Los fairy tales They may be problematicat least from the point of view of the sensitive readers that Ladybird Books, a London-based publisher specializing in children’s literature and part of the UK’s Penguin group, hired to do a assessment of his texts.
According to the British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’, which in recent days has already published the changes that have been made to some books to make them more inclusive, such as those of James Bond, reissued to eliminate racist references or those of Roald Dahl , where terms like “fat” or “ugly” have been dropped, sensitive readers frown on aspects of fairy tales such as references to physical appearance or heteronormative relationships.
Although the publisher did not comment to the press on this review, experts consulted by ‘The Telegraph’ say that the reading material “may have a negative influence in children by teaching them” to put “certain values” or even certain phenotypes or physical characteristics above others.
Sensitivity readers, a controversial figure whose task is to analyze whether the representation of the various population groups is free of stereotypes or whether the texts are in line with current values and sensibility, consider that in fairy tales there are other problematic elements, such as the love at first sight or the privilege of physical beauty above personality traits. In addition, the people who are considered the most beautiful in these tales are usually blondes and blue eyeswhich violates racial diversity and “may suggest to young readers” that it is the most handsome who “have the right to a happy ending.”
That these protagonists are always princes and princesses in heterosexual relationships is also, for the readers in charge of these reviews, a problem, since other realities such as the homosexuality or bisexuality.
Special mention should be made of the pronouns, which are preferred for neutral gender or social class, due to the continuous reference to royalty in classic tales such as Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, which indicates that the Social rank It’s what makes people important. There’s also ageism. “Just as the ‘good’ characters are often models of youthful beauty, the ‘bad’ ones in fairy tales are often portrayed as witches and wrinkled old women” which associates the old age with evilthey collect in the newspaper.