I have an idea: what if I were to re-write this article and change the genders of the mother and the child? What do you think would happen? Do you think that it would improve the text of the article? I’m thinking that it wouldn’t. Because this is a perfect example of poor parenting. The reason children of this generation are obnoxious and entitled is due to parents who capitulate to their children’s demands. I’m forty years old. If I had “demanded” anything from my parents, I would have been sent to bed early….without a story. And my parents would have been right to treat me like that.
My wife earned her Ph.D in comparative literature at Berkeley. She regards the idea that changing the gender of Bilbo Baggins in any way improves the text of The Hobbit to be abhorrent and stupid. As other people have already pointed out: if gender is not or should not be an issue, then why change the gender of the protagonist of the story in the first place?
If your child is having trouble relating to a particular character, then read her a different story with a protagonist she can relate to. Or write a story that would placate her. Or, even better, encourage her to create her own story, one that allows her to express what she wants without compromising the integrity of the relationship she maintains with you. Encouraging your child to think that the world is a place where the needs of the many are always subordinate to the desires of the individual is profoundly irresponsible. Because the world doesn’t work that way. Nor should it work that way.
