Friday, November 6, 2009

Babar - sexist and racist?

Some interesting tidbits on this list- http://www.listal.com/list/top-10-politically-incorrect-kids

An article about Babar and French Colonialism- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article602843.ece

"Despite some modernisation, Celesteville, Babar’s jungle realm, still has the feel of colonial-era French Africa.

The elephant remains the epitome of bourgeois, pre-feminist fatherhood, keeping a firm hand over his household of Queen Celeste, Pom, Flore and Alexandre. This political incorrectness has drawn fire, mainly from American academics who have called Babar a symbol of imperialist oppression.

In Should We Burn Babar?, published in a 1996, Herbert Kohl, a sociologist, dismissed the Babar kingdom as racist and sexist. Le Monde joked: “At 75, Babar is not just a charismatic, evergreen pachyderm. For those who know how to read between the lines, he also raises essential political and sociological questions.”"

Things like this would be interesting to discuss!

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