Roald Dahl books have been edited to remove the word "female" along with other edits.

[GoChasingWaterfalls]

www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/18/roald-dahl-books-rewritten-to-remove-language-deemed-offensive?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

It's literary terrorism.

I think they’re trying to avoid that dehumanising way that certain (often older, golf club bore-type) men talk about women as females.

Dahl chose the word 'female' because he wanted to dehumanise the character. It's Mrs Trunchbull, ffs! She's a monster. He did it on purpose.

The fact that they can't understand that makes them completely unsuitable to be anywhere near any kind of literature, let alone sanitising it on our behalf.

You lot have FAR too much time on your hands.

@PortiasBiscuit Why?

Simple. Teach children that attitudes change over time and texts should be read with a critical eye.

Its not that simple though. Teenagers will want to know why a book that has been written by an author they perceive as racist should be on the school curriculum. It’s one thing to read a book as a historical document but it’s another to have it held up as a great work of art. It’s the statue argument all over again.

I wasn't aggressive or personal. I said I found the view you expressed abhorrent and illiterate. Not you.

1. The author did not write woman he wrote female
2. Presumably 'woman' is used so as not to alienate men in dresses

You can't see anything wrong with that?

Why? I mean you’ve clicked on thread to post that rather than say what you think.

Besides if people on radio / media find it worth discussing I don’t see why mn should desist

1005 this

You're the one posting on a thread that you apparently think is irrelevant or unimportant.

If teenagers looking for 100% purity with modern views are now the arbiters of what is acceptable art and literature,we might as well burn the lot: human culture and civilization has gone in many ways,with multifaceted human beings in it, for tens of thousands of years. Trying to create a year zero is both arrogant and immature, and should scare the shit out of anyone paying any attention.

How would ppl feel about the same thing happening to the bible or religious books? Are they next?

I think it is naive to think the road needs to be built. The road is unchanged, from the dawn of time humans have been informed and misinformed. Those in power have always had this power.

We are increasingly exposed to fake news, rewritten news. Conspiracy theories are all over, spread on social media.

Dahl's books are a commercial product, of course they'll get updated if the owner thinks they need it.

Oh we’ve got status destroyers in here. I’m out.

Statue

Yes and also, changing female to woman ruins the alliteration Dahl deliberately crafted.

This shortchanges children, who would otherwise be taking in good, literary writing. Instead they’re left with leaden prose.

This is evocative of the "keep mumsnet out of politics" placard at that rally where some Labour MPs didn't know (🤔) they were platform sharing with a convicted violent offender, or that the crowd was chanting "fuck Keir Starmer"

And teenagers better be dead certain they are right about things when they preach on erasing history and words and the past.

I’m genuinely confused here. Why is it not okay to use the word female anymore? Will using the word female be offensive to certain people?

You have completely missed the point. But thanks for the patronising post.

There are many versions of the bible.

I will never read Roald Dahl to my child anyway, they have a nasty vicious streak that I don't want her to emulate. (Without even getting into the lesbophobic coding of Miss Trunchball.)

Also I am astounded that people posting on here think that the word 'female' is in any way offensive! I am female and proud of it. TRAs would have this word disappear - you are assisting them!

And as for those saying that literature should be 'sanitised'...I truly have no fucking words. Keep yourselves busy and get cracking on the old testament as that could take a while.

I've just looked up definition of woman and apparently it changed in the dictionary in 2022 to include someone wishing to identify as a woman who wasn't necessarily assigned female at birth. To be classed as female you apparently need to be able to produce eggs. So even the Cambridge & Oxford dictionaries have been amended.

@watchfulwishes And in case you didn’t know the owner is dead.

Dahl's books are a commercial product, of course they'll get updated if the owner thinks they need it.

They are not a "commercial product", they are works of art. They don't need to be "updated" or "sanitised". Books are not like washing machines or suitcases. They are gifts from someone's inner world, and they take hard work and mystery to bring into the world. You don't have to like them, you don't have to buy them or read them. But "updating" them is vandalism and censorship and it's utterly fascist.