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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:
uglyswan · 09/04/2015 23:49

YANBU. Fuck you, Hans Christian Andersen, and fuck your gutless affirmation of a cruel and superficial lookist society!

Original poster
SantanaLopez · 09/04/2015 23:51

But he should have been in the group! Those nasty mean ducklings :(

OP posts:
HoneyDragon · 09/04/2015 23:51

Little White Bull was VASTLY better than the Ugly Dugly.

He showed them without sulking for months and then getting tarted up.

HoneyDragon · 09/04/2015 23:52
ShadowStone · 09/04/2015 23:54

But the ugly duckling is ever welcomed back by the ducks when he gets hot.

He finds a group of swans, and they're all "hello fellow swan! Come fly with us!" The ducks are completely out of the picture and oblivious to the ugly ducklings transformation.

HoneyDragon · 10/04/2015 00:02

Do you think the ducks went searching? 5 little ducks perhaps?

HarrietSchulenberg · 10/04/2015 00:02

You might (or might not) like the version in the Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales. The Ugly Duckling grows up to be...

... a very Ugly Duck.

The pic that accompanies it always makes me laugh.

HarrietSchulenberg · 10/04/2015 00:04

Spoiler alert - [ ytku.livejournal.com/109804.html here]

HarrietSchulenberg · 10/04/2015 00:05

Sorry, can't link well from phone. Try again.
http://ytku.livejournal.com/109804.html here

HarrietSchulenberg · 10/04/2015 00:06

Oh FFS, I give up.

Lweji · 10/04/2015 00:22

I like the small duck who is teased but then it's a hero because he manages to fit into a small hole to rescue a duckling.

Lweji · 10/04/2015 00:23

This one, without bothering with the ?
ytku.livejournal.com/109804.html

TwinkieTwinkle · 10/04/2015 00:34

I was never told the full Ugly Duckling story. My dad liked to condense stories, so I had:

The Ugly Duckling

You're a swan.

Bettercallsaul1 · 10/04/2015 01:02

You are definitely not being unreasonable, OP - all this stuff about popularity depending on your appearance is deplorable. (although I do take ShadowStone's point about the Ugly Duckling being in the wrong group!)

I always hated the other reindeers' volte face when Rudolph's red nose was discovered to be useful to Santa.

We go from the abominable:

"All of the other reindeer laughed at him and called him names
They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games."

to the frankly sycophantic:

"Then all the reindeer loved him and they shouted out with glee
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you'll go down in history!"

in one startling second.

I always hated those reindeer.

BestZebbie · 10/04/2015 01:09

I prefer the more satisfying but rather less morally educational version where once he turns into an adult swan he goes back and breaks the arms of all the snotty little ducks who used to laugh at him, because he is now a swan and he can.

CheerfulYank · 10/04/2015 01:10

Yes, I always thought that the Ugly Duckling was just misunderstood. They thought he was ugly because he was different, but among his own people and in his own time, he was beautiful.

I agree about the reindeer. And LOL Lweji :o

MrsCakesPrecognitionisSwitched · 10/04/2015 01:12

They thought he was ugly because he was different, but among his own people and in his own time, he was beautiful.

yy

Maryz · 10/04/2015 01:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 10/04/2015 01:26

I don't like the fact that you can only fit in with you're own type. Classist and racist undertones I think. Where's the social mobility we should expect in a good society. Mind you lots of fairy tales not v nice...

CheerfulYank · 10/04/2015 05:54

I didn't take the "stick to your own kind" meaning, Ghoul. More that you shine when you decide to be yourself, and are with people you feel comfortable doing so.

MissBattleaxe · 10/04/2015 08:23

YABU OP. I think you've got the message completely wrong.

In the film Hans Christian Andersen, Danny Kaye sings this song to a little boy who is made fun of because he doesn't have any hair. The song is inclusive. It points out that physical beauty is subjective, but you are always beautiful to someone no matter what you look like on the outside.

The ugly ducking thought he was ugly, but in fact he was beautiful and when he was told it, he began to realise it. It is a classic story of self belief and affirmation and your interpretation has got it all arse backwards. It's nothing to do with pimping your appearance to please others. It's all about celebrating what nature gave you.

Italiangreyhound · 10/04/2015 08:27

It's an appalling story.

Italiangreyhound · 10/04/2015 08:29

I think it is about him growing beautiful, and I;d rather give kids a message that they are beautiful as they are rather than they have to wait until they grow up and become beautiful.

Can't remember the film, just the book.

It's true he is not amongst his own kind but that isn't really a great message for today either!

MissBattleaxe · 10/04/2015 08:34

How is it appalling?

He was regarded as ugly and thought he had to change to be more like the people who found him ugly. In the end, it was clear that he was beautiful all along, he just didn't conform with someone else's view of beauty. He wasn't ever ugly, he just didn't conform. A bit of affirmation from people who accepted him for how he was born and boom! self acceptance.

How can that be misinterpreted not he needs to "lose weight" and be "sexy"??? He never did. There will always be someone who sees your beauty, no matter what you look like, and no matter if its not to everyone's taste. Everyone is beautiful to someone and he didn't have to become a duck just to fit in.

nochocolateforlentteacake · 10/04/2015 08:38

I never liked Rudolph the red nosed reindeer for the same reason. And don't get me started on the prodigal son...