Jottings
and Dumbo (1941) is “racist.” “Remember
King Louie the orangutan?” she writes.
The character from the Jungle Book (1967)
is “a racist caricature,” she explains, while
the other monkeys are “foolish and
criminal,” while singing “literally” about
wanting to make “white man’s fire.” And
so it goes on, as Ms Robertson relates her
“painful and completely cringeworthy”
self-imposed experience of her revisiting
her childhood (which can only have been
a couple of years ago.) “Honestly,” she
concludes, “I’m glad I got over my dreams
of being a Disney Princess, cause (sic) that
dodgy world is not one I want to live in.”
To quote an old Greek saying popularised
in the 19th century, beauty is in the eye of
the beholder. Or to put it another way, if
you don’t like it, don’t watch it.
Finally, a 21-year-old from Alton in
Hampshire has complained that a staff
member at her local branch of the baker
Greggs had made her fear that all her,
“worst fears were happening at once.” And
what traumatic experience brought her
whole world come tumbling down?
Writing on Facebook (where else?) Kathy
Readon says the employee commented,
“You’re in here every day,” and, referring
to her take-away pizza, added, “You’re
going to get sick of this eventually.” Ms
Readon was given a £6 voucher from
Greggs in compensation.
Courting complaints
A number of courts in Scotland closed for
a day last month to enable staff to learn
how to sketch and knit. The “staff
engagement day” also included options to
visit a police dog unit or find out about
how blood analyses are carried out, but
it’s the knitting course which has raised
most eyebrows. One insider asked if the
training was to enable them to, “make
jumpers and scarves for the accused,”
while others described the training as
“counterproductive.” Scottish Tory MSP
Murdo Fraser questioned the plan, adding
that many people would regard it as a
waste of tax payers’ money.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service
confirmed the initiative which, it said, was
intended to “raise awareness of corporate
themes” (but was unable to say how much
it was costing.)
no-one could possibly be offended are the
luvvies of theatre world. The actors’ union
Equity has issued new gender-neutral
guidelines aimed at people and venues
working with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender) performers, and says the
phrase “ladies and gentlemen” excludes
people who do not identify as male or
female, or as non-binary (a spectrum of
gender identities which are not exclusive
one sex or the other.) Equity goes on to
advise against compliments on
“appearance, clothing, voice, quality,
identity or the performer being brave.”
Ladies and gentlemen. Your Jottings team
thought we’d use the phrase one more
time ... because, ladies and gents, you’re
being phased out. Last month, we
mentioned how a number of airlines are
abandoning the time-honoured greeting
in favour of “Hello, everyone,” or, “Good
evening, everyone.” Now read on ... And while a lot has been done to
eliminate sexism, but there are pockets of
resistance. Researchers have been
examining five of the world’s major
museums and have calculated that animal
and bird exhibits have more males than
females in their exhibition cases. Exhibits
of long dead mammals are 52 per cent
male while birds which fell of their
perches decades ago are 60 per cent male.
Our first reaction to all this was to ask
why anyone would possibly bother to
research these statistics, but there is a
genuine issue to be addressed, we’re told.
The problem apparently is that exhibits
known as reference animals – against
which new animals are compared – are
The latest to join the move to ensure that Continued overleaf
PC Corner
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