Thanks for supplying the full article, John! That's very helpful.
Rebecca McQuillan writes:
...The original work may display retrograde views, but at least it’s an honest, authentic representation of the author’s world view.
Even so, when it comes to children’s fiction, some light editing is surely legitimate, given the glaring stereotypes that some classic children’s fiction contains. With older children, you can stick with the original and use the problematic bits as discussion points, but young children do not have the context, knowledge or experience to understand bias in the same way. They accept the world
as it is presented to them, so you have to be careful.
She doesn't seem to realise that what she says in that last paragraph is undermined by her account of her daughter's response. After listening to the version where Janet and Peter's roles are swapped, Rebecca's daughter is said to have frowned and asked, "Why is it always the girls that get to do the exciting stuff? It's not fair on the boys."
That shows that Rebecca's daughter
is aware of bias to some degree, and
doesn't simply accept fictional worlds without thinking about what is being presented. She reflects on things and asks questions. If she'd had the original text read to her, she'd no doubt have said, "Why is it always the boys that get to do the exciting stuff? It's not fair on the girls." Then, she and her mother could have had a discussion about how the roles of boys and girls have been viewed differently over time. The girl would have learnt some history (perhaps adding to her existing knowledge) while enjoying the book as Enid Blyton wrote it.
I hope Rebecca McQuillan comes clean now, and admits to her daughter that she swapped the roles of Janet and Peter to see how it would affect the story. Otherwise, her daughter is in for a shock if she goes on to read further Secret Seven titles by herself!
