Snow White, and others Considered Not 'PC' Enough!

[Beast_enchantment]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l?ITO=1490

Politically correct parents ditch 'offensive' traditional fairy tales
By CLAIRE ELLICOTT
Last updated at 8:33 AM on 06th January 2009

For most, they are innocent tales that define childhood.

But some parents are ditching fairytales, believing they are politically incorrect or 'too dark' to read to children, a survey has found.

One in four mothers has abandoned the likes of Cinderella and Rapunzel in favour of The Gruffalo or The Very Hungry Caterpillar, written in 1969 by Eric Carle.


Parents have ditched 'scary' and 'offensive' classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for modern children stories like The Gruffalo

One in ten parents even said Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs should be re-titled - because 'the dwarf reference is not PC'.

Rapunzel is considered 'too dark' and Cinderella outdated, because she is forced to do the housework.

The poll of 3,000 British parents, carried out by TheBabyWebsite.com, revealed 66 per cent believe traditional fairytales have stronger morality messages than modern equivalents.

But many feel they are inappropriate to soothe youngsters before bed.

Most of the tales were made popular by the brothers Grimm in their Grimms' Fairy Tales, published in 1812.

However many were around long before that, including a version of Snow White from the Middle Ages and a Cinderella story first told in Ancient Greece.

A spokesman for TheBabyWebsite.com said: 'Fairytales take children to a land of makebelieve where they can use their imaginationsand where generally the goodies beat the baddies.

'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 fairytales which have stood the test of time, entertaining children for hundreds or thousands of years.'

A fifth of parents said fairytales were no longer politically correct, while 17 per cent worried they would give their children nightmares.

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Utterly ridiculous! Are these 'PC' worshipping folk trying the give their children emotional problems when they reach adult hood and realize that the world is a dark place, after they have been led to believe otherwise? We've all grown up with fairytales, and their purpose is to first and foremost entertain. Yes, they can be scary to most children. Snow White and Beauty and the Beast used to terrify me, but I got over it! Such tales still do have a place in today's society and aid a child's development by depicting both the good and the bad aspects of human life. Yes, there are evil people in the world! Be aware of it at an early age to cope with it later in life.
But, people today would rather wrap their children up in cotton wool and carry on breast feeding them until they're 18 and too emotionally unprepared for independent life. Personally I think it's a crime to keep works of literature, and indeed classic Disney films from a childhood. Next they'll ban the written word all together in favour of teletubbies!

I despair.

[yukitora]

Are you serious? The Teletubbies is one of the most horrifying show in the world. They're... so... FREAKY

Anyhow, this is just silly "PC" parents who mistook fairy tales for bedtime stories. I mean, I grew up learning that fairy tales were closer to cautionary tales and had moral lessons and that bedtime stories were... novels

It seems that a lot of these people have a hard time giving their offspring any credit.

[The_Iceflash]

This is why I loathe PC...

[Flanger-Hanger]

What about the other 9 out of 10 parents who had more than a single brain cell to share with their husband/wife?

[merlinjones]

Send them a copy of Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment" - - the traditional folk and fairy tales are critical symbolic tools for a child's psychological development.

[singerguy04]

This article cracks me up. Personally, I'm not all that against PC, but i do think it should have it's limits.

I would agree with these parents that grimms originaly stories wouldn't make good bedtime stories. Although they should never be banned, because in a daytime atmostphere they truelly captivate children and they love them. Obviously they don't perminately effect anyone because then all of us would be terrified of our step-mothers, thorns, darkness, crows, gingerbread, and so on.

Also, none of this would probably ever effect Disney since Disney lightens up everything anyway.

[merlinjones]

>>I would agree with these parents that grimms original stories wouldn't make good bedtime stories.<<

Actually these are fitting bedtime stories in that the traditional folk tale heroes triumph over their antagonists - - as symbolized by witches, monsters, demons and darkness.

It's the way kids learn that their own psychological fears can be conquered or managed as they grow to increasing independence. It's about learning a way to cope with the difficulties of the adult world to come.

This is the reason fairy tales play into the collective unconscious and remain compelling through the generations - - they filter human development fears though ancient symbolism.

[Simba3]

One thing I always tell people who hate Disney or have something discouraging to say about them is to remember that these films are a product of their times. Many people find Peter Pan to be inappropriate in regards to the Indians, many people think the whole damsel in distress princess waiting for her prince is ridiculous. Yes some stuff can be looked at now as inappropriate or outdated - but just remember when these films were made.

[Poody]

Oh they can rot in hell for all I care.

[The_Iceflash]

One thing I always tell people who hate Disney or have something discouraging to say about them is to remember that these films are a product of their times. Many people find Peter Pan to be inappropriate in regards to the Indians, many people think the whole damsel in distress princess waiting for her prince is ridiculous. Yes some stuff can be looked at now as inappropriate or outdated - but just remember when these films were made.

What do you tell people who say Disney movies are just "butchered fairy tales"? I get that a lot..

[witchkitten]

This is utterly ridiculous. It's these kinds of people that are responsible for putting fruit in the pirates' hands in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

[Elladorine]

What do you tell people who say Disney movies are just "butchered fairy tales"? I get that a lot..

"Alrighty then, let's have Ariel kill herself at the end of TLM and see just how well it does at the box office."

[Marky_198]

Parents/people like that need serious help and need to get a life.

I'll tell you what "inappropriate" is...........their behaviour is inappropriate.

That's all I have to say.

[Marky_198]

"But some parents are ditching fairytales, believing they are politically incorrect or 'too dark' to read to children, a survey has found"

If it's about "politically incorrect" they might as well ditch the whole world, all the movies, all the kids in their children's school, everything on tv in general, all the books, the daily news, the newspaper,

and they might as well ditch themselves into a ravine.

[Marky_198]

"Such tales still do have a place in today's society and aid a child's development by depicting both the good and the bad aspects of human life. Yes, there are evil people in the world! Be aware of it at an early age to cope with it later in life."

Exactly!!! And they should be grateful that these classics exist.
Disney classics are beautiful lifelessons for a kid.

Imagine a kid growing up without the classics! That would the cause for a lot of trouble in the world.

[Wonderlicious]

I think that these parents are being silly. There are some fairy-tales which I wouldn't read to a young child (Bluebeard, The Little Match Girl and various other truly grim stories), but I wouldn't ditch the other well-known ones just because of them having certain attributes that could make some children a bit nervous. I think a lot of children these days know (or at least know of) less fairy-tales than children of previous generations; I hardly doubt that many children these days could recall what happened in the likes of Puss in Boots and Thumbelina, among others, whereas children in earlier times would have known them well. It's a shame, as they really are nice stories. And as for the whole "dwarf" thing, the original title of Snow White does not make a reference to the dwarfs (the Grimms used the title Schneewittchen, which literally translates into English as "Little Snow White"). And moreover, the dwarfs are people with stunted growth but rather a type of mythological creature.

Send them a copy of Bruno Bettelheim's "The Uses of Enchantment" - - the traditional folk and fairy tales are critical symbolic tools for a child's psychological development.

Mind you, I think that their heads would equally blow up when they read the Freudian analysis parts.

[Goliath]

Good thread! Thanks for starting this.

Most fairy tales we got read to us when we were children, or the ones today's parents got fed when they were in their childhood, like Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Snoe White etc. were already sugarcoated. I remember hundreds of childrens books from my youth with all kinds of fairy tales. They were all toned down enormously from their original versions.

Yes, when it comes to the original versions as written down (not ivented) by the likes of Grimm and Perrault etc. are too terrifying to read to children. That's because they weren't intended for children. They were created to read to adult audiences. The versions these parents b*tch about, those were sugarcoated to cater to the kids.

I agree they aren't politically correct. They're created in patriarchal times and societies, so of course every woman is weak and must be rescued by a brave male warrior. But that doesn't mean the stories aren't good. Nor does it mean they should be kept from children. Kids should enjoy them. And if you're a responsible parent, you teach your children the difference between fiction and reality.

[Neal]

My children will not be shielded. Pan's Labyrinth and Snow White will be right next to the cleaner-than-soap films such as Winnie the Pooh on their playroom movie shelf.

[2099net]

"Such tales still do have a place in today's society and aid a child's development by depicting both the good and the bad aspects of human life. Yes, there are evil people in the world! Be aware of it at an early age to cope with it later in life."

Exactly!!! And they should be grateful that these classics exist.
Disney classics are beautiful lifelessons for a kid.

Imagine a kid growing up without the classics! That would the cause for a lot of trouble in the world.

There's a huge over reaction to this. Firstly, nowhere is it specifically mentioning to discussing Disney films. I know it hard for some people to understand but Classic Fairy Tale DOES NOT equal Disney. Nowhere in that article is the word Disney even mentioned.

And then we get to people griping about political correctness. What exactly has Disney done to ALL its retellings of Classic Fairy Tales then? Disney did exactly what those parents (who expressed a preference) had done. Disney was constantly censoring the stories for content or altering for political correctness as it made its movies. Compare the Passive Snow White or Sleeping Beauty to the more assertive Belle for example. The films reflect society's views of the time, not those of the 1700's or so when the stories were first written down.

As for the suggested Snow White name change, firstly, in a small, unscientific survey only around 10% thought it did need a name change (so hardly an overwhelming trend) and secondly, was there all this fuss when Christie's "10 Little N*****s" was renamed - I'm not saying Snow White deserves to be renamed, but if enough people eventually do find it offensive (which I doubt they ever will) then society as a whole will rename it.

So how does any of the article devalue Disney? It doesn't. In fact, it validates Disney's choices. It's a lot of fuss over nothing, and its only stating common sense, the same common sense Disney has used when making adaptations all the way from Snow White to the upcoming Rapunzel.

[BelleGirl]

My children will not be shielded. Pan's Labyrinth and Snow White will be right next to the cleaner-than-soap films such as Winnie the Pooh on their playroom movie shelf.

I don't think it would be wise to show Pan's labyrinth to children. Some scenes in this movie are so frightening and grim that even adults have a hard time watching them.

But by all means let your children watch Snow White!