I notice the brilliantly depressing story about Woolworths having withdrawn from sale a range of furniture for young girls which they had the bright idea to name 'Lolita'. The BBC online story in question accuses the good people at Woolworths of not having any idea what the name Lolita actually refers to. But then, the BBC and the angry parents don't seem to know what the name Lolita refers to either:Bedroom furniture for young girls with the brand name Lolita has been withdrawn by Woolworths following complaints from parents. A parenting website said it was in "unbelievably bad taste" to give the bed the same name as a novel about a sexually precocious young girl.
No. Lolita is not a novel about a sexually precocious young girl. Lolita is a novel about a child molester who persuades himself that a perfectly normal young girl is sexually precocious, in order to justify raping her. Lolita happens to be the best novel that I have ever read, and it's frustrating when people think it's about some young girl-slut - which is exactly what I thought it was about before I read it - and use the name as shorthand for a dangerously seductive underage girl. Ironically, the misunderstanding of Lolita by people who've never read it just serves to perpetuate the culture of sexualising young girls that Humbert Humbert, the narrator of Lolita, uses to legitimise his perversion.
Moral of the story? More people should read Lolita. And don't buy furniture from Woolworths.
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4 comments:
I agree with all the above Marie (though haven't read the book but have seen the film. I always thought the mother nearly as guilty as Humbert Humbert in the way she encourages her daughter's sexual growth, but maybe that's different from the book).
But I do think that naming a child's bed Lolita is provocative. It's hard enough being the mum of girls who are encouraged from an ever earlier age to be sexualised without giving a kid's bed a name which has connotations of paedophillia (nothing wrong with the name Lolita of course!) and Woolies should have known better. But then I think they (and Smiths certainly do) stock the even more depressing Playboy range for teenage girls. I think that should be banned too!
Yes - it is actually hard to think of a less appropriate name for a range of girls' bedroom furniture.
You could have the "Madeline" travel cot ...
>> You could have the "Madeline" travel cot ...
ROFL!
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