Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-24577221-20170615034318/@comment-24577221-20170615180145

A lot of children's books and movies more than a few decades old have content that we now consider problematic. The classic animated Peter Pan movie's portrayal of American Indians is cringe-worthy: "Why does the Red Man say 'Ugh'?" When I've been looking for books appropriate to give to my girlfriend's children, I've gone back to some of my own childhood favourites, and on a quick skim, I've had to decide that they weren't suitable because of sexism, racism, etc. It would be necessary to have a little talk about how people used to think such-and-such but now we know better, which would rather detract from enjoyment of the books.

Many old fairy tales are especially grotesque. Cinderella's stepsisters cut off their own heels and toes to try to get their feet into the glass slipper. Little Red Riding Hood didn't just get eaten by the wolf; there's a long sequence in which the wolf made her throw her clothing into the fire ("you won't need it any more") one item at a time, and... well, let's just say that it's really really not appropriate for me to go into further detail here.

I have to try to find a balance here between various different concepts of what is "family friendly". Some people are much more relaxed than others about a number of areas. What level of "foul" language is acceptable? Some people would say that words like "damn" should not be spoken. I know some families who are nudists, but that still doesn't make drawings of monsters with their genitals hanging out appropriate for most young people and their families.

So when we get to detailed descriptions of violence here, I have to put my foot down.

Take a look at the "Background" section in the Muppets wiki page for Harry Belafonte's episode. "'It didn't work and Jim explained to me that a certain kind of anger never could work in the Muppet world, no matter what kind of mischief you were reacting to, because the characters are incapable of acting in a truly immoral way, they are free of greed and avarice and all those things that afflict the human condition. Once I understood that, everything became easy.'"That's not a bad description of how things work for the monsters here.