People Aren’t Very Happy With ALDI For Pulling ‘Revolting Rhymes’ Off The Shelves
“The Prince cried, 'Who's this dirty slut? 'Off with her nut! Off with her nut!'"
There was a hell of a lot of cussin’ in Roald Dahl’s house, apparently; according to Reuters, the beloved childrens’ author “censored himself a lot in his kids’ books. There is not a whiff of sex. There’s no bad language”.
And while this may be the case in some of his books, the phrase “dirty slut”, which makes an appearance in Dahl’s 1982 satirical (and pretty darn funny) take on classic children’s fairytales, Revolting Rhymes, hasn’t gone unnoticed. One person was so offended by the “unacceptable word for kids”, they complained to Aldi about it and now the supermarket chain is taking the book off their shelves. People are less than impressed.
I spotted a Roald Dahl book in Aldi about someone’s ‘Giant Peach’. Disgraceful.
— Andrew Hansen (@andrewjhansen) August 29, 2014
@andrewjhansen I saw one where a man lures children into an old factory by promising them candy.
— Ben Pobjie (@benpobjie) August 29, 2014
The word in question pops up in Dahl’s retelling of Cinderella, otherwise known as ‘Cindy’:
“The Prince cried, ‘Who’s this dirty slut?
‘Off with her nut! Off with her nut!’
Just then, all in a blaze of light,
The Magic Fairy hove in sight,
Her Magic Wand went swoosh and swish!
‘Cindy! ‘she cried, ‘come make a wish!
‘Wish anything and have no doubt
‘That I will make it come about!‘
Macquarie Dictionary editor Susan Butler told the Sydney Morning Herald that on a base linguistic level, the word commonly meant “dirty…Probably in British use, there’s also connotations of class”.
Roald Dahl has never been one to shy away from stirring the pot a bit, even in his children’s books; how screwed up were the kids aunts in James and the Giant Peach? The Witches is literally about a group of witches who want to kill children. Not to mention the creepy guy with the chocolate factory who hands out candy to kids.
But as yet, no one has taken issue with these books. Unsurprisingly, Aldi Australia’s Facebook page has been inundated with criticism over the call to take Revolting Rhymes off the shelves. Seems people are okay with kids and a bit of swearing.