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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To really dislike the message in the Ugly Duckling?

93 replies

SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:06

Who says the duckling is ugly, FFS? Why should we pander to the nasty, bullying bird babies?

What a shitty message, that you have to have a transformation and be a sexy swan before people like you.

(perhaps a better AIBU would be: DH needs to book me into a fucking spa or I'll lose my mind....)

OP posts:
MildDrPepperAddiction · 09/04/2015 23:08

I agree. Totally superficial. Fucking birds.

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 09/04/2015 23:11

Ducklings are cunts.

Ugly or not. They're all Satan's spawn.

WorraLiberty · 09/04/2015 23:14

They all taste the same with chinese sauce

Twitterqueen · 09/04/2015 23:16

This was my all-time favourite childhood story and you WILL NOT SPOIL IT FOR ME!

I took it to mean that she (obviously a 'she') thought she was ugly but then grew to understand and acknowledge her beauty. she was still the same person inside so we can change how we look - or circumstance changes us - but people recognise our beauty.

OK it took outsiders to bring her beauty to her attention, but for me it was knowing that she was ALWAYS beautiful, she just didn't know it. Sometimes we need other people to say that we're just effing fabulous before we believe it ourselves.

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:16

All ducklings? I was under the impression they were cute and fluffy and followed their mummy in a good straight line.

Mind you, I thought that about human babies too. Lies!

OP posts:
Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:17

Nuh uh!

She had to grow white feathers before they realised she was beautiful.... a.k.a she had to lose 10 pounds, fake tan and wear a white bikini.

OP posts:
sosix · 09/04/2015 23:18

My human toddler does not follow mw full stop.Shock

SouthWestmom · 09/04/2015 23:19

The ugly duckling is a boy? Isn't he? Doesn't max by graves sing about him?

SouthWestmom · 09/04/2015 23:22

Just checked. It's a boy and based probably on Hans who was a lumpy teenager and then developed a lovely singing voice .

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:23

Even if it is a boy, shit message! Lose 10lbs, get hot and buy a white Audi.

OP posts:
Lweji · 09/04/2015 23:24

I always thought he was considered ugly as in different from your standard ducklings.
Because he wasn't one. He was a cygnet! Not a duckling.

I'm sure other swans would have considered him just as beautiful as any other cygnet.

And might consider a duckling as ugly.

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 09/04/2015 23:25

He just grows up, though.

The message is: Children are weird looking, confusing and best avoided (can't argue there) and adults are somewhat groovy and better to hang out with. More sophisticated.

Charlotte3333 · 09/04/2015 23:26

I'd love to lose 10lbs, get hot and buy an Audi. But I'm a lazy bitch who buys too many shoes instead of cars.

Shite story, agreed.

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:28

But all of the cygnets and ducklings are beautiful in their own ways :(

OP posts:
Lweji · 09/04/2015 23:30

Exactly. It's a tale of how we can be perceived differently.

Some people prefer skinny, others larger. Some with make up, others without. And so on.

KingJoffreyFanciesDarylDixon · 09/04/2015 23:33

Warning: Fluffy!!

To really dislike the message in the Ugly Duckling?
To really dislike the message in the Ugly Duckling?
To really dislike the message in the Ugly Duckling?
lottiegarbanzo · 09/04/2015 23:35

It's about finding your tribe isn't it - which I'd interpret in a choosing your friends, finding the like-minded ones who get you and appreciate what's great about you way - not actually about beauty, or, only being able to get on with others of the same species / racial or social group as you, which is another possible but I feel, rather literal and narrow-minded interpretation.

talkingofmichaelangelo · 09/04/2015 23:38

I think it is a version of the hare and the tortoise thing, where starting the race brilliantly doesn't guarantee success, and slow starters sometimes have something amazing about them.

That is how I choose to see it because otherwise yes it is infuriating

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:39

I think it is a version of the hare and the tortoise thing, where starting the race brilliantly doesn't guarantee success, and slow starters sometimes have something amazing about them.

Interesting. I like it.

OP posts:
MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels · 09/04/2015 23:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

EatShitDerek · 09/04/2015 23:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 09/04/2015 23:42

Awwww. Baby ducklings squeeeeeze.

Lweji · 09/04/2015 23:42

We are meant to feel sorry for the ugly-duckling, in being rejected by everyone, aren't we?
So, the tale allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who is rejected by everyone, and should teach us not to reject anyone based on how they look to us, surely

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:44

But he is only welcomed back into the group when he gets hot! If he was still stubby and brown they'd be all 'you can't sit with us'.

OP posts:
Lweji · 09/04/2015 23:49

He was never in the group. The group are the swans. They didn't know he existed.