A performance by a “Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkey” at a London reading event for children over the weekend has provoked international outrage.
So what
Amid a fierce debate in the U.S. over the teaching of “critical race theory” in public schools, some critics thought they saw the future of liberal education.
The controversy
Both Redbridge Libraries and the Mandiga Arts Group apologized Sunday in response to backlash over images of a man dressed in a vulgar rainbow monkey costume at their summer reading event the previous day in east London, with the library pledging, “This will never happen again.”
The reaction
But the response Monday was unforgiving.
“Can a word capture the spirit of an age? Images certainly can,” British writer Jane Harris tweeted. “In future, when we think back on the zeitgeist of 2021, we may remember Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkey, and wonder how on earth we descended to thinking that this was suitable entertainment for children.”
“I cannot understand how anyone involved … thought that a costume described by one national journalist – with depressing accuracy – as a ‘Rainbow Dildo Butt Monkey’ was appropriate for family audiences around our libraries and public realm, let alone a festival aimed at promoting literacy amongst children,” local parliamentarian Wes Streeting wrote in an open letter to the Red Bridge Council contractor that organized the event.”
- “It is deeply troubling to me that Vision staff who saw the monkey and broadcast it across social media could not see what was so blindingly obvious to the rest of us.”
Same energy: A number of American commentators were reminded of Drag Queen Story Hours for children at local libraries, a trend that has galvanized the populist right.
“Rainbow dildo butt monkey story hour for children is what happens when the left is completely unconstrained,” journalist Tim Pool tweeted. “The chain linking left and right kept both in check and it broke a while ago.”
