Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be shocked with what I found in mothercare

325 replies

Lehman · 28/04/2012 14:38

Im from the uk but have recently moved to Brisbane. I was pleased to find they have mothercare over here but shocked to find they are selling gollie dolls. I thought they stopped doing these years ago.

OP posts:
tethersend · 28/04/2012 20:58

Well five, if they think that golliwogs aren't racist, they are wrong.

Allboxedin · 28/04/2012 21:00

Aribura, if you are in a multiracial relationship with a person of black descent do you not feel what they feel soemtimes? I used to be like you, I couldn;t care less, I was impartial and I was all multicultural because I had a black husband but now I have mixed race kids I would not want anyone referring to my husband or my kids in any one of those derogatory terms because I my husband and children are part of me and what hurts them hurts me.

TattyDevine · 28/04/2012 21:05

Arghrrr

The "Paki" thing on the news, no doubt was to do with the cricket? They just don't have the "context" of that term there, it just isn't "known" to anyone that it is in any way offensive. It really is an abbreviation. Its affectionate. I came here in 1998 and it was a couple of years before I realised that you really couldn't say that, and I then managed to work out why. Its only "racist" if you intend it to be, within reason anyway.

I have encountered far more racism here in the UK than in Australia. In Australia, if someone is racist (in my experience) it is cringingly out in the open; over here it exists but seems to take on a hidden, veiled, guilty yet delicious manner.

Just my personal experience.

Allboxedin · 28/04/2012 21:06

One of my husbands aunties called my kids 'half casts' not realising we don't say that anymore. It really upset me. Before I wouldn't have battered an eyelid. Yes, I do think that PC has gone way OTT in many cases and I know lots of black people use it for their own good in some cases but on the other hand we as white people can not really ever experience racism in a way that a black person does. I have experienced intolerance, people being very rude and mean to me as a foreigner in several different countries, but I have never experienced racism as my husband or my children for that matter might.
I have only ever had some nasty comments made about my kids once from people I didn't know and that stabbed me like a knife. It made me mad. That is how racism feels to a much huger extent.

Allboxedin · 28/04/2012 21:09

Tatty, I have a south african friend (who is white)she came here and feels the same. She said back home people are much more open about the issues. Here people feel quashed because they feel they can't say anything because of the extreme cases of PC.

AitchTwoOhOneTwo · 28/04/2012 21:15

yup, i'd be shocked to see a golliwog in mothercare. i'm also shocked to see so many people not give about them on MN. afaia the goblins in noddy (criminal, nasty, sneak thieves, living in a shanty town on outskirts of village, universally reviled etc) were originally golliwogs, which gives some idea of their 'character'.
the reclamation of wog in australia is an interesting one, shows like wogarama etc and elle mcfeast calling herself a wog and proud etc.

tethersend · 28/04/2012 21:16

"Its only "racist" if you intend it to be, within reason anyway."

This is just not true, Tatty.

Things/words are racist because of what they signify. The use of words such as Paki and Wog in Australia is a good example- in Australia they signify different things to the UK. Intention has little to do with it.

If an Australian person uses the word Wog or Paki in the UK, the word is still racist due to what it signifies, even if they did not intend it to be. I don't know enough about the uses of the words in Australia to know exactly what they signify, but it is clearly something different to the UK.

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 28/04/2012 21:17

psycho they are just fecking fugly. An abomination
Grin

Noqontrol · 28/04/2012 21:17

I had a golly doll when I was a kid and I did love it. But that was a long time ago, I had no idea of the racist stuff behind it and I've learnt a lot since then. I couldn't believe it when my mother turned up recently with said golly for dd to play with. I've hidden it in the back of the eaves cupboard, never to be seen again. I hate to throw it away because it was part of my childhood, but I'd hate for dd to play with it too.

OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere · 28/04/2012 21:19

What extreme cases of PC?

I mean what real ones.

Not made up ones from political dirty tricks campaigns or from the fevered imaginings of the Daily Mail.

TattyDevine · 28/04/2012 21:44

"Things/words are racist because of what they signify. The use of words such as Paki and Wog in Australia is a good example- in Australia they signify different things to the UK. Intention has little to do with it"

I am not talking about Aussie's using it in the UK, but in Australia, in response to Netto who said she heard it on the news when she was there.

Kayano · 28/04/2012 21:48

Mrs dv I don't need a cabbage patch doll because I have

  1. a mirror
  2. my dd

GrinWink

TattyDevine · 28/04/2012 21:58

Just to add, when I said it was a couple of years before I realised you couldn't say it - wasn't to say I did (I had no reason or context in which to do so), however, I didn't realise initially the intent of those in the UK using that term.

LST · 28/04/2012 22:01

I've got a golly. It's on show in the bedroom!

tethersend · 28/04/2012 22:03

Tatty, I wasn't implying that the person using the word(s) is racist; just that the words remain racist, ie they signify what they signify, regardless of the intention of the person using them.

Similarly, somebody from the UK using those words in Australia may not be instantly identifiable as a massive racist.

TattyDevine · 28/04/2012 22:08

Yes I'd agree with that Tethers.

As soon as you/a person "realises" it is racist in a certain context or "at all" if they then don't stop using it...etc etc... agree.

FreudianSlipper · 28/04/2012 22:09

why would anyone want a doll that offends so many

surprised that mothercare sell them, though i was quite shocked by the racism in australia it was like going back to the 80's (and yes i do know that wog has a different meaning in australia)

mirry2 · 28/04/2012 22:10

Is it illegal to say the word golliwog or to own one? It may be offensive to some people but is it actually racist?

LST · 28/04/2012 22:11

I think my golly is about 50. And his name is actually GillyBlush

I couldn't shut him away though!

tethersend · 28/04/2012 22:13

Something doesn't need to be illegal to be racist, mirry... or have I misunderstood you?

Noqontrol · 28/04/2012 22:39

It's not illegal mirry, well I suppose it could be depending on the context in which it was used. But it's just not nice is it, it's a word that can be used to put others down.

mirry2 · 28/04/2012 22:44

If it isn't illegal, people are entitled to own or sell anything they want to. I wouldn't want to buy a golliwog, because I know it may cause offence to some of my friends, but I would defend the right of anybody else who may want to buy one. I hate the idea that you can be condemned for being racist when there was no awareness or intention to be so. I think borders on the kafka-esque

tethersend · 28/04/2012 22:52

Of course people have the right to buy one.

People have the right to buy nazi memorabilia too.

Golliwogs are racist. I remain baffled that anybody thinks that they're not.

mirry2 · 28/04/2012 23:06

If golliwogs are racist, does that mean that people who own them or sell them are racist?

JockTamsonsBairns · 28/04/2012 23:09

It's still perfectly possible though, mirry, to be racist even in the absence of any awareness or intention of it. My grandmother was racist. She didn't know she was, but just because she wasn't aware of it or didn't intend to be doesn't alter the fact that she was.