Library officials in England have been forced to apologize after a grown man in a bottomless monkey suit with a fake penis attached was hired for a children’s reading event. The event, held at Redbridge Central Library in South London, saw the actor from Mandinga Arts turn up in the bizarre costume which parents completely lost their minds over, asking, “Have we completely lost our moral compass as a society?” The performance was stopped pretty quickly, needless to say.
Redbridge Council have apologised after an actor wearing an inappropriate costume was hired by a contractor to open the 2021 children’s Summer Reading Challenge at Redbridge Library.
The actor was dressed in a monkey outfit with fake male genitalia.https://t.co/AExF5clAUM pic.twitter.com/9oayZfOaSh— Ann Marie Christian (@Annmariechild) July 14, 2021
- What’s weird is that the performance was allowed to go on at all. While you would think library employees would send the monkey costume-wearing man packing the minute they saw the dildo dangling from his bare-bottomed costume, they actually started the event until attendees began complaining loudly.
- Redbridge Council and the libraries group have since apologized. They claim that the local charity Vision RCL is the one that organized the event and the performance. “We are utterly appalled by the unacceptable event at Redbridge Libraries on Saturday organised by our independent leisure contractor, Vision,” a spokesperson for the council siad. “The contractor had commissioned characters to support the start of the Summer Reading Challenge, but the costume in question was wholly inappropriate for the intended audience.”
- An investigation is being conducted. Since it seems so mindblowing that anyone in a position of power would ever allow this to happen, the council claims it’s launching a “full and thorough investigation into how this incident happened has been launched and stringent action will be taken.” They added: “We sincerely apologize for the offense and distress this has caused.”
- Mandinga Arts has also apologized for sending the inappropriate costume out to visit kids. The group, which describes itself on its website as having “‘a distinctive style bringing together live music, carnival, street costume, puppetry and dance, drawing on diverse influences from Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa,” said they never intended to offend anyone and that “actions are being taken,” though it’s unclear what those actions are.
A grown man with a dildo in a rainbow costume was brought into a library in east London (@RedbridgeLibs) to teach children about the importance of reading. https://t.co/ZlhAuMC8Id
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) July 12, 2021
