Body & Soul2 mins ago
News You Might Have Missed
Last week, the classification of the fim Mary poppins was changed from U to PG because the eccentric character Admiral Boom twice uses the word Hottentot.
Do you feel safer now?
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// Use of the term Hottentot is now considered offensive, the preferred name for the non Bantu speaking indigenous people of the Western Cape area being Khoekhoe. //
A term that was acceptable 50 years ago in South Africa is now considered dodgy. The entertainment industry is now more global than when the film was made. British/US/colonial terminology is now outdated and not appropriate when the piece of work is being shown/traded in Africa and the rest of the world.
The film has not been banned or over dubbed. Just a classification that suggests to parents that you might warn your child that the word is not a good one in the 21st century.
Parents might also warn their kids not to try floating gently on the breeze from a great height with only an umbrella to support them.
Little wonder the world's in the state it is when this kind of tripe is deemed soooo important.
Ever seen Zulu? I did in 1964 when it had a U certificate and I lived to tell the tale.
The world is slowly turning to jelly as earnest wonks hunt for drivel and get paid for it.
I didn't happen to know the existence of another thread on this topic. But having a life beyond AB precludes me from being everywhere all the time (as Napoleon may have said).
The point is that we now have a generation of censors & parents who panic over children's emotional safety, leading them to intervene to guard them from hearing or seeing anything which someone else may or may not, find offensive.
Whether a Hottentot gentleman in South Africa would prefer to be now called (according to Gromit, whom I have no reason to doubt,) a 'Khoekhoe' or whatever, is not likely to impinge on his life, or indeed the life of a child in Surbiton watching Mary Poppins on the telly.
Must confess, even having seen MP loads of times, the 'offensive' word never registered, but now it's been brought to my attention, were it not for AB ( or a dictionary) I wouldn't have had the faintest idea what it meant.
I can state with 100% certainty my 20 and 15 year olds would not get triggered by the word.
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