Political Correctness Gone MadFreddy Woo writes: "I once worked on an animation to help highlight the issues homeless people face in winter. The client was happy with the work, then a note came back that the ethnic mix of the characters were wrong. These were cartoon characters. They weren't meant to be ethnically anything, but we were forced to make one of them brown, at the cost of about 10k to the charity. This is how your donations are spent. Wisely as you can see."
How has PC affected you? (Please add your own tales - not five-year-old news stories cut-and-pasted from other websites)
(, Thu 22 Nov 2007, 10:20)
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EnglishThis just reminds me, certain plays and novels aren't allowed to be taught at schools until the pupils are at a certain age. I had entirely forgotten about this.
Hamlet, considered one of Shakespeare's best (or, most popular, whatever) tragedies is banned until the ages of 17 in Scottish high schools. As is King Lear. Let us not even touch on Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.
The former two are banned for the following reasons:
Incestuous themes (hamlet and his mum).
Madness (king lear)
Conrad because he has been interpreted as 'being a racist'.
This is also why T.S. Eliot is taught infrequently in schools, despite being one of the greatest Modernists and innovators of poetry.
Eliot and Conrad are mortgaged on their antiquated social views pertaining to racism, anti-Semitism (isn't that just racism... to Jews?), misogyny and distasteful sexual attitudes.
God Bless PC people. They think that children cannot handle these things before they reach 17? Is that the watershed for innocence these days?
(, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 1:25, 5 replies)
ShakespeareGotta say though, as a AS level student studying Hamlet, I'd agree with not teaching it until your 16/17. Not because of the themes you understand, but because it's too complex for people younger, especially if you're doing it because it's compulsory, not through your own choice.
Even at 14, Shakespeare was manageable for me but I didn't enjoy it.
(, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 14:24, closed)
Same withTS Eliot. He's pretty bloody difficult. Texts are often chosen more on the basis of how easy they are rather than their literary merit.
(, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 16:00, closed)
subject to debateI'd agree with both points, although Shakespeare should be accessible to all. If MacBeth [murder, madness etc.] is available to all why should Hamlet be excluded simply for it's somewhat misogynistic view of women and incestuous themes.
*sigh*
As some books are banned due to their 'thought-crime' quotient, T.S. Eliot is taught less and less because he had such right-wing views. That is one of the reasons he is taught less and less in American Universities... so i hear.
(, Sun 25 Nov 2007, 16:51, closed)
Anti-SemitismI thought that was just religious racism too, but apparently jewish folk are somehow 'speial' so they get their own word for it!
(, Tue 27 Nov 2007, 15:04, closed)
Well technicallyAnti-Semitism is a direct and deliberate dislike of Jewish people, Judaism, and, some people argue, Israel. It's one of the oldest and most arcane hatreds throughout humanity. hardly makes the Jews feel very 'speial', now does it?
(, Tue 27 Nov 2007, 20:10, closed)
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