DRAB and DRAG in a Christmas Pageant

[VickySGV]

A cartoon on another site got me remembering something from a couple of decades ago when my children were younger. The cartoon itself tonight was about one the the Nativity Scene shepherds shouting "It's A Girl" ala gender reveal parties. Remember this is the Christmas Creche which the stories say was a boy child.

 

What I thought of though is a conundrum about the Christmas Pageants today having a new born baby stand in for Jesus in the manger, the newborn who got to play the part was three times as likely to be an Assigned Female child and played it without being able to give consent to playing the role.

 

One year at a church I visited for an early Christmas Eve service, I became aware of a problem happening with the pageant players. A baby girl was doing Jesus role but her five year old BROTHER wanted to play the Mary role so he could cuddle his sister and keep her quiet and peaceful. We did not quite have to call paramedics for the near strokes that gave the Sunday School teachers, and none of the little girls were big enough that year. The little boy was heartbroken and was crying which set off his little sister, a baby doll was substituted for the baby and the family went home instead of being in the service. The parents had had no problem with Joseph playing Mary, it was just a short skit, but while the girl playing Jesus was fine, blood pressure was through the roof on a boy playing Mary that night.

 

A piece of history is that in the middle ages churches regularly had Miracle Plays where the Gospels were acted out for illiterate church members. Women were NOT ALLOWED to play even the women's parts in those plays, so Joseph did play Mary back then in those stories. Have we come that far in the wrong direction?? I seriously think so, and need to change. Baby Mary in DRAB as Jesus and Joey in DRAG for those short memorable evenings should not be an issue if it ever comes up again.

 

I have no idea whether the little boy may have been Trans or just a wonderful caring brother and it really does not matter, when a small child's Christmas is destroyed, it will be a memory of pain that should not have been.

[DeeDee]

Honestly Vicky I've never heard of anything like this happening, I suppose in the UK we have a history of Christmas pantomime which has kept the traditions of gender bending roles on stage alive so I just couldn't imagine it being a big deal, a girl would usually get Mary's part if available, but at the ages most children are doing nativity's I think they would just be happy to have someone watching the baby and keeping it calm. At a school nativity 3 years ago one of the "sheep" weed on stage and they had to rush that poor child off so she could go to the loo properly. Good job it was a country school and they had actual hay to put down!

[VickySGV]

1 hour ago, DeeDee said:

At a school nativity 3 years ago one of the "sheep" weed on stage and they had to rush that poor child off so she could go to the loo properly. Good job it was a country school and they had actual hay to put down!

 

The poor little sheep there, I hope she got plenty of hugs there for having done the best she could. 

Regrettably, the one I was at was an ultra-conservative church, and the parents and two little children had been invited there by a neighbor who was a member there.  I was there at the invitation of a relative whose child was doing a special part of the service, it was not my own Episcopalian Parish where I doubt it would have happened.