Saturday, November 12, 2011

Pig-tailed Pippi Longstocking books branded 'racist' by German theologian



To hell with German theologians! She probably is Christian in name only anyway. Other German theologians such as Rudolf Bultmann reject the Bible as just "stories". Her main preoccupations seem to be "whiteness" and feminism so faith would struggle to get a look-in there, I would think. The first result Google gives for her is a talk called "Am Ende der Weissheit?", which translates as "Towards the end of whiteness". Sounds charming. Being white is obviously very bad.
Sweden's much-loved Pippi Longstocking children books have been branded racist by a leading German theologian. Dr Eske Wollrad, from Germany's Federal Association of Evangelical Women, has called on parents to skip certain passages or else explain to their children that they contain outdated colonial stereotypes.

She hit out at the Pippi Longstocking trilogy, written by author Astrid Lindgren and first published in 1945, at an anti-discrimination state conference in Leipzig at the weekend.

Dr Wollrad told German newspaper The Local: 'It is not that the figure of Pippi Longstocking is racist, but that all three in the trilogy of books have colonial racist stereotypes.'

In the books, Pippi is an eight-year-old with superhuman strength who does not want to grow up and hates pompous adults.

Her father, once a king of a South Seas island, was originally known as Negro King before publishers changed it to South Seas King.

Dr Wollrad is demanding the book's publisher make additions in the books to guide readers when 'racist' content arises.

She said that in the third book, Pippi In The South Seas: 'The black children throw themselves into the sand in front of the white children in the book. When reading the book to my nephew, who is black, I simply left that passage out.'

Source

And how come a woman is pronouncing on theology anyway? The Bible is pretty clear about that: 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 reads: “As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”

But I guess that to her the words of the epistle are just that silly old story book again

12 comments:

sig said...

While it may not be Politically Correct by today's standards, it is certainly part of history and should be preserved as such.

F*cking Liberal historical revisionism.

Anonymous said...

Sig sez: "F*cking Liberal historical revisionism."

How is this any different than the Conservative Bible Project?

Anonymous said...

Let me get this straight, a SWEDISH story branded racists by a GERMAN "theologin"?

The swedes must be really scared now!

Germany and racism have a long history, so, Pot meet kettle!

Deal with your own racists past before you start throwing accusations of racism at others!

Anonymous said...

In defense of the first century Church, women and men sat on different sides of the synagogue. Women sometimes called accross to their husbands during the service. This is probably what Paul is referrencing in Cor. Other passages, even from the O.T. hint at the equallity of men and women before God. Read Psalm 31, and Galatians 3:28.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, in the above post it should be Proverbs 31, not Psalm 31

Kee Bird said...

As they say in germany DUMBKOFF

Anonymous said...

Perhaps in retaliation Steven Speilberg could make a movie where Pipi and Tintin save Europe from some middle eastern religion. I'm sure one would come to mind quite readily if needed. No racism involved just religious indiference.

BTM

Flu-Bird said...

Now TOM SAWYER and PIPPA LONGSTOCKING find themselves blacklisted by the bastions of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Menoichius said...

"The black children throw themselves into the sand in front of the white children in the book. When reading the book to my nephew, who is black, I simply left that passage out."

Some Pacific Northwest (and probably elsewhere) Indian tribes would do the same for visiting dignitaries. If Pippi really was the daughter of the king, she was probably getting the treatment because of her nobility, not her skin color.

Anonymous said...

Kee Bird: No they don't say in Germany "DUMBKOFF", but they might say "Dummkopf" to bad spellers.

Anonymous said...

"But I guess that to her the words of the epistle are just that silly old story book again"

Yes, yes they are. Just a silly story about an imaginary friend.

And I'd prefer Pippi as an imaginary friend to the one in the bible pretty much any day, I don't recall her being quite as bloodthirsty...

Anonymous said...

And Pippi isn't like the Godfather with an offer "you can't refuse" - worship me or burn in Hell!