Debbie Schlussel: "Curious George" Under Attack
We're glad to see that this weekend's box office release, "Curious George" did so well (coming in at #3 and over $15 million). Like so many other kids in America, we were read these books when I was little.
But now, from the "Lefties Have No Life" department, the poor monkey is under attack.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Robin Roth--an animal rights activist and left-wing wacko who operates Ark Online--believes "Curious George" books are bad (here is her complete diss of George). Why?
[T]he Caucasian, gun-carrying Man with the Yellow Hat ventures to Africa (imperialism alert!) to harvest wildlife for a zoo (animal repression alert!). George, left unsupervised, is allowed to smoke a pipe and huff ether (bad parenting alert!)
Huh? It's a MONKEY. And a fictional tale for kids. Does everything need to be 100% politically correct in a kids book?
The authors of "Curious George," by the way, Margret and H. A. Rey,
were Jewish Holocaust survivors from Germany, whose courageous lives are profiled in "The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey", by Louise Borden (reviewed here). They did not have the luxury of being politically correct ad absurdum.
We suggest Ms. Roth check and see whether there's a market for lacto-ovo lesbian environmentally-friendly fairy tales for kids addicted to edamame, and start writing. And while she's at it, she can use recycled paper, tofu extracts, and ink that was not tested on animals or taken from fruit tree extracts stolen from an African co-op farmer.
We, on the other hand, look forward to seeing yet more yellow ink that both populates the illustrated pages of "Curious George" and pollutes Ms. Roth's joyless, lefty environment.
Posted by Debbie on February 13, 2006 01:24 PM to Debbie Schlussel