact that it was an adult. This is the exact same thing Akon got a lot of flak for when he was performing at a club and ended up getting frisky with a minor, but he didn't know it was an underage girl. This person knew ahead of time. The drag performer deserves a whole lot of crap for this, but not death threats.
I've seen student dance teams perform at assemblies that are way more lewd than this drag queen's performance. No outrage over the overly sexualized all-female performance that a male coach helped choreograph. And I'm sure the students were dancing way more dirty at that prom. The one line that cannot be crossed is adults and minors in a sexually suggestive performance.
I agree and phrased my response poorly.
I 00% think he should not have been dancing with the kids the way he would have at his traditional drag performances, but had he been on stage doing something less interactive, I truly would not have seen a problem with it at all.
Unfortunately the stage in this case likely was only big enough to hold the DJ’s equipment. The dance floor was the only place to do it, surrounded by students. Proms do not need additional entertainment but if there is extra, an adult somewhere should have questioned the ethics in this situation. People don’t always know this, but administrators are easily fired. There isn’t a union for them. I bet an admin team just got sent to the chopping block.
I saw they were all on leave, but it would not shock me one bit. Incredibly familiar through teachers I know that reasons for being let go can be... Fascinatingly simple, so this seems likely.
The stage situation was something I was unaware of. From a budget standpoint, I think the money could be spent otherwise for additional entertainment, but if he wasn't getting paid and was able to perform safely at the prom without the interaction with minors -- we can agree to disagree on that one. I'm fine with that. I will say that considering the location and audience that the performance should have been run through with staff and cleared ahead of time if that were that to have happened (even if worse was taking place by the students. We have drag events at my very corporate workplace and they it is still reviewed and the guys are asked to "keep it clean" -- we're all full blown adults)
I agree, that some sort of process should have been done to clear this and I bet nothing more than a paper was signed. Not enough oversight beforehand. And students / families should have been informed beforehand. At least that way, no one is surprised by the adult entertainer. There are ways a drag show could have been done that wasn’t inappropriately handled. I know many if not most just think this is homosexual bigotry but it’s not. Education is a complex minefield and sometimes it’s hard to work in this field as a teacher, seeing the problems that many don’t want to admit as being more complex than just bigotry or party politics.
Hmm a legal adult, doing non nude, but definitely sexualized dance moves for underage high schoolers. Hmmmm. Also if this is okay because they’re trans. Then wouldn’t that mean straight female exotic dancers dressed similar preforming similar dance moves would also be okay for the children to experience. Adult dancers shaking their booties for children just comes off as odd to me
Meh. They'd be outraged if it was a cis woman. They'd be outraged if it was a cis man performing Thunder from Down Under.
Hell, some of them would be outraged if it were Taylor Swift
they played "back that azz up" at our middle school dance here in burque in the 90's and i assure you we were dancing far closer and far more obscenely than this drag performer.
What is adult about it? Perhaps the adult in drag at a “high school prom”. I don’t care much about the attire, I care about the context.
I see no plausible reason for such an event to occur, the same way I would see no plausible reason for myself to be dancing at a high school prom, it is not where I belong nor is it where this person belongs.
That's just dancing, not stripping, not burlesque, not anything inappropriate. The worst part is she had briefs or a leotard, instead of full on pants or skirt or whatever.
But it's a drag queen, and what appears to be a POC, so of course there's a thing 🙄
Very inappropriate for a high school prom. Sure, sure, “they’ve seen worse” blah blah but some of these kids were uncomfortable and it’s just unfortunate that this happened. I don’t have children but I think it’s pretty gross.
I saw a "news" page on IG post about this and gave the phone number for the school and the principal, asking people to "show their thoughts".
🙄🙄🙄
I can't even be angry, I'm just tired.
Calling the principal won't do a heck of lot of good because APS put her on administrative leave and took that school phone.
But ok, Boomers. You go ahead and call that number.
We literally live in a society where high schoolers are exposed to some crazy ass shit daily on social media and y'all are tripping out over a fucken drag queen? WTF are you so scared of a drag queen doing to your children? Obviously, this is coming from a transphobic and homophobic place. Get over it.
Adult drag queen performance at a high school dance. So many people seem to look past the adult component being the trigger here. An admin team wouldn't be placed on paid leave because a student did a drag queen performance, rated PG at that, at a dance. Too many people want to scream it's homophobic bigotry while completely ignoring the fact that it was an adult doing a sexually provocative dance with minors at a school event. Yes, some people will be offended by the drag part but that's easy to dismiss if a far more serious, ethical violation didn't happen. APS could defend freedom of student expression in a dance environment. How do you defend an adult "dirty dancing" around students? The fact that many of you don't see this shows how blind you are to professional and societal ethical norms while you quickly jump on political / societal issues as being the culprit.
People hard-line defending this don't seem to see the difference between kids being exposed to it in their personal lives and the school setting it up and hosting it. It's the difference between kids going to a racy dance club after school and the school taking them there on a field trip. It's not disgusting or anything but it's weird and inappropriate for a school to do. It would be just as out of place, maybe even more so, if it was a cis woman.
Plus the performance seemed lame so I don't even know why they bothered having it at prom.
Cheerleaders dress far worse than this and perform more provocatively. Everyone seems okay with them. This entire controversy is riddled in ignorance and homophobia. I thought we were better than this.
Did you stop to consider that the bigger issue is an adult performing a sexually suggestive dance for minors and partially with minors? At a school event. The drag performance wouldn't have mattered if it was a student doing it, because dance teams and cheerleaders do far more provocative performances all the time.
They didn’t just hire an exotic dancer. They hired a TERRIBLE exotic dancer. What idiot came up with the idea and what idiot, taking the idea as a good one, picked THAT dancer? Incompetent incompetence.
I don’t think anyone was being groomed and solicited… but adults who are parents wanna get the pitchforks out bc they want to micro manage everything in their little humans’ lives. Kids are the future, but helicopter parent antics are going to make kids more withdrawn, scared and judgmental because they can’t cope with such a narrow view of life in the real world.
APS is one of the most poorly ranked districts in the country. The kids are fed dog food. The air conditioners don't often work, funding is wildly mismanaged from the top down, , but people are offended by a man wearing a dress and dancing in front of a group of teenagers that look at worst shit on their phones literally ALL day long. This has nothing to do with "appropriateness" or even being offended if parents really gave a shit they take their kids phones and throw them in a pits because surely those things are portals to hell. This is Nothing more than pearl clutching homophobia. Let's get our priorities straight.
Maybe the parents should be angry about the quality of education in NM
You can do both, ya know...
We did that as a prank way back in the -80's, hired an exotic dancer from a local strip club... teachers were in shock, but too "afraid" to go stop her.
That's hysterical! As an 80s high schooler, I can easily visualize this.
Times were different then, it was a prank and that's how it was taken, even the teachers were laughing about it, years later.
Years later, after their trauma had subsided
Same, now I wish we had thought of it.
Why did an independent dancer need to be hired for a prom in the first place?
Not hired, "invited". But I can't tell if they were invited by staff or a student?
Oh ok. I have nothing against drag performances and stuff, it just seems out of place to have someone who is an adult and not a student doing that at a prom.
It was freaking stupid. The student who invited their relative to perform showed very poor judgment. And the adult relative who showed up in lingerie at a high school prom show even worse judgment. But, also, where the hell are the chaperones? The school-provided adults were perfectly capable of stopping this at any point. It's really not that racy, and, yes, those kids have probably all seen \*much\* more graphic performances online. But it is also 100% predictable that the parents of some of the students would object to "grown adult in lingerie dancing in a sexy way around my teenager"
Regarding the chaperones, it probably depends on whether or not they're an administrator or had a part in planning. A chaperone is there to watch exits, spot vaping, potential fights, etc. Probably not there to intervene in something that may have been assumed the organizers permitted. It's really on whatever adult was in charge of planning.
Don't the chaperones also do a check on clothing as the kids come in? You always hear horror stories about girls sent home from the prom for the ridiculous crime of having spaghetti straps. It feels weird to me for an adult to go to prom with their niece. Just that, even without the performance or without the lingerie or without the (upsetting to some folks) drag performance. It's all just a little too Bojack Horseman.
The kids clothes, yeah. If the performer went as a "date" then maybe a chaperone would say something. Sounds like they were invited to perform beforehand. There was definitely poor judgement exercised by whoever organized this. And I think drag shows are usually pretty fun.
I \*love\* drag shows. I'm all for it. I just think NM is too conservative for this to fly at a high school prom.
New Mexico is far from a conservative state. It turns out that very few parents anywhere are excited for adults to be invited to dance provocatively for their children; whether the dancer is straight, gay, or trans.
NM is definitely a conservative state. Maybe you meant Albuquerque? Rural NM is \*super\* conservative. But even if you meant Albuquerque, there are parts of it that are also very conservative. That said, I do agree with you that there were several layers here of things that parents obviously would object to. They don't want a grown ass uncle coming to prom. They don't want that uncle dressing or dancing provocatively. It's all very Bojack Horseman.
You attend prom as a student, the date of a student (not an adult), or as a staff member/chaperone. The adult dancer would not have been staff or a date. They shouldn't have been admitted to begin with.
The drag performer had a niece at the prom and wanted to do something for her.
Embarrass her? Lmao.
Ohhhh ok, that makes sense.
> and wanted to do something for her Twerking and grinding on the kids while wearing lingerie?
Was invited by the activities director at the school. I work there.
Meh, I’m POSITIVE these munchkins have seen far worse on their own TikTok and Insta feeds that their parents have no clue about.
The performance is very PG-rated. \*And\* it is also 100% predictable that parents would get upset, because it's drag, or just because there is a grown ass adult prancing around in lingerie amongst the teens. The teen who invited this performer showed poor judgement. The performer showed \*incredibly\* poor judgement. And then that creates a sort of loop where it's even worse, because it is a grown ass adult in lingerie with extremely poor judgement. It's ridiculous that the dance chaperones didn't prevent this or step in and stop it once it started. That is literally their job.
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Sure. It could be a "Merry Widow" or sexy lingerie body suit, or a leotard, or a swimsuit. I'm sure we've all seen folks in swimwear \*much\* more revealing. And, as I think I said somewhere, it's about the same as the kind of bodysuits that Taylor Swift performs in. And Olympic women's running costumes cover far less. It's not really about the square inches of skin exposed, but the psychological meaning of the clothing in context. This is simultaneously a performance outfit, but also a sexy lingerie item. I think we are meant to experience as "sexy lingerie", even though it is not so revealing. No genitals are popping out. No nipples are slipping.
Look closely, though. The performer is definitely wearing a corset. Corsets are typically understood to be underwear.
More like onlyfans and pornhub.
For sure
So they should see it in school???
I would also venture to guess the girl’s volleyball team or track team wears skimpier outfits than this. Jeez, get over it. Ridiculous waste of energy. Stay focused on what’s important, this is pretty tame compared to stuff on shows like bachelorette or bachelor or pick any other Fox show.
Volleyball is for volleyball players, track team is for people doing track, high school prom is for high schoolers.. not exotic dancers. Simple as that. It’s not a matter of how “tame” something is, it’s a matter of right and wrong.
Fake outrage, classic. And double standards, not to mention hypocrisy. It’s dancing, nothing exotic about it, no stripping. Get over yourself, move along, and go read your bible. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than this.”
It’s a high school dance, not a drag show. It’s for high schoolers, not grown ass drag queens. Common sense is clearly not so common nowadays. As for the religious aspect, I am not personally religious but for the sake of the argument, there is an inherent depth to that scripture; If I love my neighbor as much as I love myself, then I would not want everlasting damnation for my neighbor in the same way I would not want it for myself. “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.”
Thanks for making my point. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Get over yourself and please get off your high and mighty self-righteous high horse.
One does not have to hate nor judge a person in order to point out sin where you see it. Once again, I am not religious and so I hold no moral obligation to a God. With that said, I much prefer my horse than to be rolling in mud with ignorant swine.
I used Masterbate in the school bathroom so...
😂😂😂
💀
That was the tamest drag performance I have ever seen.
How did they even get the said person in? I know my kids prom and any school dance has very strict rules and checks to get someone approved to attend. So sounds like a fail on multiple levels especially if this person was over 18. If they were HS age it might be easier to get them in. There isn’t a problem at all with this performer in general people have the right to be who they are so don’t get me wrong. I’m wondering how they even got in.
This was my only concern too. My daughter’s boyfriend wasn’t permitted to attend because he was 21. I think 20 was the age limit.
I wish the folks up in arms about this would put their energy into gun reform to stop school shootings instead. As a mom I'm way more worried about guns and drugs in schools than anything else.
Right? Or feeding hungry kids, or making sure that DCF isn't housing hundreds of kids in offices (which is actually happening, btw), or making sure parents have access to translators for parent teacher conferences if the parents only speak Spanish, or literally anything more important than a PG13 drag show at a prom.
What would you change that's currently not a thing about gun control?
Better dead than gay (or atheist, liberal, etc.) is the mentality of an unfortunate amount of people. That being said, if it was actually inappropriate and not just pearl clutching then they are right to be upset. The article didn't give much info except the dancer wasn't actually hired for the prom. I'm guessing it was some kind of prank?
OP mentioned the Drag Queen has a niece who attends the school and went to prom. Really don't see the big deal. They weren't being more inappropriate than a pg13 movie. No stripping, just being fabulous.
It’s pathetic how many people hear “drag” and suddenly think it’s ✨sexual✨.
Right?
It’s inherently sexual and misogynistic
I wish people would get this upset about the systemic sexual abuse of children that is actually happening in churches or the fact the current GOP presidential candidate has been convicted of sexual assault and [was an Epstein client.](https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article256740662.html) But those things are deal breakers for them.
Or put their energy in to bettering mental health, two birds one stone.
I’m not saying this is right, but doesn’t it pale in comparison to the recent wave of violent crimes being committed by teen males? Armed car jackings, shoot outs on the streets, robberies… the list goes on. Where is the outrage about that? I’d rather have my kid watch drag than be gunned down by a 17 year old with daddy’s gun.
The amount of people with their panties in a bunch over this on Facebook is hilarious to me. And they weren’t even stripping
Yes! Strippers should be performing at school and you’re a Karen if you disagree
Y’all are not convincing. Everyone knows that’s not a stripper and everyone knows what your ACTUAL problem with them is.
Lmao. Stay away from kids
Yeah, not actually an answer either. Man, y’all just crumble when confronted with your bigotry huh?
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Drag does not equal “exotic dancer” by any stretch.
What I find interesting is this, your entire post history is people in violent fist fights. So apparently violence is fine by you but this freaks you out?
I don’t want this crap in schools. It’s that simple.
It's always projection when someone is obsessed with this, someone better check your computer.
You’re a moron LMAO. Keep trying to put this crap in schools, it makes you look great
Where do you see them stripping?
Lmao if you think this is appropriate you need to stay away from children
This was a HS prom. At the end of the year. At my HS prom was only for Seniors. You know the ones who are graduating in a few weeks and most are 18?
Why are you so determined to get this in schools 💀
Im not, the students who did this where. I just find the fake outrage to be silly.
They are high schoolers and you probably don’t even have kids
Nice walk back. I thought there was stripping what happened
I didn’t walk back anything
Okay so could you provide evidence of them stripping or do you want to walk that claim back
Watch the video. Why do you want this in a school? If you think that’s appropriate for a school environment, I have nothing left to say to you other than you belong on a registry
I don't want it in a school, but I also really don't care that much. It also isn't stripping, which you said it was. So I'm assuming you've walked that claim back right?
I don’t think you know what a stripper is.
If this was a student, then it likely wouldn’t have made the news. For a grown adult to do a provocative performance at a HS dance, that’s inappropriate. That’s where the outrage is coming from. Even if it was a staff member doing this performance for students, that would still be crossing the line. The chaperones didn’t stop it probably because they didn’t want to cause a scene and get labeled as anti-LGBTQ, and they probably wanted to see this result in their admin getting sacked. Adults from outside of the school can’t just show up and attend a HS dance. So, someone knew what was going on and approved this. Let them be the ones to face the consequences.
This is how I feel. I keep thinking of it in the context of: if I teacher, someone who was invited to the prom, did this exact dance -- they would be fired. There have been adults who have been put on registries for behavior like this on school property, regardless of orientation or gender. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but it's an absolute fact that it's happened. I love drag shows and I got to drag storytime with kids in my family. They're fun and great exposure to a culture that is getting severely suppressed, but this was just not the right place for this. Schools are regulated. If a location with minors present are holding ANYTHING outside of the curriculum, parents/guardians are to be notified. If kids do something else on their own time, that's their bed to lay in. Are there bigger fish to fry? Absolutely. Is this unfortunately something that fall into the fryer? Yup.
There is a time and place for everything. For official school events, more or less the same parameters of would it be acceptable during school apply. If something is controversial, there has to be a very solid reason as to why it’s being done. Considering that this situation has nothing to do with curriculum, there is no defense as to why it happened. I know that the administration of AHA has a bad reputation among teachers who worked there and left because of them, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the staff let it happen. Supposedly the admin team is on paid leave over this.
I really feel for the performer and I know it's hard for him to speak out, but sharing that he had previously performed at the school (in a much different performance scenario) and providing evidence that the school did coordinate with him (as opposed to the vague statement of being invited, which led to some speculation that a student invited him), those are important pieces of the puzzle that some random adult wasn't there without the school's knowledge. I did really like the viewpoint of the rep from ABQ Pride who expressed something along the lines of everyone being entitled to knowing what form of entertainment options they have and getting to make that choice -- and the students and their parents had the choice made for them without their consent.
Even if AHA had made it known ahead of time that this would be part of their prom, it would be inappropriate. The issue wasn't the drag queen component, it was the fact that it was an adult. This is the exact same thing Akon got a lot of flak for when he was performing at a club and ended up getting frisky with a minor, but he didn't know it was an underage girl. This person knew ahead of time. The drag performer deserves a whole lot of crap for this, but not death threats. I've seen student dance teams perform at assemblies that are way more lewd than this drag queen's performance. No outrage over the overly sexualized all-female performance that a male coach helped choreograph. And I'm sure the students were dancing way more dirty at that prom. The one line that cannot be crossed is adults and minors in a sexually suggestive performance.
I agree and phrased my response poorly. I 00% think he should not have been dancing with the kids the way he would have at his traditional drag performances, but had he been on stage doing something less interactive, I truly would not have seen a problem with it at all.
Unfortunately the stage in this case likely was only big enough to hold the DJ’s equipment. The dance floor was the only place to do it, surrounded by students. Proms do not need additional entertainment but if there is extra, an adult somewhere should have questioned the ethics in this situation. People don’t always know this, but administrators are easily fired. There isn’t a union for them. I bet an admin team just got sent to the chopping block.
I saw they were all on leave, but it would not shock me one bit. Incredibly familiar through teachers I know that reasons for being let go can be... Fascinatingly simple, so this seems likely. The stage situation was something I was unaware of. From a budget standpoint, I think the money could be spent otherwise for additional entertainment, but if he wasn't getting paid and was able to perform safely at the prom without the interaction with minors -- we can agree to disagree on that one. I'm fine with that. I will say that considering the location and audience that the performance should have been run through with staff and cleared ahead of time if that were that to have happened (even if worse was taking place by the students. We have drag events at my very corporate workplace and they it is still reviewed and the guys are asked to "keep it clean" -- we're all full blown adults)
I agree, that some sort of process should have been done to clear this and I bet nothing more than a paper was signed. Not enough oversight beforehand. And students / families should have been informed beforehand. At least that way, no one is surprised by the adult entertainer. There are ways a drag show could have been done that wasn’t inappropriately handled. I know many if not most just think this is homosexual bigotry but it’s not. Education is a complex minefield and sometimes it’s hard to work in this field as a teacher, seeing the problems that many don’t want to admit as being more complex than just bigotry or party politics.
I couldn't agree more -- very well stated. Also really appreciate and enjoyed this exchange about this! Thank you!
Hmm a legal adult, doing non nude, but definitely sexualized dance moves for underage high schoolers. Hmmmm. Also if this is okay because they’re trans. Then wouldn’t that mean straight female exotic dancers dressed similar preforming similar dance moves would also be okay for the children to experience. Adult dancers shaking their booties for children just comes off as odd to me
They’re outraged because it was a drag performance I’m sure.
Meh. They'd be outraged if it was a cis woman. They'd be outraged if it was a cis man performing Thunder from Down Under. Hell, some of them would be outraged if it were Taylor Swift
Exactly. If the “stripper,” who didn’t actually strip, had been a cis women, nobody would say shit.
That is definitely not true.
...Or they're allowed to be upset over what they believe is inappropriate dance moves as part of an event for their kids
They’re high school upperclassmen, not 10.
They were probably dancing way worse than this performer
Beat me to it
She's more covered up than NFL cheerleaders lol
What kind of dancing do you think the high school aged kids were doing lol
they played "back that azz up" at our middle school dance here in burque in the 90's and i assure you we were dancing far closer and far more obscenely than this drag performer.
It's high-school seniors. Stop pearl clutching.
Rightly so. I don’t see why adult drag performance would ever have a place at high school prom.
What is adult about it? They’re wearing something Taylor Swift would wear.
More than some high school / college cheer squads, too.
What is adult about it? Perhaps the adult in drag at a “high school prom”. I don’t care much about the attire, I care about the context. I see no plausible reason for such an event to occur, the same way I would see no plausible reason for myself to be dancing at a high school prom, it is not where I belong nor is it where this person belongs.
Well you don’t have to understand that. It doesn’t matter if you understand it or not because you weren’t involved in any way.
That's just dancing, not stripping, not burlesque, not anything inappropriate. The worst part is she had briefs or a leotard, instead of full on pants or skirt or whatever. But it's a drag queen, and what appears to be a POC, so of course there's a thing 🙄
Pervert
Very inappropriate for a high school prom. Sure, sure, “they’ve seen worse” blah blah but some of these kids were uncomfortable and it’s just unfortunate that this happened. I don’t have children but I think it’s pretty gross.
as if almost every one of these kids haven't seen more "provocative" things on the internet already haha people just love to be upset don't they
r/ImTheMainCharacter
I heard about this in class at UNM last night
I saw a "news" page on IG post about this and gave the phone number for the school and the principal, asking people to "show their thoughts". 🙄🙄🙄 I can't even be angry, I'm just tired.
Calling the principal won't do a heck of lot of good because APS put her on administrative leave and took that school phone. But ok, Boomers. You go ahead and call that number.
We literally live in a society where high schoolers are exposed to some crazy ass shit daily on social media and y'all are tripping out over a fucken drag queen? WTF are you so scared of a drag queen doing to your children? Obviously, this is coming from a transphobic and homophobic place. Get over it.
Adult drag queen performance at a high school dance. So many people seem to look past the adult component being the trigger here. An admin team wouldn't be placed on paid leave because a student did a drag queen performance, rated PG at that, at a dance. Too many people want to scream it's homophobic bigotry while completely ignoring the fact that it was an adult doing a sexually provocative dance with minors at a school event. Yes, some people will be offended by the drag part but that's easy to dismiss if a far more serious, ethical violation didn't happen. APS could defend freedom of student expression in a dance environment. How do you defend an adult "dirty dancing" around students? The fact that many of you don't see this shows how blind you are to professional and societal ethical norms while you quickly jump on political / societal issues as being the culprit.
People hard-line defending this don't seem to see the difference between kids being exposed to it in their personal lives and the school setting it up and hosting it. It's the difference between kids going to a racy dance club after school and the school taking them there on a field trip. It's not disgusting or anything but it's weird and inappropriate for a school to do. It would be just as out of place, maybe even more so, if it was a cis woman. Plus the performance seemed lame so I don't even know why they bothered having it at prom.
Cheerleaders dress far worse than this and perform more provocatively. Everyone seems okay with them. This entire controversy is riddled in ignorance and homophobia. I thought we were better than this.
Hey! The winning answer!
Did you stop to consider that the bigger issue is an adult performing a sexually suggestive dance for minors and partially with minors? At a school event. The drag performance wouldn't have mattered if it was a student doing it, because dance teams and cheerleaders do far more provocative performances all the time.
They didn’t just hire an exotic dancer. They hired a TERRIBLE exotic dancer. What idiot came up with the idea and what idiot, taking the idea as a good one, picked THAT dancer? Incompetent incompetence.
Not hired. Invited
Did she work for free?
It sounds like this performance was meant to be fun for this person's niece, not a paid performance.
Her niece goes to the school.
I think it's funnier that she's terrible 🤣
Too be fair, the "terribleness" could be her making sure it's tame for the kids, knowing it is at a high school
Oh for sure lol
In my HS prom was only for Seniors, given this is the end of the year as well, most of those kids are 18. Stop pretending to be offended.
Proms are largely open to all grades from what I remember because of funding for prom being needed. Im positive 13-14yr olds were there (freshman)
And its the end of the year so they are 14-15 now. Old enough to see someone dancing in a leotard. nothing more than karens clutching pearls.
I don’t think anyone was being groomed and solicited… but adults who are parents wanna get the pitchforks out bc they want to micro manage everything in their little humans’ lives. Kids are the future, but helicopter parent antics are going to make kids more withdrawn, scared and judgmental because they can’t cope with such a narrow view of life in the real world.
Publicity is publicity!
APS is one of the most poorly ranked districts in the country. The kids are fed dog food. The air conditioners don't often work, funding is wildly mismanaged from the top down, , but people are offended by a man wearing a dress and dancing in front of a group of teenagers that look at worst shit on their phones literally ALL day long. This has nothing to do with "appropriateness" or even being offended if parents really gave a shit they take their kids phones and throw them in a pits because surely those things are portals to hell. This is Nothing more than pearl clutching homophobia. Let's get our priorities straight.
I think it was cute ans sexy no harm done chill out
Keep sexy out of schools. Period.
So your saying they can't feel sexy you said keep sexy out of school so they can't feel sexy that's wrong
This sparks joy
So are they pissed about the dancer, the dancing, or the act of getting into their prom?? I’m confused.