Stories and News No. 1227
Fairy tales are for everyone
The current government at the head of Hungary, led by the Hungarian Civic Union party – remember MEP József Szájer caught in Belgium by the police last December with after an orgy defined as "gay" by the press - has always lashed out against diversity, whether they are about gender, origin or faith.
Hungary has harshly condemned last year the release of a book entitled Fairyland is for everyone. It is the work of the Labrisz association, committed to defending the rights of LGBT people, and wants to teach young readers to be more respectful towards others, whatever category they belong to. Consequently, the anthology contains, for example, stories in which there is a prince who loves another prince, others with Roma characters or people with disabilities, in addition to dark-skinned Snow White who is renamed Leaf Brown.
Now, these days Orbán’s government has imposed that the association's books, in particular Fairyland is for everyone, be printed that they are works that contain "behaviors inconsistent with traditional gender roles".
Well, to facilitate the task of our Hungarian friends I would like to suggest other scandalous titles to be branded as soon as possible:
First, The Little Mermaid. Children have the right to know from the beginning that the love between Ariel and Prince Eric is inconsistent with traditional gender roles. A mermaid is a mermaid, gosh, how does she procreate? Sorry, it needs to be banned. Second, do we want to talk about Beauty and the Beast? We must warn that if Belle falls in love with a Beast it is not normal. Such a union is decidedly against the natural family. The same goes for the Princess and the Frog. What then, at least the Beast... is, how to say, with a humanoid shape, but a frog? So everything is fine, even getting engaged to a lizard or a hamster. We need a warning, we really need it. And what about Tarzan? Guys, he may be the king of the forest, but he is raised by a whole pack of monkeys. If this is not inconsistent with traditional gender roles... And The Jungle Book? Tell me who is the father and who is the mother between the Baloo and the Bagheera. Furthermore, by extending the discourse, we cannot allow socially dangerous unions like the one between the brown Pocahontas and the Caucasian John Smith. Or the one between the homeless thug called Aladdin and the esteemed Princess Jasmine.
You see, it is really difficult to make our behaviors perfectly consistent with traditions. Because traditions often tell us the opposite of what we believe.
Fairy tales are for everyone. Or they don't belong to anyone.
My new book: A morte i razzisti (Death to racists)