No more fairys? Noooo!!

LissyMiller · Dec 5, 2005

It was just brought to my attention that children as young as seven are now associating the word fairy, not with magical beings, but with homosexuals. If this is the case, should authors steer clear of them in future works, or trust that kids will recognize the truth of the story?

IMHO, I believe that children would know the difference, but is this true? If not, what would the world be like with out tales of fairys?

three seven · Dec 5, 2005

Are you serious? I've been caught out like this before...

three seven · Dec 5, 2005

Never mind, I'll answer it anyway.

What a minority of bigoted parents choose to encourage in their children should be no concern of yours as a writer. Mine (7 and 9) have shown no more concern about men who live with other men than they have in the colour of grass; to them, as to me, a fairy is a fairy.

Inspired · Dec 5, 2005

I don't think fairies will die out because of this. I did notice the word "queer" disappear from our language. My grandmother always used to say it was a "gay day." That doesn't happen any more either. But, that's different than saying we don't have stories about fairies, because some people use that word to label gay people.

Language changes, but I don't think this is one that's going to be a permanent thing.

Sage · Dec 5, 2005

The use of the word "fairy" for homosexual men has been around for a while. If it didn't affect literature around the time when it first became a "popular" use, it's not going to. There will always be those kids (usually older kids) who will giggle when they first read or hear the word, but if it's a story about fairies, it's not like they can't figure it out.

TheIT · Dec 5, 2005

You can always use the older spelling "faerie". Fairy tales are not going to go away. They have too much to teach.

three seven · Dec 5, 2005

And of course, I'm not sure that a kid who refers to gay men as fairies is likely to want to read a story about, um... fairies anyway.

LissyMiller · Dec 5, 2005

What a minority of bigoted parents choose to encourage in their children should be no concern of yours as a writer.

Language changes, but I don't think this is one that's going to be a permanent thing.

If it didn't affect literature around the time when it first became a "popular" use, it's not going to.

Fairy tales are not going to go away. They have too much to teach.

Thank you! This is just what I thought! But still, I felt a little worried for a moment when I thought about the words that have fallen out of use before because of this same reason(as Inspired mentioned).

FolkloreFanatic · Dec 5, 2005

Fairy isn't going to die out. Don't concern yourself with bigoted parents anyway if you're a fantasy writer, because nothing you do is likely to affect whether or not their kids read your books.

Mattel has recently had a slew of 'Fairytopia' Barbie dolls and a movie for them. They're obviously not afraid of the word, and everything they sell has pink in it.

Storyteller5 · Dec 5, 2005

LissyMiller said:
It was just brought to my attention that children as young as seven are now associating the word fairy, not with magical beings, but with homosexuals.

Where did you hear that? I'm just curious.

I do agree with the others. Besides, some books for 7 year olds will have pictures which obviously show the intention!

RubyRoo · Dec 5, 2005

Well thats the first I've heard of it!
Bigots round here call them queers or lesbos

stormie · Dec 6, 2005

Fairy tales and the word "fairy" are still used in the original context. What happens, though, when you read a book to most kids over the age of seven (I taught for many years), you'll lose their attention through all the giggles, esp. when a story is loaded with the word "fairy." Sad, but true. "Fairy tale" in itself is okay, but a story that keeps repeating the word "fairy" (such as, "Oh, fairy....") in every paragraph will definitely lose a group of children.

MacAllister · Dec 6, 2005

At the Bottom of the Garden - a fairy story by Jo Walton.

PeeDee · Dec 6, 2005

stormie said:
Fairy tales and the word "fairy" are still used in the original context. What happens, though, when you read a book to most kids over the age of seven (I taught for many years), you'll lose their attention through all the giggles, esp. when a story is loaded with the word "fairy." Sad, but true. "Fairy tale" in itself is okay, but a story that keeps repeating the word "fairy" (such as, "Oh, fairy....") in every paragraph will definitely lose a group of children.

It's a rule of writing (if we can call them rules, really) that if you any word too often in your story, you're eventually going to irritate your reader, sub-consciously or consciously, and you're probably going to lose them. Repeat "fairy" and they're gone, just like repeating "zestful" or "sugar" or even some language-of-a-stronger nature.

Fairies aren't going anywhere. You could start popularizing calling gay men "elves" and it likewise wouldn't make a bit of difference. It's just very foolish people using slang, and the old myths and stories of the world are far bigger than to be affected by that.

Jamesaritchie · Dec 6, 2005

three seven said:
And of course, I'm not sure that a kid who refers to gay men as fairies is likely to want to read a story about, um... fairies anyway.

From my experience, all kids pick up the language of those around them. I've yet to be in a school where "fairy" wasn't used by pretty much every kid in the school to mean gay, even if they didn't mean is in a derogatory manner.

Like it or not, language changes, and if there's any group of people on earth who pay zero attention to politically correct language, it's kids.

Jamesaritchie · Dec 6, 2005

three seven said:
Never mind, I'll answer it anyway.

What a minority of bigoted parents choose to encourage in their children should be no concern of yours as a writer. Mine (7 and 9) have shown no more concern about men who live with other men than they have in the colour of grass; to them, as to me, a fairy is a fairy.

I don't know if the parents who think this way are a minority or not, though from all the polls I;ve seen they definitely are not, but if they are, they're a minority of millions, and when numbers hit the millions, minority or majority stops mattering when you're talking business.

From my experience, I'd say your kids are the minority, and I mean the tiny, infinitesimal minority. Right or wrong, at least 90% of the kinds in elementary schools, at least all the elementary schools in this region, do associate "fairy" with gay, even if they don't necessarily mean it as an insult.

And rightly or wrongly, the majority of parents in this country do still teach their kids that two men living together is very much a big concern.

Right or wrong really isn't the issue. Business is the issue. Langauge changes, mores change, and no business wants to risk insulting millions, whether those millions are or aren't a minority, which, in this case, they aren't.

three seven · Dec 6, 2005

Yes, I can of course only speak from a British perspective.

Business is the issue. Langauge changes, mores change, and no business wants to risk insulting millions, whether those millions are or aren't a minority, which, in this case, they aren't.

Are you, then, suggesting that the word 'fairy' should be avoided by children's writers lest they upset homophobic parents?

PeeDee · Dec 6, 2005

I think if you were using the term outside of dialogue (where you can really get away with so much, honestly) then yes, you should avoid it.

I think when you start avoiding/using words just for the sake of political correctness, then you're breaking the trust between you and your story, and more importantly between you and your reader.

three seven · Dec 6, 2005

PeeDee said:
I think if you were using the term outside of dialogue... then yes, you should avoid it.

So what word do you suggest should be used to describe a fairy then?

PeeDee · Dec 6, 2005

Sorry, I didn't phrase myself clearly. What I meant was:

Outside of dialogue, if you're referring to a fairy, as in the creature, then you should use the word "fairy" because that is, in fact, it's name. Just like that.

If you're referring to a gentleman with certain girly attributes who is homosexual, I think you should avoid using the term "fairy" simply because I'm very much in favor of being generally nice, when I can.

If you're writing about a creature who is a fairy, and you think, "Ah, but some people are sensitive about the term "fairy" and I don't wish to offend, so I shall call it a erethreal little being from another plane of existence every time I talk about it" then you are betraying your story and your reader.

That was what I was bungling around trying to say. Mea culpa & a twit.

DaveKuzminski · Dec 6, 2005

Keep in mind that some gays are referred to as queens. Doesn't mean that some countries won't still have one as a ruler.

Of course, this reminds me of a very old joke I heard as a teen where these two guys are in a bar when they realize that there's a gay man sitting not but a table away. One of the two men starts bothering the gay man with remarks about him being a queen which the gay man denies. Eventually, after another warning, the gay man gets up and proceeds to beat up the man who was bothering him. He then turns to the man's friend and says, "When he comes to, you tell him I'm not a queen. My parents are still alive and I'm only a princess."

Christine N. · Dec 6, 2005

Dave LOL

Yes, my book has fairies in it... the magical kind. So far I haven't had any complaints from my school aged readers, so...

It's all about context. If you describe a fairy, and paint a good picture for readers, there shouldn't be any problems.

RubyRoo · Dec 6, 2005

Jamesaritchie said:
From my experience, all kids pick up the language of those around them. I've yet to be in a school where "fairy" wasn't used by pretty much every kid in the school to mean gay, even if they didn't mean is in a derogatory manner.

Like it or not, language changes, and if there's any group of people on earth who pay zero attention to politically correct language, it's kids.

No one in our school calls gay men fairies, event hough our amazing, straight as a circle music teacher dressed up as a fairy all the time!

Deleted member 42 · Dec 6, 2005

LissyMiller said:
It was just brought to my attention that children as young as seven are now associating the word fairy, not with magical beings, but with homosexuals. If this is the case, should authors steer clear of them in future works, or trust that kids will recognize the truth of the story?

IMHO, I believe that children would know the difference, but is this true? If not, what would the world be like with out tales of fairys?

I think this is a total non issue, unless you're writing a story about male otherworld beings who have sex with each other--and if you are, don't you think that maybe that's a little too adult for little kids ?

In all seriousness, the title of my dissertation is

The Games Fairies Play: Otherworld Intruders in Medieval Literary Narrative

I keep getting invited to present papers at Queer Studies conferences, whereupon I have to thank them for the gracious invitation, but are they sure I'd be a good fit? I'm writing about "real" fairies . . .

Sage · Dec 6, 2005

If a story is about fairies, I would expect the word fairy to show up often in it. Sure, it could be overused, but there's no reason to look for synonyms for it if there are logical reasons to use it.

I have the opposite suspicion about children & using the word more rather than less. The first or second time, they'll be distracted & giggle, but the more it's used, the less funny they'll find it & it will desensitize them to it.

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