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May 2020

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Everyone seems quite scandalised at the moment by the 11 year old dressed as Christian Grey story. Putting aside whether it is or is not appropriate to dress your kid as a character from an erotic?/pornographic? (I haven't read it lol) novel, IMO it's really missing the spirit of the event to dress up as a character from a book that his mother admits that he hasn't even read! World Book Day is supposed to be an event celebrating the reading of books, I thought the idea behind kids dressing up as their favourite literary characters was meant to be from books that they've enjoyed, not their parents favourites? His mother is arguing that Christian Grey is "a character that has been put out there on the television and all aspects of media", but it's not World Television Day is it?

I read another article where the boy said that he was the one who decided to dress up as Christian Grey because he didn't want to dress as a cartoon (the relevance to World Book Day escapes me?!) It's sounding more and more like the school should really be focusing on getting the children reading actual books...

Current Mood: cynical

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books

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because he didn't want to dress as a cartoon (the relevance to World Book Day escapes me?!)

My only thought is maybe he was referring to fairy tale/fantasy characters? But there's plenty of non-fairy tale/fantasy characters he could've picked from.

I do worry people miss the spirit. There were pictures online of one nearby school's WBD pictures, and they showed the teachers who'd dressed up, except it seemed so half-hearted. Not only couldn't I tell who they were supposed to be dressed up as, I couldn't even tell who was dressed up. It was a little depressing.

ETA: Actually, wait, it couldn't have been WBD because this was ages ago. But it was the same idea, just not very well executed.

Edited Date: 2015-03-07 02:18 am (UTC)

To be fair I do remember my Mum always used to really struggle every year with finding a vaguely passing for Victorian outfit for May Day at primary school lol, still though it's a bit depressing that there's so much focus on the kinky side of the character being inappropriate, and not on the fact that there was no mention of literary characters that the little boy had actually read and related too :/

I think every child should be reading more. I always give kids books as gifts. When I meet children who only read required books for school, I actually want to cry.

Absolutely, I have so many happy memories of the books that I read as a child and how I would get completely lost in different worlds

that mother clearly has a very strange way of thinking... oh boy... O___O

I mean, I personally don't read much anymore, but when I was a kid I read a lot, mostly a book series from a a german author called Thomas Brezina, who still writes books and I probably would have dressed as one of those... or from the Neverending story, which I used to love too, but Christian Grey? Really? O.o

Yeah there were tons of different characters from children books that he could have dressed as, it's odd that Christian Grey was apparently the only memorable outfit they could think up that didn't involve dressing as a cartoon

I know. For pity's sake! The day is supposed to be about BOOKS!

Gabrielle

You would have thought!

I think, perhaps, it wouldn't have been a big deal if he hadn't shown up with the props. If it was just the suit and he was Christian Grey it would have been one thing but the mask and cables were another.

I don't know where I stand on the whole thing, really, but I think the mother should be side-eyed a bit for not steering him in a different direction.

There were props?!

Oh dear...

Eeeexactly.

His mother was complaining that the school apparently made him lose the props and appear as James Bond for the pictures, she argued that James Bond wasn't much better as he still slept with women, er yes but I think the fact that he's no longer carrying around bondage props is what the school was really concerned with!

I know. She's wildly and weirdly missed the point.

Definitely!

o my god.

Heh yes, why on earth would the mother dress her 11 year old up (cause it might have been his idea supposedly, but she was the one who would have had to put it together) as a character from a porn novel?!

This.

I was incredibly scandalised when someone on a forum mentioned it, because to me, that kid dressing up as Christian Grey implied that *he'd read the book*. And what parent lets an 11-year old read something like that?

Once I'd read the article, I was still offended by the mother's sense of appropriateness, but mostly by letting her kid dress up as someone he didn't *actually* know anything about.

Yeah, the Mother seems to think she has a valid argument that he only knows Christian from the telly, but in that case why even dress him up for a book that he hasn't read?

Omg I had a moan on twitter about world book day. At the very least you can say he did dress as a character from a book. My daughter went as Alice In Wonderland as she does actually love the book and disney film but the amount of Elsa's I saw really irritated me. It's supposed to be World BOOK Day, not 'World dress up as anything you like Day'. You can maybe forgive the Spiderman and Batmans because they're from a comicBOOK?? but Darth Vader?? Sometimes I think they should scrap it if people aren't going to take it seriously. My husband thinks I'm crazy. He's like "they're only 5!"

I know what you mean, you'd think the teachers would talk to the kids about books that they might have enjoyed and make it clear what is and what is not appropriate, but it just seems to be used as a fancy dress day by some kids and parents?

oh my, that is just. I'm kinda side eyeing that mom for dressing him up as Christian Grey. Yes, he's a book character, but that boy is a CHILD - that is disturbing.

Edited Date: 2015-03-07 02:30 pm (UTC)

Yeah I think people wouldn't have made such a big scandal of it if he was 14 or 15 even, but an 11 year old with Christian Grey props is a little bit weird

Edited Date: 2015-03-07 05:47 pm (UTC)

The mind, it boggles. Do people even still remember what logic is, or...?

Heh yep, I really don't understand his mother thinking that she had a good argument to say that it was okay as he knew Christian Grey from television/films and had never read the book, even though the whole point of the event is to celebrate reading

What the hell? o_O

Hee, pretty much!

I feel sorry for the kid. He doesn't even know what's going on and now he'll forever be that kid.

For a lot of people, it seems TV and books are interchangeable.

It seems so :(

As a librarian, I can tell you that people come into the library searching for children's book that have characters that are easy to dress as. It is not about reading at all. I'm so glad it wasn't a thing when I was a kid.

Also, I don't think her defense is a good one. That's like having your kid dress up as Hitler on history day and saying "well everyone recognized him!"

And a MOTHER dressing up her CHILD as Christian Grey is just disturbing on so many levels. **shudders**

Your comment about Hitler made me burst out laughing. And yes, there have been PLENTY of books written about him.

But yes, so much WTF about this incident. It's hardly like there's a shortage of children and young adult books, is there?

No shortage at all! If the mother had just gone to the library, I'm sure they could have given her a stack of boy characters in very simple costumes (or just draw whiskers on his face and say he's one of those cats from 'Warriors' series)

Also, I was just super nosy and had to check out your LJ because of your screen name and it appears we both attended Sunnydale high school. Good to know you are one of the few that made it out alive after that crazy graduation. Skimming your posts, it seems we have some things in common too! Okay if I friend you?

Big snake, huh?

Not at all, consider it returned.

It wasn't a thing when I was a kid either! It's interesting that parents have to come in and search for easy to dress as literary characters, I wouldn't have thought it was THAT hard to find a character to dress as? Even in the case of this boy dressed as Christian Grey, apparently the school made him lose the props and stick to just the suit for the photos, so you could always put their kid in a suit and called it a James Bond outfit if you're totally stuck for ideas, it doesn't have to be a super elaborate costume

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