A Bordeaux, un événement pour enfants avec une drag-queen crée la polémique
At the origin of the controversy that has been animating the Bordeaux political and cultural sphere for several days, there is the Cabaret Baby Party, organized by Blonde Venus, a performance hall associated with the I.Boat in Wet basins, in Bordeaux. The event, scheduled for Sunday, December 11, is an artistic concept for toddlers (0-3 years old) and their parents. The objective: to offer games and entertainment interspersed with short shows, presented by seven to eight artists. A Christmas family atmosphere program.
But the announced presence of the Bordeaux drag queen La Maryposa, relayed by the far-right sites Boulevard Voltaire and Fdesouche, was enough to start a controversy. It reached its climax, Monday, December 5, in the program “Touche pas à mon poste”, by Cyril Hanouna, when, on the set, the host launched the debate on “a children’s evening featuring drag queens”.
The sequence made the team of the I.Boat and Blonde Venus jump, the artist being made up as a clown and not presented through his character of drag-queen. “It is neither a drag-queen show nor stripping, but a project completely adapted to a children’s show. There is nothing biased in the proposal”, assures Benoît Guerinault, artistic director of the two cultural venues. And to add: “There is an artist, who is a drag, who makes two songs for children in the middle of about fifteen small numbers. »
“A wave of threats”
The organizer of the event, Jenny Morgane James, has, for her part, been the target of hateful comments and insults since the relay of information on these far-right sites. “I received a flood of threats on the Cabaret Baby Party Instagram account, with messages talking about child abuse, pedophilia”, explains the young woman, who has also received threats against her family and her daughter. The artist filed a complaint, as did Blonde Venus.
The municipality, for its part, wanted to support the event which remains maintained, but with reinforced security. Dimitri Boutleux, deputy mayor of Bordeaux in charge of culture, who insists that the right of creation and programming be defended, insists: “Culture, citizen emancipation helps keep our democracy healthy, and I can’t stand these attacks which are certainly unfounded, but just have the ambition to create buzz. »