A couple of things to think about...

I came across some interesting posts/reads lately.

Jen but Never Jenn had a lovely post about feminism and International Women’s Day. While I myself often use the term “genderist”, as in fair treatment for all genders, I do feel strongly about the feminist movement and am disappointed in how it has been dying over the last decade. On a silly side note, my mother used to call me her “little feminist” because when I was young I renamed the characters in my favourite movie (The Land Before Time); I would call the main character (Little Foot) Sara and vice versa because I hated how all the females in the movie were portrayed as “dumb.”

Charlotte from Tuppernce Ha’penny Vintage brought up a controversial post by SuperKawaiiMama about a possibly (her readers had varying opinions) offensive bar statue that she owns. The comments are an interesting read. I personally don’t find it offensive for people to own such items as long as they are for historical interest and education on how things have changed for the better, however, I would never personally display such an item in my house. I must confess though that I own an offensive book, a reprint of Tintin in the Congo (see the book cover here). The Adventures of Tintin are a series of comics, books and a television show. My brother bought it for me as a gift from his trip to Belgium (it is in French) because we used to watch it together every morning, even though I absolutely hated the show (Snowy the dog was so very annoying). We only watched it because my brother liked it so much. Anyway, back on topic, the depictions of the Africans are really offensive, they look similar to Super Kawaii Mama’s statue, I find it astounding that they would even still sell a book with these kinds of portrays but I keep it because it was a gift and it is an interesting piece of history; it’s packed away and out of sight but I’m not sure that I would get rid of it. A side note, the author of these books apparently later regretted making this book and was ashamed of this piece of work.

The thoughts of many of the commenter’s and readers on the two blogs above did get me thinking, am I a hypocrite? I frown upon the display of such items yet I do feel fine displaying pin up prints and I have always wanted a nicely framed print of Josephine Baker, Black Thunder by Paul Colin, which is possibly offensive (the whole banana dance part). Something to ponder I guess…