Once Upon A Grievance

“A story based on the ‘Three Little Pigs’ fairy tale was turned down by a British government agency awards panel, as the subject matter could offend Muslims,” said the BBC’s Sean Coughlan.

The digital book, geared to a primary school audience, retells the traditional fairy tale using “Three Little Cowboy Builders” as the main characters.

This opened the door for a two-pronged, smack-down from the awards judges.
First, they nixed the story because “the use of pigs raises cultural issues.” Second, they warned that the story might be offensive to builders.

Anne Curtis, the book’s creative director, was outraged by the move, saying that “the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was ‘like a slap in the face.’”

However, the judges stood firm in their decision. Commenting on the stereotyping in the story, they asked: “Is it true that all builders are cowboys, that builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?”

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This is not the first time that the “Three Little Pigs” story has gotten slammed by the pc police.

When a British school came under fire last year for sponsoring a children’s performance of the story, officials changed the name of the production to the “Three Little Puppies” for fear of offending Muslims, a move that spokesman from the Muslim Council of Britain called “bizarre.”

Deborah Lambert writes the Squeaky Chalk column for Accuracy in Academia‘s monthly Campus Report newsletter from which this feature is excerpted.