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Show me the parent who hasn't told her child the story of Little Red Riding Hood, or Cinderella, or the Three Little Pigs, and I'll show you a parent who doesn't know a timeless story when she sees one. "Grandma, what big eyes you have!" "Who's that trip-trapping across my bridge?" "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in!"
Whether you consider yourself a bookworm or not, this is the stuff of childhood for most of us.
Well, it was, anyway.
This week I learned that The Three Little Pigs may be offensive to Muslims:
The CD-Rom digital version of the traditional story of the three little pigs, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, is aimed at primary school children.
But judges at this year's Bett Award said that they had "concerns about the Asian community and the use of pigs raises cultural issues".
The Three Little Cowboy Builders has already been a prize winner at the recent Education Resource Award - but its Newcastle-based publishers, Shoo-fly, were turned down by the Bett Award panel.
The feedback from the judges explaining why they had rejected the CD-Rom highlighted that they "could not recommend this product to the Muslim community".
They also warned that the story might "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)".
The judges criticised the stereotyping in the story of the unfortunate pigs: "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"
I'm so embarrassed. I mean, here I've been, all these years, thinking it was just a fairy tale....
Erica Perl says that in Britain, P.C. stands for Pig Correctness:
Well, I’m not a builder. Or a cowboy (or cowgirl, as my younger daughter would politically-correct me). But I’m not sure I’m willing to walk down this path with the judges. By their reasoning, most if not all books could be rejected for their unfair or unflattering portraits of people, animals, personality traits, professions… you name it.
Kat of All I Love, Need & Know goes ahead and extends the reasoning, for predictably ridiculous results:
But seriously, next thing they’ll be saying is Cinderella is not suitable because of people who don’t have any shoes to loose, and what about snow white - adulterous bitch - 7 men?! What kind of a message is that giving?
I was still chuckling over Snow White as a brazen hussy when she followed up with what I thought was quite a good point:
This story actually made my blood boil. Honestly, what kind of madness is this that my children and my children’s children may not grow up with the legendary phrase “not by the hairs of our chinny chin chins, we will not let you in”
I’m all for cultural diversity, but can we please be sensible and think how many builders and Muslims have actually complained about this harmless children’s story - I think its an insult to these groups to believe they would be so petty.
The idea of such extreme political correctness being sort of a boomerang insult to those it's purporting to protect is an interesting one, no?
I'm not the only one wondering about this. Heidi Broadhead, writing on Amazon's Omnivoracious blog, did some investigating:
Looking for some kind of response from any of the potentially offended communities, I found this Daily Mail article from March 2007, about a church school that renamed their Three Pigs musical "The Three Little Puppies." It includes a statement from Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra of the Muslim Council of Britain who said, "The vast majority of Muslims have no problem whatsoever with the Three Little Pigs. There's an issue about the eating of pork, which is forbidden, but there is no prohibition about reading stories about pigs."
No comment so far from the builders. Bob?
It's a huge enough task to raise children in our ever-changing world and to teach them to be tolerant without having fairy tales brought into question... isn't it? I suddenly feel like maybe I've been terribly insensitive all this time. I mean, I raised my kids on The Three Little Pigs, and we eat bacon. Maybe the lesson I was inadvertently teaching is that if you can't build a good house, you taste good with pancakes.
I'm so confused.
Contributing Editor Mir also blogs about issues parental and otherwise at Woulda Coulda Shoulda and Cornered Office, as well as sharing the joys of mindful retail therapy at Want Not.
