据英国《每日电讯报》近日报道，“敏感读者”在重新审视了儿童文学书籍后，发现童话故事是“有问题的（problematic）”。报道指出，从“英俊的王子”到“美丽的公主”再到“一见钟情”，这些内容都让人担忧！

报道称，“一见钟情”这种童话桥段，曾经是可以出现的，但以后不好说了。瓢虫出版社（英国的儿童文学出版社）让“敏感读者”重新审视了该社的部分童书，证明童话有问题。

Love at first sight was the stuff of fairy tales, once upon a time, but perhaps no longer.

Ladybird has used sensitivity readers to reexamine some of its children’s books, and fairy stories have proven problematic.
 

据《每日电讯报》报道，瓢虫出版社的业务包括小说和以《灰姑娘》《白雪公主》等经典童话为基础的教育材料。据包容性方面的专家介绍，其中部分角色和内容可能不妥。

The publisher’s back catalogue includes fiction and educational material based on classic tales like Cinderella and Snow White, and the characters and plots in these stories are understood to be potentially troubling for inclusion experts.
 

比如英俊的王子和美丽的公主一见钟情这样的描写，“敏感读者”认为具有冒犯性内容，属于将外貌的吸引力放在了首位。而业内人士透露，童话中还有一些过时的或者有害的元素，比如角色在界定其他人时使用的代词或者社会阶级词汇；而在一群“金发碧眼”的主要角色里，又缺乏了多元性。

Handsome princes - and beautiful princesses falling for them at first sight - have been deemed problematic by sensitivity readers advising on offensive content, due to the privilege given to physical attractiveness. Outdated or harmful elements in fairy tales, according to publishing insiders, may also include characters presuming each other’s pronouns or social class, and a lack of diversity among blonde-haired and blue-eyed protagonists.
 

报道称瓢虫出版社尚未对这一事件发表评论，刊有上述内容的章节是否删改也不得而知。

Ladybird, a Penguin-owned imprint known for producing books for young children, has not commented on the sensitivity reads, or whether passages will be altered if they contain tropes and descriptions which could be seen as offensive or outdated.
 

《每日电讯报》披露了其中“有问题”表述的一些具体内容：
 

Love at first sight一见钟情：

童话中的常见桥段，但是这有问题：比如灰姑娘这些角色，她们甚至没有和深爱的另一半说过几句话，这说明了外貌的吸引力，说明美丽比角色的人格、人际交往更重要。对于年轻读者而言，也暗示美丽的人才有资格美满幸福，考虑这些描绘坠入爱河的角色，通常还都是异性恋的白人男女，也暗示只有特定族群的人才被认为是美丽的，是值得浪漫美好的。

While a commonplace plot device in fairy tales, love at first sight is problematic because the swooning of characters - like Cinderella - before they have properly spoken to their beloved is necessarily provoked by physical attractiveness, and therefore privileges beauty over character traits, and getting to know people. This may suggest to young readers that the beautiful are entitled to a happy ending, and, depending on the characters depicted falling in love - typically a white, heterosexual man and woman - that only a certain demographic is considered beautiful and worthy of this romantic happiness.
 

Beauty 美丽：

在“敏感读者”眼中，这个类型的描述也有问题，比如“英俊的王子”和”美丽的公主”，让外貌的吸引力成为了决定性、最具称道的童话人物特性。他们担心，《长发公主》和《睡美人》里的表述，是在向孩子们暗示好的外貌让某些人更值得被注意。

There are further problems with beauty for sensitivity readers, as the stock phrases “handsome prince” and “beautiful princess” make physical attractiveness the defining and most laudable trait of the main characters in fairy tales. It is feared that these tropes, seen in stories from Rapunzel to Sleeping Beauty, may suggest to children that good looks alone make someone worthy of attention.
 

Pronouns 代词：

如同“一见钟情”是个问题，角色第一次见面时的性别代词也是问题。可以理解的是，当公主第一次看到王子，两个角色还没有了解彼此，公主使用“man（男人）”这样的词是不可取的。

Just as a character falling in love at first sight has been raised as an issue, so has the characters’ presumption of gender pronouns at first sight. It is understood that it is not desirable in texts to have a princess use the term “man” upon seeing a prince for the first time, for example, before the characters have been shown to getting to know one another.
 

Class 等级：

在《白雪公主》和海量童话中，主要角色要么是“公主”要么是“王子”。一些“敏感读者”认为，这向孩子们暗示角色的重要性在于社会地位，以及社会地位又让人变得重要。

In Snow White and numerous other fairy tales, the protagonists are often described as either a “prince” or “princess”. Concerns have been raised by some sensitivity experts that this may suggest to children that what is important about these characters is their social rank, and that social rank in general is what makes people important.
 

Ageism 老年歧视：

“好”的角色通常尽善尽美年轻美丽，而“坏蛋”通常是干瘪的丑老太太和巫婆，比如《白雪公主》里面的反派。“敏感读者”担心，这属于把“年老”跟“邪恶”联系了起来。

Just as the “good” characters are so often paragons of youthful beauty, the “baddies” in fairy tales are often depicted as wizened old crones and witches, including the villain in Snow White. Concerns have been raised that this is an ageist association of evil with being old.
 

Diversity 多样性：

有人担心，通话中的主要角色缺乏多样性，公主通常是金发碧眼的白人。

It is understood from insiders that concerns have also been raised about the lack of racial variety among protagonists in books of fairy stories, which often show princesses as white, and with golden hair and blue eyes.
 

Plots 情节：

童话中公主们往往依赖王子的情节让人担忧，“敏感读者”认为，女主角应该发挥更大作用，而不是依赖男性角色获得幸福和安全。此外，角色们渴望“变身”的情节也有问题，比如灰姑娘变成了公主，野兽变成了英俊王子。这些向孩子们暗示，他们如果仅仅是自己的身份是无法幸福快乐的，还要变成更令人向往的样子。

The dependency of fairy tale princesses on their various princes has been raised as a concern, with sensitivity readers suggesting that heroines should have more agency and not rely on male characters for their happiness and safety. The trope of characters longing to be transformed - Cinderella into a princess, the Beast into a handsome prince - has also been flagged as problematic, as it suggests to children that they may only be happy if they are not themselves but something famed as more desirable.
 

背景阅读：敏感读者
 

在最近的相关报道中，“敏感读者”一词浮出水面。这些人到底做什么呢？
 

据加拿大广播公司的报道指出，“敏感读者”对书中的部分内容提出修改意见，可能需要替换的内容涉及体重、精神健康、性别以及种族等。业内人士称，美国发生“警察跪杀弗洛伊德”事件后，有关包容性和多元性的呼声越来越强，从2020年开始“敏感读者”的使用也增加了。

Sensitivity readers were consulted to make revisions to some of the books, in which passages relating to weight, mental health, gender and race were altered. The use of sensitivity readers, say people in the industry, has increased since 2020, prompted by calls for more institutional inclusion and diversity following the death of George Floyd, a Minnesota Black man, at the hands of police.

 

文章解释了为何“敏感读者”引发出版行业震动（cause a stir），包括邦德系列、英国杰出儿童文学作家罗尔德·达尔（Roald Dahl）的多部儿童文学作品都遭遇删改。报道列举了支持者和反对者两方面的理由，双方莫衷一是。

此前，管理达尔版权和商标的罗尔德·达尔故事公司（Roald Dahl Story Company）表示，该公司和海雀书屋合作审查了达尔的作品，确保“所有孩子今天仍能享受他精彩的故事和笔下的人物”。但这些改动还是引起了众多作家、组织以及读者的愤怒。

The case of Dahl's children's books — which include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Fabulous Mr. Fox and Matilda, written decades ago — prompted a vocal backlash among some authors.

 

英国首相苏纳克也加入这一行列。在2月的一次新闻发布会上，苏纳克的发言人引用了达尔作品中的话：“当谈到我们丰富多样的文学遗产时，首相认同《好心眼儿巨人》里的观点，不应该‘玩弄文字’。” 发言人补充说，“重要的是保护而非修饰文学和小说作品。”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has now waded into the Dahl controversy, speaking out against the move to update the books. When asked at a press briefing whether it is right to censor children's books, Sunak's spokesperson employed Dahl's own terminology, saying: "When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the Prime Minister agrees with the BFG that you shouldn't 'gobblefunk around with words.' It's important that works of literature and fiction are preserved and not airbrushed."
 

综合来源：每日电讯报，CBC