Post #2126196
2026-05-06 18:39 UTC
Replies (20)
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@hgrsd@hachyderm.io 2026-05-06 20:30
(all your replies are making me realise how late I am to reach this epiphany)
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@Thebratdragon@mastodon.scot 2026-05-06 19:05
@hgrsd I want the story where the different kid is successful and when they suck up to their success, the kid flips them off and gets on with their life without needing the bigots approval.
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@AlexanderVI@stranger.social 2026-05-06 19:07
@hgrsd This is also the plot of pretty much every Dhar Mann video. Dhar Mann's YouTube channel has 27,000,000 subscribers. We apparently love watching struggling people being forced to prove their worth in order to be treated as human beings.
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@TimWardCam@c.im 2026-05-06 19:20
@hgrsd Here's one that one of my kids gave me recently, on the grounds that the wombat is my favourite animal. https://www.michaelmorpurgo.com/products/wombat-goes-walkabout-michael-morpurgo-9780006646273/ #wombat
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@gamambel@social.tchncs.de 2026-05-06 19:28
@hgrsd How about... https://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/tsol-press-things-never-to-tell-children/
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@hyperlinkyourheart@mastodon.ie 2026-05-06 19:36
@hgrsd "The Rudolph"
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@brood@mas.to 2026-05-06 20:26
@hgrsd famously:
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@Thad@brontosin.space 2026-05-06 20:30
@hgrsd Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of those. Particularly the Rankin-Bass adaptation where even Santa is a total shit about his nose until he realizes it's useful to him.
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@rrb@infosec.exchange 2026-05-06 20:32
@hgrsd Human society is a primate dominance architecture. Either you are forced to do the bidding of the other primates throwing feces at you, or you get to throw feces at them. Those are the two speeds our genetic make up lets us have. Life would be different, had we evolved from wild dogs or cats.
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@kimlockhartga@beige.party 2026-05-06 21:43
@hgrsd exactly. What if it's okay to be different, even if that difference isn't any advantage to the rest of the group?
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@CaptMorgan@freeradical.zone 2026-05-06 22:57
@hgrsd It would be nice in the story if the bigots just fuck right off and nobody has to prove anything to anyone to earn their right to exist.
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@VATVSLPR@c.im 2026-05-06 23:07
@hgrsd It's possible the lesson is supposed to be for oppressors- don't mistreat others just because they're different- rather than the oppressed. Also, the moral of a story has to logically relate to the central conflict. It's hard to tell a compelling story about the importance of treating others well even when they're different without showing some people being mistreated for being different.
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@MissGayle@urbanists.social 2026-05-07 00:28
@hgrsd Not to mention in real life bullying and exclusion doesn't just vanish like that.
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@scottmiller42@mstdn.social 2026-05-07 04:34
@hgrsd I'm going to agree with you of course, but would add that those authors probably grew up in a world that wasn't ready to accept people just because it's the nice thing to do. I'm not even sure 2026 is ready just yet, but it's much improved over the 1980s. The kids my daughters go to school with are far kinder than they were when I was in school.
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@ariaflame@masto.ai 2026-05-07 06:40
@hgrsd Or worse, they diminish themselves or change themselves to fit in. (I'm reminded about something with a rainbow fish)
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@Susan60@aus.social 2026-05-07 09:23
@hgrsd Plot line There’s a small group of friends, not particularly nasty or bigoted, just normal kids learning about relationships, values etc. A new kid comes to school who is “different” in some way. One or two of the group show some small signs of welcome, but are then told by one or more of the others, not to “encourage” the new kid. Something happens to one of the group. An illness, accident, or a parental breakup means they can no longer go to movies/shopping excursion/concert, & that family trip where they were going to take a friend along has been cancelled. That kid learns what it’s like to be different & to need kindness… but maybe the “different” kid finds their people…
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@belehaa@wandering.shop 2026-05-07 12:11
@hgrsd@hachyderm.io @SRLevine@neuromatch.social Ugh. Two different family members each gave us a copy of Giraffes Can't Dance when my first kid was born. I hate that book for exactly this reason
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@Printdevil@dice.camp 2026-05-07 14:46
@hgrsd@hachyderm.io The antidote to this overused plot arc is to read Jon Klassen books for children. I want my hat back in particular is a good lesson in "Getting your hat back" and no one finding the bodies.
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@Simon318ppm@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-05-07 16:05
@hgrsd@hachyderm.io absolutely The other thing that really struck me as my kids were growing up was the ideology embedded in all the commercial birthday cards they received. Sickening gender stereotyping and deeply conservative expectations of interests as they grew year by year
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@shaedrich@mastodon.online 2026-06-06 11:48
@hgrsd@hachyderm.io Disclaimer: I know nothing about children's literature aside from having had that read to me a quarter-century ago. Neither do I have any children to have any experience with the other side of the reading experience. However, as an author, I must say, that every story needs some kind of an arc, some kind of tension, some kind of ending/moral, though children's literature smoothens these elements usually a bit. 1/