To think this is grooming in plain sight

How this helps children have healthy ideas about boundaries is beyond me.

I happen to know two people connected to the venue where this production is taking place. They both think this is way outside of what theatre should be doing and both are clear that this is grooming of both children and the adults accompanying them.

I respect both these people. Between them they have probably six decades of experience and have worked at a high level in the theatre world. If they have a bad feeling about this, I believe them.

snowberryZ

Wouldn't it be damaging for a theatre to be associated with this?

It's a venue which used to be the Wills Tobacco factory.
Their ethos:

CORE BELIEFS
We started as an experiment and we encourage experimentation.
We are ambitious and we encourage ambition: we tell epic stories in small spaces.
We seek as wide an audience for our work as possible.
Our diverse programme is our cornerstone but we are a place of creation, development and learning, as well as performance.
We never forget that our audience is our reason for existence.

They pride themselves on being edgy, not mainstream.

Is it starting off there before touring at various well known theatres around the country?

I don't know

There's a petition over on Mumsnet. I think it's already at 20 000 signatures.

citizengo.org/en-gb/fm/207302-scrap-family-sex-show?utm_source=wa&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=&utm_content=typage

Signed.

Just to note, the grounds for wanting it removed say nothing whatsoever about trans issues.

It does sound horrendous, snowberryZ. I'd be amazed if they got much of the audience with young kids who actually stayed throughout. There's information and there's overkill. I'd be surprised if it goes ahead.

Bump.
In case people want to sign.
Or not.

Signed.

I am all for providing children with the information they need when it is right for them as individuals - and children are all so different of course.

We gradually teach children about modesty and when and where it is appropriate to expose their genitalia. Most children automatically become less gung-ho about stripping off with non-family and find their own level in their own time.

A show which breaks the norms that they have gradually absorbed is a recipe for confusion. So .... is it OK when "uncle" asks me to take my knickers down and exposes himself? - the people on stage took theirs off.

We teach children these norms so that they fit in with society and also to safeguard them.

I have not noticed many young people missing the point that sex is pleasurable, a point that the show apparently seeks to make.

I do agree that children should gradually be introduced to a whole range of language around sexuality, but it should be done bit by bit in a family context; or in school with trusted teachers at the helm.

My family are very open about all this - my DDs had a lovely cartoon book from Sweden called My Family and it pulled no punches - the information was explicit but was centred on the family. I have a 5 year old GS who asked his Mum if she had PMT one day when she was grumpy... he had grasped the concept, as periods are talked about openly in their house and not swept under the carpet. Ditto other aspects of sexual development.

That is the proper context for sex education, not a stage show.

It seems to me that this show is seeking to be "edgy" just for the sake of it - and to make their names. I bet they are chuffed to bits that there is a petition.

Sadly you're right
They will be loving the publicity.

and bunp

I have a 5 year old GS who asked his Mum if she had PMT one day when she was grumpy... he had grasped the concept, as periods are talked about openly in their house and not swept under the carpet.

Crikey, that's not good! We're trying to move away from that. It's rather disrespectful when all's said and done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPuy94tqqfg

Move away! - I wish - it was the bane of my life and also is part of my DDs' We can't move away from reality. Hormones do influence women's moods and well-being - there is no cure for this. What is disrespectful about a boy understanding the realities of life and how his Mum is affected? - he will make a better husband for having this understanding.

I wish as child that I had understood why my mother was Jekyll and Hyde - normal one minute and pure evil the next.

We might like to think it is not real - but it is.

One of my DDs has just hit the menopause and is finding it hard - I am glad that her OH understands what is going on and is able to be helpful to her.

www.pms.org.uk/about-pms/

....../ for anyone who does not belief PMS exists.

Luckygirl, it is because it is used as a put down if a woman gives a strident point of view or similar - not because it doesn't exist

I bit like certain words are used to describe women, like hysterical or shrill for example - it is just sexism

I still remember PMS/PMT and appreciated the sympathy, but using it as a put down like you mentioned JJ irritated me. My sister would promptly respond with “better that, than your CBT.”

But it is not always sexism ..... most of the time it is simply recognising the way that many women suffer; and being aware gives the opportunity to be suitably sympathetic or helpful.

Originally women would not have been in this situation: they would have been pregnant, breast-feeding or dead - all of which cure PMS!

Now that we can control our fertility we have to face menstruation and its attendant problems. We cannot ditch our biology, any more than men can ditch theirs with the problems these can bring.

I see accepting this show with the way the Paedophile Information Exchange tried to make paedophilia acceptable in the 1970s.

In each case the pressure to push boundaries beyond the acceptable came at a time when there was society unease - in the 1970s the unease was the result of the 1967 act that ended homosexuality being considered a criminal offence and today with the recognition of difference between sex and gender.

People came to their senses over the PIE, before they had a chnce to push any of their agenda through and I hope that this play and those who promote it will also be restricted.

To me the main issue of this misguided theatre production is not that it is explaining and justifying people being transgender, but that yet again it is an attempt to make paedophilia seem normal.

And it is being promoted with our money!

Let us hope that most parents will have the good sense not to let their children anywhere near this show. Heaven forbid it should be a school trip!!!!

An update.
For those who are following and have signed a petition
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4533741-To-update-about-The-Family-Sex-Show