Posted on 02/20/2006 9:39:42 AM PST by finnman69
For the politically correct Bay Area parent, the "Curious George" children's books are a minefield of cultural horrors through which to tiptoe. Imperialism. Animal abuse. Bad parenting.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Start with the Caucasian, gun-carrying Man with the Yellow Hat venturing to Africa (imperialism alert!) to harvest wildlife for a zoo (animal repression alert!). Continue with George being unsupervised and allowed to smoke a pipe and huff ether (bad parenting alert!), and it's a wonder there aren't pickets already forming around movie theaters.
Roth, a high school English teacher in Los Angeles, writes on her animal rights Web site that "Curious George" reveals "the sinister side of a corrupt wildlife trade with perilous roots in Western imperialism." When the mischievous George is sent to jail, "the picture of the forlorn little primate alone in his cell conjures haunting images of countless monkeys lingering in laboratories, suffering silently and alone."
This loon teacher Robin Roth is going to regret the national coverage this getting today on Fox news.
Now I see why my college age dau liked the movie so much.
Here is this kooks book review of Curious Gerorge
http://www.arkonline.com/books_kid.html
Curious George
Educational Tool or Irresponsible Menace? Children's Classic Demands Socially Responsible Reading
The celebrated children's classic Curious George is a seemingly simple story about an innocent - yet inquisitive - African monkey snatched from his jungle home. Children have loved this boldly illustrated story, in primarily primary colors, and marveled to the adventures of the curious little monkey for decades. The text is easy to read and immediately engaging, but a closer reading reveals a much darker side to the popular tale that spawned sequels, toys, and cartoons. Not only does the story reveal the sinister side of a corrupt wildlife trade with perilous roots in Western imperialism, but recent ethical, legal and scientific considerations on the personhood of primates makes a traditional reading of Curious George both impossible and irresponsible.
The book begins with a picture of a happy monkey swinging in a tree and eating a banana. The image is so pleasant, in fact, that even the flowers in the illustration have happy faces. The little monkey is happy as well, until he is captured, when his wide grin turns to a grimace. When H.A. Rey first wrote the book in the early 1940s, public attention and conservation efforts failed to focus on a dangerous and controversial wildlife trade where millions of apes and monkeys are slaughtered, captured, and sold into animal slavery, and babies are frequently snatched from the lifeless bodies of their mothers. In Rey's book there is no violent capture-only a benign looking white man - presumably a wildlife trader -- in a big yellow hat.
"What a nice little monkey," he [the man] thought. "I would like to take him home with me" (6).
A couple of pages later, the monkey's curiosity gets the best of him. Like an African tribal member centuries earlier, the monkey is deceived by the trader, bagged, and sold. George's happy face turns to fear.
"George was sad" (12).
The author quickly detracts from the sadness of the monkey, however, an animal that shares almost 100 percent of human DNA and is - in fact - humankind's closest living relative, lest twentieth century children react too sentimentally toward a species not their own. Perhaps for this reason, George, as he is now known, is never shown with his primate family. Although the white man in the yellow hat is never depicted mistreating the monkey (although some might argue dressing a wild animal in human clothes is the cruelest form of exploitation), the monkey is, nevertheless, a "naughty little monkey" (36). George is constantly unsupervised, gets in trouble with the police, and is even sent to jail. The picture of the forlorn little primate alone in his cell conjures haunting images of countless monkeys lingering in laboratories, suffering silently and alone, or the millions of primates hunted into extinction or forced to live unnatural lives dedicated to human pleasure.
To continue to read Curious George as a harmless children's adventure about a wayward monkey is irresponsible. The implicit connection between animal suffering and a wildlife trade where primates and other nonhuman animals are caught and sold for laboratories, zoos, and other forms of human exploitation is never mentioned in Rey's book. While some might claim such political or philosophical musings have no place in a children's story, and certainly such topics were not addressed in 1941, when the book was first published, the frightening implication for young readers is that wildlife exists for human use and pleasure. Such a view makes it easy to view the little monkey as much better away from the strong bonds of primate family units of which Dr. Jane Goodall writes, before he is transported to a city where he wears human clothes, sleeps in a bed, smokes a pipe, and is sold to a zoo. A modern, socially responsible reading of the book must focus on a socially just solution to the problems presented by the monkey's capture. Such a reading makes Curious George an excellent educational tool in teaching children an environmental ethic where the rights of all creatures are valued and considered.
Robin Roth is a journalist, educator, and activist. She is an English teacher and yearbook adviser at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates, California. She holds a Master's degree in Literacy and Language Arts from Loyola Marymount University.
and is a mono-brow, bearded Lesbian, IMHO.
If they're okay with Forrest Gump's momma, they're okay with me.
Are they going to have a book burning?
My 3 & 4 yr old daughters love these books and enjoyed the movie, which was charming and sweet. My only complaint was that it had more emphasis on the Man than on Curious George!
I guess this clymer wouldn't approve of my Curious George stationery, either.
Stopped reading right there, her review is a bald-faced lie.
George wasn't captured at all. He was following the man in the yellow suit, to return his hat, so he could play peekaboo with him some more.
Saw it with my kids, surprisingly good. Of course a rabid leftist dyke would hate it.
-Eric
Such are the considerations of the same folks who would stab scissors into the brain of an almost-born human child.
She's actual pleasant looking, and that's really not an issue here. It's an interesting exercise to deconstruct these fairy tales, but for most people it's no more than a cute monkey and she should really let it be...
Ma'am: Sometimes a children's book is just a children's book.
Somebody needs to get laid.
Holy COW! When I do closer reading of this I get (*gulp*),
"What a nice little monkey," he [the man] thought. "I would like to take him home with me"
I like Curious George meets Big Tobacco
I suspect there are some anti-Zionist feelings behind her nuttiness.
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