Don’t you mean the Taffies, the Paddies and the Jocks? Having moved from my native souf London to Dublin I had the dubious pleasure of being blamed personally by my Irish schoolmates, egged on by the Marist Fathers teachers (and my parents were paying private school fees for this abuse ), for 700 years of English occupation. On return to souf London I was called Paddy. This was a valable exercise at a young age that you can’t bloody win Having been “rejected” by both societies that I actually had some ties with I think that’s probably why I felt so “at home” in France when I first moved here over forty years ago. Every cloud as they say
As an aside, the proverbial is hitting the fan for several private schools in Ireland at present. My one has yet to be exposed, I may do it myself, though I was lucky and only experienced violence not sexual abuse. Once again this was a blessing because it endowed me with an enduring hatred of the Irish Catholic Church. Which was, of course, vindicated spectacularly years later. Though the bastards still maintain a grip on education in Ireland. Some years later I did write to the Head of the Marist Fathers in Ireland complaining about the violence and I got a begrudging letter of apology once I signed a document agreeing not to sue.
Encapsulates some of the pathology of those subscribing to the Tory ‘culture war’ ideology.
First the attack on the young - it sometimes seems to me that a lot of posts on SurviveFrance could be summarised as:
‘I’m getting old, I see the familiar world I tried so hard to fit into changing all around me, and that’s frightening - still, maybe there’s some comfort in finding others willing to have a good moan about our shrinking comfort zone…’
Then the completely upside down accusation that those taking social injustice seriously (known to those that don’t as the ‘woke’) want to edit history - when in fact they want precisely the opposite - to explore and raise awareness of past injustice that has been deliberately hidden.
Nor is there any question (on the left - though there is obviously on the religious right) of original sin - blaming people now for the sins of their fathers. But it’s a convenient misunderstanding of what is really being said by peoples that suffered from generations of slavery and colonialism: that the wealthy and privileged still, now, benefit from the inherited wealth and unfair trading relations and chauvinistic attitudes that still exist.
No I don’t think all of the English are arrogant xenophobes - but rather a lot are.
Well, not sure about the debate on SF- but the headline in the Daily Mail reported it that way - and the text seems to support the idea that concern over cultural sensitivity was the reason.
Though you do raise an important point - those who get “outraged” by this sort of thing often don’t seem to look very far into the details - sometimes to the point of missing the fact that there is no “cancellation” of anything by the “woke PC brigade” - look at all the hoo-ha over Birmingham council “cancelling Christmas” when nothing of the sort was intended or took place.
I don’t think anyone is attacking pantomime as a theatrical art form, just one specific story.
But just because something is a cherished part of British (or perhaps English, see above) tradition does not mean it can’t be offensive to other cultures. There can’t be anyone left who would claim gollywogs or black-face are not offensive, for example.
As I said, the fact that Aladdin might be offensive to Arabs was recognised 30 years ago, this isn’t news.
Hmm… still can’t see what’s wrong with a 30/45 minute production… which offers the wonder and “suspension of disbelief”… for kids… with a bit of deliberate “overacting”, some “magic” and a few songs etc…
Nothing but maybe we need some new tales, not 250 year old ones (the first production of “Aladdin” is said to be 1788).
One point which isn’t addressed is whether Arabs or Muslims actually find Aladdin offensive, or was there material in the proposed script which an actual Arab or Muslim found offensive - if they don’t I can’t see what is wrong. The article that I linked to mainly talks about one, potentially offensive line in a song.
However, we should at least be sensitive to the fact that stories that might have been acceptable 250, or even 50 years ago might now not be deemed so.
We kids used to rub an old silvery teapot.
We were told in reverent tones that it had been presented to greatgrandpa by Princess May of Teck… we had no idea who she was… and Ggrandpa wasn’t saying… but the teapot looked a bit like the magic lamp from the panto… and we hoped/dreamed our wishes would come true…
EDIT: Incidentally… Aladdin seems to have a variety of sources, China being one of the earliest I believe. It is a fairytale…
What these objectors need to realise is that Panto is part of our culture and if they don’t like it they don’t need to come.
It’ s like all the anti slavery people ranting on about removing all the traces of 17th and 18th century British merchants who took part in the slave trade without acknowledging the part played by African tribes selling their captured enemies from other tribes to slavers.
The slave trade still exists in Africa with Arab slave traders selling people into slavery in Middle Eastern countries and employing bonded labour.
Why can’t they be honest and acknowledge this is happening nowadays within their own heritage?
You only have to look at Quatar to see how disdainful the Arab culture is of anyone who is different from themselves and how human rights have no part in their thinking.
I hadn’t noticed anyone calling for the cessation of pantomime.
Neither is anyone talking about “removing” anyone - removing monuments however is fair game, we should acknowledge what happened, we don’t - indeed should not - celebrate it.
Indeed it does, that fact does not excuse those 17th and 18th century slavers, nor does the fact hat Africans themselves might be involved in the modern slave trade somehow make it OK now.
You have proof that they do not? Many white English are involved in modern slavery, I presume you acknowledge and condemn them?
Once again poor behaviour by one group does not excuse poor behaviour by another.
Quatar’s stance on human rights (and women’s rights, and the rights of anyone wo is not a rich Arab) is terrible. That does not mean it is OK to emulate them.
Absolutely. But it’s rare to find someone who isn’t sensitive, or at least aware of reasonable boundaries.
I think there’s a common understanding that these are stories which don’t really have a link with their settings. That’s their charm.
I think you’d be hard put to find anyone but a professional offence-taker who’d link Aladdin - or Ali Baba for that matter - to a real part of the Arab world.
Is it offensive? I don’t truly know - one might argue that portraying the less sympathetic characters in the with exaggerated “Arabic” features is re-enforcing negative stereotypes. It’s not the only example, of course, both Oliver Twist and the Merchant of Venice portray Jewish characters unsympathetically. The Mikado has come under fire for negative portrayal of Japanese characters and “yellowface” i.e. the depiction of Japanese or Chinese characters by white actors in makeup.
What annoys me is the knee-jerk “that’s preposterous” reaction embodied in the Mail’s reportage. They don’t seem to have bothered to find out who objected or why they did so, for example, or why the am dram group decided to abandon the play altogether rather than re-work it.
Well it’s on a par with all the disingenuous shock that people might find eg the black and white minstrels offensive which I remember being a bit polemic from my youth. I remember it being on when I was at school and thinking even then how appalling it was.
Where things get very interesting is that it is now accepted that while blackface/yellowface/brownface/redface won’t do, it is still ok to go in for womanface, the new drag is indeed now as mainstream as can be and very popular: I think caricaturing half the population in that way is offensive and illustrates ingrained misogyny but voicing that opinion obviously means I’m an old terf.
I might add I have known drag artistes well all my life so my attitude doesn’t stem from ignorance or prudishness.
Having moved from my native souf London to Dublin I had the dubious pleasure of being blamed personally by my Irish schoolmates, egged on by the Marist Fathers teachers (and my parents were paying private school fees for this abuse 
), for 700 years of English occupation. On return to souf London I was called Paddy. This was a valable exercise at a young age that you can’t bloody win 
Having been “rejected” by both societies that I actually had some ties with I think that’s probably why I felt so “at home” in France when I first moved here over forty years ago. Every cloud as they say 
. Let’s not talk about the English 
