# Toddlers at the Folsom Street Fair? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2007, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220 "2007-10-02T02:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/21 "2007-10-02T18:14:29Z")
Okay, upon review, I’m not really shocked because “Think of the children,” but more because it would be irritating for the adults to have to deal with kids when they want to relax, do their own thing, etc. It also didn’t shock me that the kids were wearing leather outfits. But Michelle Malkin seemed to object very strongly to that point. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/22 "2007-10-02T18:16:51Z")
Wow. I’ve never heard of this. I’m about as left-wing as you can get, but I don’t think children should be there. Some questions: 1. How do they get away with the public sex acts? 2. Why, if the parents didn’t have the sense to leave them home, would the organizers not stop them at the door? 3. Sounds like a pretty specialized gathering. Do they get a lot of gawkers? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/23 "2007-10-02T18:24:39Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Wow. I’ve never heard of this. I’m about as left-wing as you can get, but I don’t think children should be there. Some questions: 1. How do they get away with the public sex acts? [/QUOTE] It’s San Francisco. They’d have to smoke (tobacco) to get arrested. ---
**Author:** ![lobstermobster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobstermobster/32/10033_2.png) [@lobstermobster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobstermobster)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/24 "2007-10-02T18:34:00Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] It’s San Francisco. They’d have to smoke (tobacco) to get arrested. [/QUOTE] or put an aluminum can in the trash can. I got chewed out about that the other day at work. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/25 "2007-10-02T18:37:40Z")
[QUOTE=psycat90] It’s crowded, which really makes it not appropriate for kids. The poor things would have their little faces in a sea of cock and sweaty ass. [/QUOTE] Heh. I would have no problem with toddlers at a regular pride event–I thought about taking mine down to Atlanta Pride, but it was like 100 degrees that weekend, so we decided against it. But FSF, I haven’t been to it, but all the descriptions of it I’ve heard, it’s a much more adult affair, and really not appropriate for kids IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/26 "2007-10-02T18:57:04Z")
We have a sort of festival coming up here in a few weeks that only the kids participate in. And some of the costumes they wear are down-right frightening: everything from hedonistic monsters, to pagan witches, to dismembered zombies and corpses. It’s grotesque. We send them out after dark to visit the homes of complete strangers dressed like this while asking for special treats from the adult members of the households. Sometimes parents accompany the small children, but once they reach about maybe 7 or 8 years old they want to visit the strangers houses with only their friends. Parents can be an embarrassment sometimes after all. When they finally get back home, well after their regular bed time, we let them sit on the living room floor and count their loot and stuff their faces with sugar and chocolate until they almost puke it all back out. Then we make sure they brush their teeth really well before sending them to bed. Really, my initial response to the story was “no big deal.” But I changed my mind after the public sex, masturbation, and golden shower comments. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/27 "2007-10-02T19:52:10Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] It also didn’t shock me that the kids were wearing leather outfits. But Michelle Malkin seemed to object very strongly to that point. [/QUOTE] This would bother me, too. Kids shouldn’t be objectified and sexualized, whether it’s leather or Jon Benet Ramsey in a beauty pageant. Maybe the parents have a point, that their leather rituals are just as valid as other, more traditional mating rituals like ballroom dancing and Spring Break in Cancun. But they shouldn’t drag their kids into making the point. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/28 "2007-10-02T20:41:16Z")
[QUOTE=Harriet the Spry] This would bother me, too. Kids shouldn’t be objectified and sexualized, whether it’s leather or Jon Benet Ramsey in a beauty pageant. Maybe the parents have a point, that their leather rituals are just as valid as other, more traditional mating rituals like ballroom dancing and Spring Break in Cancun. But they shouldn’t drag their kids into making the point. [/QUOTE] People like to bring their dogs too, and they’ll put a cute little black leather studded collar on their pet, or maybe a red hanky around its neck ( :eek: ) but I don’t think the intent is to sexualize their pets or their kids. I agree about the Jon Benet thing, but I don’t think anyone sees a two-year-old (or a border collie) wearing an adorable little leather harness at Folsom and thinks “ooh, hot.” ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/29 "2007-10-02T20:44:13Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] I agree about the Jon Benet thing, but I don’t think anyone sees a two-year-old (or a border collie) wearing an adorable little leather harness at Folsom and thinks “ooh, hot.” [/QUOTE] Yeah, that was my reasoning. I don’t really see leather as sexy, per se. If I had kids, I don’t think I would dress them in leather because leather is sometimes hot/uncomfortable to wear (and I saw that episode of “Friends”), plus I don’t really like the look of it. But I wouldn’t be thinking that it would be inappropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/30 "2007-10-02T21:17:47Z")
I shot a man at Folsom Street Fair, just to watch him die. Valid for various meanings of “shoot” and “die”. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/31 "2007-10-02T21:19:05Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] I shot a man at Folsom Street Fair, just to watch him die. Valid for various meanings of “shoot” and “die”. [/QUOTE] La petite mort? ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/32 "2007-10-02T21:22:25Z")
It’s an adult event. It’s not for children. No more than attending a strip club is for children. And FSF is much, much “worse” than most any strip club. Those two guys are idiots. And I think it’s deeply weird to put black leather collars on their children, even as a cutesy “outfit.” Every single person there knows what a black leather collar means in that culture. Having them on children, even in a cutesy way, is extremely fucked up in my opinion. I don’t think it means that the parents specifically want to sexualize their chid, but they are dressing him/her in a way that IS sexual to other people at that particular place. It’s very strange to me that someone would do this. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/33 "2007-10-02T21:49:54Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun] Sounds like a pretty specialized gathering. Do they get a lot of gawkers? [/QUOTE] **Oh my, yes!** The ratio of lookie-loos to actual participants is one of the reasons I don’t go there any more. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2007, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220/34 "2007-10-03T11:22:57Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] **Oh my, yes!** The ratio of lookie-loos to actual participants is one of the reasons I don’t go there any more. [/QUOTE] Heh…he said Lookie-Loo…heh-heh… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/toddlers-at-the-folsom-street-fair/421220.md?page=1)