Geertje Visser, mother of three sons aged 5, 10 and 12, has just under 10,000 followers on Twitter. She posted her post about reading in response to the news that an English publisher is making adaptations to Roald Dahl’s children’s books. Potentially hurtful words such as ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’ will soon be omitted from descriptions of characters in his famous books.
No Kroesje
This has caused quite a stir in recent days. Many people think it is not okay to adapt a literary work that was written in a different time. Terms such as ‘absurd censorship’ and ‘cultural vandalism’ were used. Visser: “I also thought: geez mina, this is going far.”
When Visser thought about it a little longer, she did realize that while reading to her youngest son, she sometimes makes adjustments herself on points that she considers important. She says that she still has a very old Jip and Janneke book at home, in which the doll ‘Kroesje’ is described with the n-word. “That just becomes a doll with me.”
Her mother also dealt with it that way, she says. Especially when it came to gender roles. “She sometimes made Jip cry about something. Or she let Janneke carpenter something instead of just playing with her doll. And I thought that was a good idea.”
‘No cigars and cigarettes’
Visser’s tweet – just like the news about the adjustments to Dahl’s books – has caused divided reactions. “I adapt everything while reading,” says one. “I leave cigars and cigarettes out of Dik Trom,” says another. And Jip and Janneke themselves modernize while reading, it turns out that not only Visser does that.
But there are also other reactions: “You create snowflakes.” Or: “Everybody stop changing what was normal. Write a new book yourself that is appropriate!”
Visser had a full day’s work yesterday, responding to all the opinions that came her way – nuanced or otherwise. “You’re quickly ultra-woke in the eyes of some in this discussion. But I was just curious: how does this feel for others, how do other parents deal with this?”
Pedantic
Orthopedagogue Mariëlle Beckers also saw Visser’s tweet in her timeline. “Jip and Janneke’s books – to take them as an example – were not written from a bad heart. At that time (the 1950s) it was like this: father worked outside the home and mother usually did not. But if you think that now, in this day and age, confirms your role and if you don’t want to read it like that, you can of course adjust it yourself without a publisher having to delete it. The latter is a bit pedantic.”
But you can also literally read what it says, emphasizes Beckers. According to her, neither is wrong, because: “What parents teach children is much more important than what they read to them.”
She illustrates: “If you want to raise your children to be people who do not discriminate and do not judge on appearance, you will have to show them that in daily practice. Deleting words such as ‘fat’ in children’s books has little influence on this. “
Child psychologist Tischa Neve also thinks so: “Children don’t really think through every word they read or hear.” She especially advocates talking to your kids about what’s in children’s books. “Is there something about a fat boy, say, for example: a fat boy, do you actually think that’s nice to say? If you have often discussed that judging based on appearance is not so sweet, your child may already say “It says fat mama, that’s not sweet, is it?”
Replace ‘males’ with ‘people’ in every book ever written, as happens in books by Roald Dahl? Totally unnecessary, Neve thinks. Just like explaining that not everyone who is bald – as in Roald Dahl’s The Witches – is a witch. “But that from now on – so in books that will be written now and in the future – we consciously deal with themes such as diversity, I think that is important and very contemporary.”
Judi Mesman, professor at Leiden University, has conducted research into the development of prejudices in children. In response to the post of mother Geertje Visser, she says: “There are many parents who adjust things while reading. Still, I would like to say: read what it says and make it a learning experience.”
“Can this be nicer?”
Back to the fat boy example. Suppose your child struggles with his or her weight, thinks he is fat or is sometimes called that. Mesman: “Your child will not only hear the word fat in a book by Roald Dahl. So feel free to read about the fat boy and then ask your child: what do you think of this? Is there a nice way to say that someone is heavier? is then the rest? Is it necessary to say something about someone’s weight?”
Mesman adds: “If your child is very concerned about it, you can still decide together to replace the word from now on. We are going to do it nicely differently, you can say. What are we going to call it, can you ask the child? And if you, as a parent, really hate a book, don’t buy or read it.”
Incidentally, Geertje Visser, the mother of the tweet, thinks that one does not exclude the other. She sometimes chooses to adjust something while reading, then to start the conversation again and to set a good example as often as possible. “My point is that between adapting books and sticking to words you don’t like, there’s a whole world in which you can do things yourself as a parent.”
