I'm not saying we can't have the discussion, but, um:
"I think it's a specific issue in the Sleeping Beauty story about sexual behavior and consent,” she told the Newcastle Chronicle. “It’s about saying is this still relevant, is it appropriate?”Asking for a book to be banned and asking for a conversation about the books' suitability are actually two different things, but we conflate the two all the time. The former is excused as necessary to remove evil, the latter essential to appearing reasonable and polite.
The 40-year-old also contacted Ben’s school asking for books featuring the story to be banned from the younger children’s classes and curriculum and tweeted about the offending book.
"In today's society, it isn't appropriate,” she added. “My son is only six, he absorbs everything he sees, and it isn't as if I can turn it into a constructive conversation.
"I don't think taking Sleeping Beauty books out of circulation completely would be right. I actually think it would be a great resource for older children, you could have a conversation around it, you could talk about consent, and how the Princess might feel."
“But I'm really concerned about it for younger children, would really welcome a conversation about whether this is suitable material.”
We really need to do some more work on this.
How silly. Any healthy six-year-old thinks that kissing a member of the opposite sex is icky, not sexy. How often does she think people are going to be confronted with the scenario in the story?
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised she discounts her own role in telling her son what's appropriate behavior and what isn't. Does she think he's going to take that in any more than he will his other lessons? I'm reminded of the mother of one of the witnesses in the Scopes trial, the real one, not the movie version, who said as far as she was concerned they could teach him evolution every day because he wouldn't remember it any better than he did anything else they tried to teach him in school.
Hadn't heard that story about the Scopes trial. Thanks for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mother, yeah, she needs to worry more about what she teachers her children. I guess patriarchy and princes rescuing women from poverty and "normal life" and all those concerns are passe now, and it comes down to kissing, the new "sexual assault."
We've got to discuss that term too, before it becomes any physical contact between male and female, and the observant Muslims begin to think we've gone too far.