Thomas the tank engine!

System

SusieWinwood wrote: »

I AM English and AM proud of it - don't lump me with any political party tyvm.

Re a train called Abdul - if you'd bother to read children's book nowadays they all have a red haired kid, one with glasses, one in a wheelchair and one with a burkha/turban/headscarf just so all bases are covered and no one is left out! That is pc madness imo.

I suggest you stick to watching midsummer murders. Thats a TV program more up your street.

fluffnutter

SusieWinwood wrote: »

Re a train called Abdul - if you'd bother to read children's book nowadays they all have a red haired kid, one with glasses, one in a wheelchair and one with a burkha/turban/headscarf just so all bases are covered and no one is left out! That is pc madness imo.

What an ignorant, divisive and unpleasant comment. It's nice to know you consider red-haired people, disabled people and Muslims as only worthy of inclusion in a children's story so as to appease the PC brigade. I've got red hair and I find your attitude insulting quite frankly.

dreavi

fluffnutter wrote: »

What an ignorant, divisive and unpleasant comment. It's nice to know you consider red-haired people, disabled people and Muslims as only worthy of inclusion in a children's story so as to appease the PC brigade. I've got red hair and I find your attitude insulting quite frankly.

Steady as far as the OP is concerned, you dont exist

Whilst I agree that Political correctness has its moments this isnt one of them. Anything that opens the eyes of children to the world is alright with me.

fluffnutter

It's depressing to think what subtle signals (excuse the pun!) that 2 year old's picking up.... We don't want nasty disabled people, or people with glasses or people with, heaven forbid! red hair in our stories, darling, do we. And mummy doesn't want to see Muslims in Thomas the Tank Engine. Just nice Christian trains please. That's right, darling. You listen up. This is how mummy wants you to view different people when you're a bit older!

SusieWinwood

I was going to say you have all got the wrong end of the stick jumped down my throat and totally missed my point - but I'll not bother now.

bromleymum

My son has gorgeous, red hair.

I didn't realise there were specific inclusion policies that applied to him!!!!

OMG.

Storck

SusieWinwood wrote: »

I was going to say you have all got the wrong end of the stick jumped down my throat and totally missed my point - but I'll not bother now.

So what was your issue.

Plus if the train was called Abdul, why would he wear a turban as Abdul is an Islamic name and turbans are usually worn by Sikhs.

Only problem I could see is if he was a steam train and his turban blocked his chimney. :rotfl:

Mk14:37

SusieWinwood wrote: »

I was going to say you have all got the wrong end of the stick jumped down my throat and totally missed my point - but I'll not bother now.

Instead, you've deleted all your posts. Not to worry, fortunately they have been quoted throughout the thread so new readers can judge for themselves whether you've been misrepresented.

The key points I've picked up are:

• You assume that a holiday in Winter is necessarily Christmas, but that any mention of Christmas has been edited out "by the PC Brigade"
• You are opposed to diversity in children's stories.
• You're not a racist, BUT.....

dreavi

Mk14:37 wrote: »

Instead, you've deleted all your posts. Not to worry, fortunately they have been quoted throughout the thread so new readers can judge for themselves whether you've been misrepresented.

The key points I've picked up are:

• You assume that a holiday in Winter is necessarily Christmas, but that any mention of Christmas has been edited out "by the PC Brigade"
• You are opposed to diversity in children's stories.
• You're not a racist, BUT.....

I always feel an eye roll coming on when anyone starts a sentence with 'I'm not a racist but'.

It's never a good start to a conversation

trumpton

Didn't get to read the OP's post, but I suspect this is less to do with the PC brigade and more to do with overseas sales. In the US they do tend to say 'Happy Holidays' because Hannukah, Thanksgiving, and Christmas fall around the same time of year. Also, they will not want to preclude selling the show to countries which are non-Christian by having Christian references in it, though it would probably be dubbed anyway.

On the other hand, having to drop the word Christmas from posters, signs etc in the UK does bug me a bit. There is no demand from Muslim, Hindu, Sikh communities to do this. They all enjoy Christmas in my experience. I think there are actually some middle class liberals who would like to see religious references removed from everything, and 'offending minorities' gives them an excuse.

I can see your point that you may feel that every book has a minority/disabled kid in it these days. But I don't see that as tokenism or PC-ness, just maybe books trying to reflect how society really is, and it's only so noticable now because books never had minority characters or even poor kids in them before. And if it seems a bit staged, well I don't mind if it helps some kid feel a bit better about themselves.

That Pippi longstocking did have red hair though, so some minorities have been adequately represented in literature for quite a while.;)