Poor Pigs

Utterly flaming ridiculous!

Oh FFS !!!

I realise that the DM has jumped on this story but I can't help but wonder what planet those people at The Oxford University Press are on?

Pigs are part of "our" British culture.

Farewell Peppa Pig?! Next thing will be any fairytales, films, DVDs, clothing with pigs on etc, etc.
Freedom of speech? Am gobsmacked, must be someone taking the proverbial, surely?!

This was on the radio yesterday. Most worryingly of all is that Oxford University of all places should know better. It sounds just like something dreamt up by the Daily Mail. not Oxford university.

Pigs and stories about clever pigs are rife in British children's literature and they are very fondly regarded. That judgement is totally misguided.

It might be that they are talking about books for teaching of children so that they could not avoid reading this stuff in a school book but it is still unacceptable.

Is it April 1st?

Sadly not loopylou [shocked]

I couldn't believe it myself Neilliemoser . Yes it does sound like something dreamed up by the DM doesn't it?

I have always loved pigs and not just to eat, although love nothing more that a bacon sandwich (with tomato ketchup of course).

Why should children avoid reading about pigs though Nelliemoser? Imagine asking a group of small children to name some animals and just skipping over the mention of a pig? Or imagine a book of animals with a pig missing from it?

Old MacDonald had a farm....minus a porcine?!

Do they think that by banning the word PIG, removing pictures and references to a PIG, then PIG'S will cease to exist?

So who now will save our bacon? Or wallow like pig in muck.?

Can't imagine how pig farmers, butchers etc would cope!

*Gillybob" No reason really I was just trying to get at their thinking.

If it is a school reading book going abroad it might be appropriate to tune the content towards animals etc the particular people of culture or religion of those countries are familiar with.

We would not usually have reading books which feature animals we have probably never seen.
Young readers need to see what is familiar, but that is a very different thing indeed from arguing that Muslims and Jews might be offended.

This sort of rubbish has been ongoing for ages though hasn't it.

What idiots like this don't seem capable of understanding is they actually cause division. They are a danger to our society and should be stopped. It is not a trivial matter to me as prats like this are manna from heaven to the likes of the far right. Not that I believe UKIP are far right but I see this ridiculous move sums up exactly why people are turning to them.

We know people collect pigs, collect frogs, collect horses etc. in various forms, it's not my bag but I understand some people get a pleasure from collecting them. We know there have been incidences where people have been 'told' to remove their collection of pigs from their windows because it might offend some religions. WHAT!

Next they will tell people to remove frogs from their window in case it offends people from another country. Oh, wait, that has probably happened in some stupid part of the UK.

Taking the reason behind this idiotic decision to one side what does it say about the intellgence of those who have made this decision. Do they think our children should be shielded from life? Do they think our children should be sheltered from knowing what a pig is? Do they think our children should be spared knowing where and how food is produced?

What a bunch of mamby pampy politically correct fools who are determined to find problems that aren't there. I don't think for one moment the 'ethnic' communities they are so called protecting are remotely concerned about such books being printed. They probably despair at hearing this is happening. Why? Because they will be viewed as wanting special consideration and not integrating with British culture. Very dangerous.

This sort of behaviour does not protect 'ethnic' communities. It marginalises them!!!!

They want to sell their books to Muslim countries and think, with or without justification, they may find it hard to sell children's stories or reading schemes featuring porcine elements.

So, seriously, they don't have pigs in any Muslim country?
I know I saw them in UAE.

Oh I know that Nelliemoser

Taking the reason behind this idiotic decision to one side what does it say about the intellgence of those who have made this decision

Exactly POGS but this was Oxford University Press so I would have thought there might have been a tiny bit of common sense.

I am thinking about stories,poems and everyday sayings etc. containing pigs and wondering how we could change them in order to please "some" extreme, weird thinking people?

The Three Little pigs camels

This little piggy camel went to market

Pigs Camels in a blanket

Pigs Camels in space

Moonpig Camel.com

POGS In Britain we most certainly should not have to hide our pig story books etc. but as I said below, maybe when producing books for other countries it is not unreasonable to produce books that do not offend that culture.

If you are in another country, you should to some degree respect their traditions, excluding oppression etc. Which ever way round that culture swap is.
There were some dreadful little Black Sambo books around in British schools in the 50s.

Perhaps they do, perfectly reasonable business decision to make. It's simple they will know the market and would be careful what books they consider appropriate for any particular country.

This however is a totally different matter. This decision is prejudiced against our values and culture, one they believe should be afforded to others.

It is causing a problem that did not exist and is very devisive, IMHO.

No comparison between "those" books and pigs though Neilliemoser.

The Little Black Sambo books are still available to buy. They were eventually deemed not to be racist.

I can understand, perhaps, the avoidance of words describing cooked pork, but not the word 'pig' itself.

Nelliemoser

You say " If you are in another country, you should to some degree respect their culture". "Which ever way round the culture swap is"

I could not agree more. I also believe the majority of the 'ethnic' group 'supposedly' that could be upset by books showing pigs and sausages feel that way too.

What is becoming the issue, and this type of story compounds the problem, is the British culture and way of life his being eroded purely because there are people who are determined to undermine our right to have/continue with our culture. They are being decisive and cause far more harm than good. They inadvertantly feed racism and the far right. To be honest they annoy the hell out of me too.

Books can/will be produced for retail which resonate with the intended reader, that's how the publishing industry works, surely!

This decision however steps over that editorial decision making into frankly being prejudiced against western culture 'if it is ALL books' they produce/print that are included.