To really dislike the message in the Ugly Duckling?

[SantanaLopez]

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....)

I read this to my kids and now grandchildren and thought the same but most fairy tales are similar.
The good people are beautiful and the nasty ones are ugly.
Cinderella for example and many others.

Love this story especially in the film. m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffia6VYe_QU

Sorry was this link not the other... m.youtube.com/watch?v=fXi3bjKowJU

Give up that wasnt the right song! Just watch the movie x

MissBattleaxe re How is it appalling?

Well to me it sounds like he didn't fit in, the others teased him because to them he was ugly, I find that all a bit sad. Then he grew into a swan and realised he was beautiful, but he did not realise he was beautiful as that duckling. The phrase 'Ugly duckling' is sometimes used of children who are not attractive and grow into beautiful adults. That is all stuff I don't like as it is all judging by outward appearances.

But if you put it as "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." well, yes and no, he was not 'attractive' as a suckling and that was sad. He ha to grow up to find out who he was.

I am not sure how you see it as "He wasn't ever ugly, he just didn't conform." Yes, that is true, of course, it was more that he stopped being a duckling. In the song that goes with the film the song goes...

'with feathers all stubby and brown'

I know I said I was commenting on the book not the film but the film is in my head! I was a small child at the end of the 60s so a lot of those old movies got in there how how!!

Yes, as you say "A bit of affirmation from people who accepted him for how he was born and boom! self acceptance." but not acceptance from the people who rejected him. I guess the social justice side of me wants the DUCKS to accept him. But yes, MissBattleaxe MAYBE How is it appalling? was a bit strong of me!

Yes, drudgetrudy it is worrying that the beautiful people are nice, ugly people are bad, very un-pc message!

nochocolateforlentteacake what's wrong with 'Rudolph the red nosed reindeer' and 'the prodigal son' ????

Swans are total bastards aren't they? Who the hell wants to be a swan?

Hahaha - anyone clicking on this, thinking it's going to be a nice, "fluffy" thread, is in for a rude shock!

Italiangreyhound - for an in-depth critique of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, please see my post of 1.02.

Always look out for ducklings.

Fluffy fuckers.

Ducking Birds!

Swans are total bastards aren't they? Who the hell wants to be a swan?

I'd rather be the biggest bird in the pond/lake and chase away all the ducking ducks.

(unless I was a cursed princess. That wouldn't be nice at all)

Ducklings, shmucklings. At least they lived!

I'm still traumatised by The Little Match Girl. I vividly remember my Dad reading that story to me.

'.............and then she died from hunger and hypothermia. Night, night now squoosh.'

Just wanted to say that I was on the boating lake at the park yesterday and actually saw some ducklings actually hatching!!!
My friend is heavily into literary deconstruction of fairy tales, I'll ask her what her view is.
And am I imagining that I just read about corkscrew penises?

I love the message in the ugly duckling

'Who gives a toss if nobody likes you, just be yourself and you will grow up awesome...

...and better still, rub it in their stupid fucking faces. You see me ducks? do you? well I'm the fucking shit, and what? oh yeah, you all want a piece of me now, well suck on my middle feather'

It's been a while since I read it, but my understanding is correct right?

No sqoosh.............. It actually went thus (for we used to play a game when we were kids that was 'finish the story in the style of Hans Christian Anderson or Dickens'):

and then she died from hunger and hypothermia, shivering from the icy cold, her fingers and toes burning from the bitter wind. Her ragged clothes offering no warmth from the frost. Her tears frozen to her tiny orphan face, as she wept bitterly knowing that she would soon be in her cold, lonely grave...'.

If it was Dickens, then a rich benefactor would happen to be passing, only to recognise her as little Nelly, orphan daughter of his long lost cousin Fanny, and sweep her up in his arms and into his awaiting carriage, onwards to his large house.

I think its about realising that people who don't look the same as you aren't a poor, inferior version of you, but a great version of themselves. Which is an Ok message I think. He wasn't an ugly duckling, he was a perfectly normal looking cygnet. Its not saying swans are better than ducks or vice versa, but that they are different and equally fabbo.

nochocolateforlentteacake I love it! Obviously I have a lump of coal where my heart should be as I laughed at 'Her tears frozen to her tiny orphan face'. Poor little Findus frozen orphan match girl.

Bad luck for her that rich Uncle Septimus Fezziwig didn't pass by at that moment and snatch her undernourished form from the jaws of frosty Danish death.

Death by Danish Pastry would have been kinder.

Swans are beady eyed vicious bastards with little to commend them, including them being just a little to large to fit in my oven, no matter how many times I attempt to lure them into my gingerbread cottage. Ducks however will follow a trail of breadcrumbs anywhere.

This is the song - a boy is teased because of his hair.

www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/576338/Hans-Christian-Andersen-Movie-Clip-Ugly-Duckling.html

darkness - from your post, I suspect fowl play.

Uncle Septimus Fuzziwig may or may not have been a) white slave trader and/or b) a paedophile. It really depends on which author you are channeling.

God, that game used to drive our dad nuts. Especially when we did James Joyce.

Italian -
Rudolph: he was a little bit different, so the rest of the reindeer didn't let him play reindeer games (??) and they laughed at him and called him names. Only when Santa said he was great did they want to know. Sadly, odd looking kids don't have glowing bits to make them special.

Prodigal son: so you bugger off, have a bloody brilliant time, then crawl home when you've spent all your money, say 'oops, sorry pa' and get a fatted calf. All the while your saddo sibling (probably called Rudolph) has, out if fidelial duty, stayed at home, lookef after dad/family busuness, not gone out and had any fun, and wasted their youth being boring good. No fatted calf for them.

I read the story as how lweji put it as well as pointing out that the most unattractive at first may well be a rough diamond. When the ugly duckling grows the lovely feathers (which could be an analogy for anything really) the other ducklings by now have learnt their lesson, the ugly duckling is also forgiving and they all live happily ever after.

Everybody has something nice/wonderful about them, sometimes its not so obvious we just need to find it. This moral is simplified for children to understand it.

and i like calculator's version even better! that's how it should be taught in schools