
A mother has called for Sleeping Beauty to be removed from her young son's curriculum because it depicts the non-consensual kissing of the title character.
The mother, Sarah Hall, tweeted about the depiction of the fairy tale in her child's book, saying it would help entrench backward views of sexuality and consent.
In the traditional fairy tale, sleeping beauty is poisoned by the prick of a spindle and falls into a deep sleep, from which she can only wake with the kiss from a king's son.
A prince fights his way to her tower in her castle in which she has slept for years and kisses her after falling in love with her appearance, whereupon she wakes.
She shared her arguments using a Biff, Chip and Kipper interpretation of the tale on the MeToo hashtag:
Sarah was reported by the Sun to have said:
I think it’s a specific issue in the Sleeping Beauty story about sexual behaviour and consent.
These are indicative of how ingrained that kind of behaviour is in society.
All these small things build up, and they make a difference.
The mother has, however, said she doesn't want the book removed from the entire curriculum.
She says she would like it to be used as a conversational point for older students discussing consent. Her argument is that children as young as her son Ben, 6, will just willfully accept the actions of the prince in question as standard.
Some people ridiculed the proposal:
@Hallmeister Why dont you ban Snow White and sleeping beauty whilst youre at it? Next time i kiss the misses when i… https://t.co/m1af7gVqmM— Jonny Molyneux (@Jonny Molyneux) 1511434206
@Hallmeister Surely the age group this book is aimed at don't sexualise behaviour?— Russ Mould (@Russ Mould) 1511443743
While others thought she raised a good point about cultural storytelling:
Another made a very valid side point:
HT Sun