Fairytales have always reflected the morals of the age. It’s not a sin to rewrite them | Martha Gill
Should we update classic stories with modern morals? Two film-based kerfuffles have reopened the question. Reports that the next James Bond won't be white" have provoked a backlash, as did the launch of Disney's The Little Mermaid, which features a black Ariel.
Negative review bombing" of the film, which has been the target of criticism since its lead actor, Halle Bailey, was announced, caused the Internet Movie Database to make a rare intervention and change its ratings system. There is abhorrent racism on show here - about which perhaps little more needs to be said. But alongside it is a broader, longer running argument that might be worth addressing. Namely, that 21st-century mores - diversity, sexual equality, and so on - should not be shoehorned into old stories.
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