Police Investigate Offensive Mural

[mushroom25]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-24999917

The mural (of an "Alice in Wonderland" theme, at a primary school in Edinburgh) was painted in 1936 and has both artistic and historical significance, as evidenced by its recent restoration under a Heritage Lottery Grant.

If the complaint is upheld and the mural is adjudged to be likely to incite hatred, then clearly it cannot remain in its present form. Yet because of its historical significance, to purge the offensive item would be tantamount to vandalism.

How would you resolve this conundrum?

[Zeuhl]

/I'm not offended so why should this useless women be ?/

To be fair bazzer

That's setting the bar pretty low

[Old_Geezer]

Something does not become offensive simply because someone is offended. Was that the case, then everything is potentially offensive. The way to resolve it is to offer counselling to those who feel offended when it is inappropriate to be so.

[Zeuhl]

Quite right OG

Offense, like beauty is in the 'eye of the beholder'

the things some people will choose to be 'offended by' will forever be a mystery to others

[stewey]

Well golly gee;
It's just a tempest in a cup of tea.

[sp1814]

Zeuhl:

"To be fair bazzer

That's setting the bar pretty low"

Ha ha ha...saucer of milk for table two.

[sp1814]

In the context of the mural, the gollywog (by the way, thank you AB Editor for taking gollywog off your 'banned words list' is not offensive to most people.

But that's the problem. There's absolutely nothing that is completely inoffensive to absolutely everyone.

Anything you can name causes offence to people - because at the far reaches of sanity are people who...are...nuts.

[jno]

quite right, JJ, as we know exactly what Alice Liddell did look like

http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ph/web-large/DP209284.jpg

[pastafreak]

Maybe 'this useless woman' is black...and knowing the history of golliwogs - feels quite justified in her feelings. Not every anti-golliwog protester is a raving,middle class member of the PC brigade. Maybe we need to put ourselves in someone else's shoes sometimes.
Have a look at this opinion...
warning-Some reading involved. (The author is black by the way)

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/feb/06/bbc-race-golliwog

[bazwillrun]

"Zeuhl:

"To be fair bazzer

That's setting the bar pretty low"

Ha ha ha...saucer of milk for table two.

@SP

unlike you I dont go crying to the ed when people have a pop
a phrase with words including glass, houses and stones springs to mind

[ToraToraTora]

who's Muriel and what did she do that's offensive?

[Zeuhl]

/who's Muriel and what did she do that's offensive?/

did it against the wall?

[Peter Pedant]

One painter was called The Breeches Painter as he spent so much time putting underpants and so on on oil painting nudes.

Elton Johns collection of Tukes (he painted naked lads a lot )
was investigated as being obscene - no Elton did NOT reply - little boys should be obscene but not heard - that was Oscar Wilde.

Knitted stockings for piano legs - that is what I want to see
and then I can rest...

[emmie]

i wouldn't, leave it as it is and tell the person that this is 2013 soon to be 2014, and that this was not a racist painting, just a golly not on a jar. does seem strange that it's in an Alice in Wonderland mural, don't recall a golly in the book.

[FredPuli43]

The book and its sequel should be banned. Any book that has approving references to taking mushrooms as a drug is definitely wrong and as for using flamingos as croquet mallets, an old man being kicked downstairs, beating a baby because it sneezes, and an alarming monster killed with a vorpal blade....well,children shouldn't be exposed to such stuff !

[emmie]

you have not read Harry Potter then, some of those books can give you nightmares.

[sp1814]

Perhaps it's Muriel Gray?

I'd complain about her.

[FredPuli43]

Part of this is the zeal with which someone decided that every allegation or racism, however trivial, must be investigated once the police are aware of it. All very well-meant, but the same zeal is not apparent in the pursuit of other complaints. The result, predictably, is headlines about complaints that are absurd.