Political correctness?
A work colleague informed of a newspaper story, where someone in the theatre suggested that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, should be changed to Snow White and her Seven Friends, so as not to offend dwarfs. You can imagine my consternation at this shocking revelation.
I would like to have gathered some empirical evidence, but I couldn’t find a single dwarf to interview in North London. Either, I wasn’t looking in the right place, or perhaps there’s a dwarf-shortage in North London. I might have better luck at Christmas. Rumour has it that they tend to appear during the pantomime season.
But in the interests of political correctness, why stop at Snow White and her Seven Friends. Surely, the name Snow White, will be offensive to many non-white people. I believe I have a solution. Keep the Snow, but lose the White, which I think is a fair compromise. I, also believe I have solved the Dwarf crisis as well.
I suggest that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, be changed to, Snow Green (apologies to any Martians visiting the planet) and the Seven People of Restricted Growth.
Are there any fairytale titles that you find offensive? What ones would you like to change?
@ Adrian: I don't see anything in Emilie's or Wilhelmina's comments that call for changing the title, so why do you write: "I strongly disagree"?
Both of them [seem to me to] pick you up on you making FUN of others' sensitivities on the subject. I agree that political correctness can go too far. But your ignorance of the fact that there are dwarves who are human beings, your poking fun at issues that affect them in ways that you can't imagine, are 2 traits that I find alarming in a writer of a novel for young people.
Just my opinion.
@ Jonathan: This thread isn't about the content of fairy stories, but about the titles given to them (and - I suppose - to books in general). I agree with you 100% about the atrocity of some fairy tales. A school of psychology - most famous adherent being Bruno Bettleheim - tried to blackmail progressive thinkers into leaving fairy tales alone "because they incorporate deep, important truths".
YEAH, "deep, important truths" like "wait for your prince to come along and solve ALL your personal problems" or "witches [read herbalists, midwives, healers] are EVIL beings who DESERVE to be burned in ovens", and so on.
What Bettleheim et al neglected to mention was that fairy tales had been evolving for thousands of years, passed from narrator to narrator, before the Grimm brothers collected them and enshrined them in their book - often actively and consciously changing their messages to comply with the brothers' bourgeois values.
When - at 26 - I decided that writing was what I wanted to do with my life, my 1st project was to rewrite some of the Grimm's Fairy Tales (and some by others), calling them "Jimm's Fairy Tales". 34 years later, it's an on-going project. I honestly don't know WHAT to do with Little Red Riding Hood. And The Sleeping Beauty - the FIRST story that I tried to transform - proved too important to deal with in short-story form. I HOPE that it'll be my first novel.
In case you're interested: http://jimmsfairytales.com
I find Little Red Riding Hood pretty upsetting. Humanising a wolf by dressing it in a pensioner's night clothes and having it sleep in a bed is Disneyism of the worst order.
I strongly disagree. It's ridiculous to want to change the title.
Besides, the dwarfs in Snow White are honest, hardworking and noble.
I'm not talking about how dwarfs are portrayed elsewhere. I'm talking about a popular fairytale for children that has widespread appeal.