And now, if you are sitting comfortably, I’ll tell you a Politically Correct Fairy Tale.
What a load of clap-trap!
A survey (yes, another one) shows that PC parents are worried about good old traditional fairy tales.
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Apparently they don't like the underlying “messages”. Things like leaving poor Hansel and his sister alone in the forest is ‘out’, as is sending Little Red Riding Hood on a journey alone through the woods - only to find out that granny has been eaten by a wolf!
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A fifth of parents said the tales weren't politically correct. Cinders does too much cleaning up, sexist, I guess, while Jack climbs up a beanstalk and steals from the giant - 'elf 'n safety?
And 17 percent worried about them giving their children nightmares - Snow White's wicked witch is said to be too scary. Sixty five percent of parents said that they preferred to read their children more "light-hearted" stories at bedtime.
Well, they never did me any harm all those years ago and I don’t suppose it has affected millions of other children either.
What is it with society today?
Look at all the problems we have today by people trying to fix things which don’t need fixing.
“If it aint broke, don’t fix it”
Children love being read a variety of stories and it's a great shame that so many of today's PC mums and dads are rejecting the good old fairy tales which, until now, have stood the test of time.
Fairy tales have been around for centuries, and with good reason. They contain the most essential element of a great story - especially good versus evil (with good, fortunately, always winning). Yes, they can be scary, but children love a bit of tension, especially when it gets resolved.
Know what happens to a child who grows up in a completely sanitised environment? They develop no worthwhile immune system to speak of, and then cannot live in the real world because it is too dangerous.
I read that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood are being replaced by:-
Aliens Love Underpants, Claire Freedman & Ben Cort (2007)
What a Noisy Pinky Ponk!, Andrew Davenport (2008)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle (1969)
The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson (1999)
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It did my heart good to read this post, at last I find someone with the same view as me. Claptrap is right. If I was a kid I'd be more scared of futuristic stuff than good old homely Red Riding Hood.
ReplyDeleteIt is nonsense! Anyway if the parents don't like them, why don't they just read something else?
ReplyDeleteVal, society is protecting children far too much, they are being wrapped in cotton wool all the time. It must be an awful shock to their system when they find out what the real big world is actually like.
ReplyDeleteCherie....These parents who said they didn't like the old stories are switching to these strange contemporary tales that no-one has ever heard of, and I'm sure they will not endure down through time like the fairy tales we were brought up with.
Firstly what is a "Pinky Ponk"?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with all of you.Kids need tales of terror to experience fear so they know what to do and how to live with it, conquer it and see it turns out right in the end.Good prevails and kids grown up able to handle situations that are scary.
What will happen to these namby-pamby protected kids? Of course I also have strong beliefs about the prevalence of C-sections and the necessity of 'the birth trauma' but that's just the old hippie in me!
Are these the kids we see in coffee shops behaving like mini-tyrants with no boundaries? Old grump, but I suspect I'm in good company on my hobby-horse.
Some new stories are great, like "Finn's Quest" by Eirlys Hunter a NZ writer, because they use the essential elements of a good story that is good for kids' growth.
Thank you for a great post and airing of this issue.
I haven't the faintest idea Liz.
ReplyDeleteThat was the idea of the post...to show up how books we all read, or had read to us, used to have titles we understood. Now we have all the weird sounding titles that no-one can understand or remember.
What a Noisy Pinky Ponk!, is a book for children by Andrew Davenport (2008)....I expect google could find it for you.