to wonder if this mum calling for Sleeping Beauty to be banned is going a step too far, or not?

[ShatnersWig]

Don't worry, I've not linked to the Daily Fail.

metro.co.uk/2017/11/23/mother-wants-sleeping-beauty-pulled-from-school-because-it-teaches-bad-lesson-about-consent-7101539/

Is this taking things a step too far or has she got a point?

Dameglittersparkes. Yes! If course it was aimed at you! How did you guess?

Ffs. They are fairy tales. Stories. FICTION! From someone’s imagination, anyone remember imagination?

Maybe it’s time we started teaching our kids the difference between reality and imagination. Or should we just burn all the authors at the stake now??

FaveNumber
Stupid shit like this drives me insane! Have these bloody PC weirdos nothing better to do?

She's pretty extreme but isn't it good that it makes us think and discuss?

@Itsonkyme totally agree. It's like these people are basing life on fiction! Stupid!

When will the madness end?

Like the 'critic' who said Harry Potter was actually a mental patient, and Hogwarts was all in his head, and the dementors were the orderlies.

I mean, are these people on drugs or something?

These are folk tales- they’re part of storytelling history, but the original tales have been mostly obliterated by the Disney versions.

I work in a behavioural school (primary) and I’m slightly more worried (with good reason) about young children playing GTA and watching horror films.

I only read the Daily Mail version (thanks for the link) but yes, the woman seems like a prize twat.

eweMustBeJoking

This is political correctness gone mad. Fairy stories are historical from years gone by, we have already started messing around with changing the words to nursery rhymes and songs for fear of offending people. It makes me sick that people have to sexualise fairy stories told to little children. My son aged 4 doesn't think a kiss to a princess is anything other than a loving gesture. Let's ban Cinderella as the good fairy wants her in a pink dress and don't get me started on hansel and Gretal who were sent into the woods by their father twice to please his new wife who didn't want to feed them... lol

All she’s asking for is a discussion, which I think is actually fair enough.
The language used with children is hugely important.
That being said I do think that encouraging a love of reading and stories is also important.
Didn’t we used to tell original stories differently (like Snow White got eaten originally and there was no huntsman or something?) and we softened the stories because society changed and people (Disney) thought there should always be a happy ending.
Having a discussion about weather something is still appropriate is - well - totally appropriate.

I agree that this story shouldn't be taught to children. It's as bad as the nativity story where a vulnerable young woman is impregnated by a male God, one cannot argue there was informed consent in that story either.

Can I ask- do people think that the stories young children hear have absolutely no effect on them at all?

@BertrandRussell

How did the stories you heard in childhood affect you?

You were no different to any other person as a child.

For me personally, fairy stories only affected my life in the sense that I wanted to be an author when I grew up.

Children don't look at fairy stories and see blurred lines, lack of consent, and moral wrongness. They see goodies, baddies, fairies, witches, and a character to cheer for.

When was the last time you heard the pick up line, "I'm going to kiss you like the prince kissed sleeping beauty and there's nothing you can do about it"?

Bert I'm with you. I can see my DD(3) and DD(2) enacting these stories. They think they are princesses and tell me they're waiting for their prince or knight to come and save them. Is it really harmless or are we already teaching them their place as a girl? I wonder it every day as they preen and say they want to look pretty. They're 3 and 2! At 4 my son doesn't EVER comment on his own looks, well actually he put DHs hair wax in the other day and said he looked cool while doing a ninja jump, but the girls already seem to see so much of their worth in pretty dresses and being a princess.

I always tell them I'd hate to be a princess as they don't get to do anything. I feel mean saying it but I can't let this be the start of their fantasy future.

Tell me honestly that you don't see millions of girls still acting out this princess fantasy at 7 and 12 and 15 and 21 and even well into adulthood....

Fave, I read all those books as a child and but for an excellent education in business and the lucky route my life took exposing me to a LOT of things the vast majority of women don't experience I definitely DID value the thought of a man who would mind me and put looking pretty at the top of my to-do list in my younger years. It was only when older my eyes were opened and my values changed. Many women don't get to move on from that.

"How did the stories you heard in childhood affect you?"

I don't know. That's rather the point!

I come from a generation of children's stories where Peter helps dad fix the car while Jane helps mummy in the kitchen. Gender stereotypes are very deeply engrained in us from very early on. And I would rather my children were not exposed to the idea that a happy ending means marriage and that a woman's fate, good or ill, lies entirely in hands of a man

We still talk about fairy tale weddings and little girls aspire to Cinderella dresses........

Isn't it amazing how 99% of young boys don't aspire to Cinderella dresses? Anyone would think society had some sort of influence on boy and girls desires.....😏

I think that those people saying that this is nonsense and a step to far should be aware that the very purpose of fairy tales was to educate boys and girls on how they should behave - girls should be quiet, compliant and docile whilst boys should be brave and strong.

So those rejected this as nonsense have failed to see that this is literally what fairy tales were designed to do!

I think we do need a rethink about fairy stories. I don't read many to my children tbh and definitely steer clear of quite a few including Sleeping Beauty I think they should be consigned to history for historical debate only. I hate all the earlier disney films too.

I also agree about the nativity story just awful.

"How did the stories you heard in childhood affect you?"

You only have to read the threads on here in Relationships to see how the stories heard in childhood affect women.

The aspiration to meet someone and fall in love, the feeling of failure if this hasn't happened by the ripe old age of 28, the willingness to accept appalling behaviours for "love", and everything that Bertrand said.

How did the stories you heard in childhood affect you?

1. I had nightmares about wolves most nights for years. And still my mother let me read wolf stories or read them to me. I was responsible for her reading the stories apparently as I insisted on them.... at 2/3/4.

1. I thought i’d be rescued from my horrible family by a Prince Charming character one day. So I latched onto my first real serious boyfriend and couldn’t accept he didn’t want to be with me anymore. For years and year I pined after him because I engraved in my brain he was my only chance of rescue. Then I did the same with another boyfriend etc.

Ok number 2 isn’t just about the fairy tales. But they gave me an unrealistic framework to extend my status as a victim within the family and hope that someone would some day rescue me instead of realising I needed to do it myself.

The Nativity story has all the traditional elements of a classic fairy story. Hardly surprising, really. Whatever your religious beliefs.

Is it really harmless or are we already teaching them their place as a girl?

I know that I've already said this, but this is what they are for.

Pure and simple.

My memory might be a bit sketchy on this, but I believe fairy tales were told originally to the children of the French aristocracy by their nannies in order to teach them the appropriate ways for boys and girls to behave and what fate would befall them if they didn't.

Where would we be without these stories?

Where would we be if the gender issue had been raised thirty years ago?

We don't know what the future holds so we stumble blindly into it, each one of us secretly thinking we know what's best for everyone, what the 'right' thing to do is.

The trouble is, we don't know what the right thing is, because the right thing for me, is probably the wrong thing for you (or any other person) and that's when we start to judge others, start to tell people how to live their lives.

If you don't want to read fairy stories, if you don't want your children to read them, that's fine, that's your choice but don't you dare take that choice away from other people.