Women are growing used to wading through dehumanizing terms like “ people with a uterus” when looking up medical information. There are plenty of similar examples of manipulating language to influence societal beliefs, and it’s no surprise women bear the brunt of the changes. Which is why their evident desire to guard children’s minds and imaginations against descriptions of normal families and normal binary sex differences is so distressing.
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Don’t let books, even books written in the past, describe a world full of traditional families and men and women, without any other options.ĭahl’s publisher responded to criticism of the edits that “taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.” I agree. Don’t give anyone ideas about a man having a wife and six kids, because that’s heteronormative and bad for the environment. Avoid highlighting the “gender binary” with the words “boys and girls” because you want children to be open to the existence of other genders. Take a step, though it be small, down the road to a “Brave New World.” Make “mother or father” verboten when the vaguer “family” will do, because you don’t want young minds thinking a man-woman couple is normal or best. Perspective: Our language is being corruptedĬertainly not, and the real goal here is becoming more and more obvious.Perspective: Roald Dahl and the Giant Controversy.“Fully grown women” was changed to “fully grown people.”Įven if some of those changes can be defended with the argument that it wasn’t necessary to specify one sex or another, is that really such a pressing problem to justify editing peoples’ e-books? Does anyone really think children’s tender minds will be harmed by a reference to “fully grown women” because it leaves out the men?.“They must be Cloud-Men!” was changed to “They must be Cloud-People!” and a description of “Cloud-Men’s wives” was deleted.“Dashed into his father’s toolshed” was changed to “dashed into the toolshed.”.Weasel and six kids” was changed to “his family.” “We eat little boys and girls” changed to “we eat little children.”.“Get your mother or father” was changed to “get your family.”.
The edits deemphasized families, parenthood and sex differences. But it’s less understandable why the publisher’s edits go beyond instances of race and cruelty. While I don’t agree with editing an author’s work after they’ve died, it’s at least understandable why a publisher would want to remove certain racial stereotypes from his works. Equally troubling, we’re allowing ourselves to be led in that direction because we mistakenly think a noble goal of “inclusion” requires it.Ī subtle but distressing example is the recent controversy over Roald Dahl’s books, stemming from a publisher’s decision to posthumously edit racist material from his books. We don’t have anything like that degree of aversion today, but I’m alarmed at how determinedly we’re being pushed in that direction. Any mention of mothers and fathers, babies and birth, families and love repulsed and horrified them. The people were socially conditioned to hate and fear the past, in which intact biological families, loving family relationships and meaningful monogamous sex prevented individuals from being totally selfish and totally controlled. The government didn’t simply ban these words, but considered them obscene, or at best, ridiculous, which is even more effective than a ban. In the novel, published in 1932, they loathed and shunned words like mother, father and family. Thankfully, most of the government’s methods are impossible, but one keeps coming to mind because it’s disturbingly familiar. The classic novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley depicts a dystopian society with a tyrannical government that controls people through biological, psychological and social conditioning.
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