Values change - if they don’t it means that no-one is questioning them.Īs to nursery rhymes, of course we can find things to be offended in them. We may be shocked, in varying degrees, by the racism, sexism, homophobia and mistreatment of children that are manifest in texts from the recent and distant past, but those same racist, sexist, homophobic child-abusers might be profoundly offended by what they would see as our blasphemy and tolerance of immorality and obscenity. In this, they are like almost all texts, written or spoken, that have been handed down to us from earlier generations of English-speakers. Is that ok?Īs this controversy demonstrates, nursery rhymes can encapsulate ideas and words that are no longer acceptable. Jeremy Clarkson claims that in his version it was a teacher who was being victimized by the toe-catchers. I’ve heard tiggers, tigers and babies being caught by the toe. Once the N-word became unacceptable (of course, it always was, but it has become much more unacceptable to many more people), various alternatives were introduced. Background info via BBC links here and here.
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