Shoppers threaten to boycott ALDI after it pulls Roald Dahl book containing word 'sl*t' off


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Shoppers threaten to boycott ALDI after it pulls Roald Dahl book containing word 'sl*t' off shelves 

Shoppers have threatened to boycott the supermarket chain ALDI after it pulled a Roald Dahl book containing the phrase "dirty sl*t" off its shelves.
 
ALDI Australia removed the book, Revolting Rhymes, after complaints about offensive language, namely when the Prince says to Cinderella: "Who is this dirty sl*t? Off with her nut."
 
The company released a statement saying it takes complaints from shoppers seriously.
 
"ALDI Australia has withdrawn the Roald Dahl Picture book entitled Revolting Rhymes from its Special Buys range, following comments by a limited number of concerned customers regarding the language used in this particular book," the statement said.
 
"The range of Roald Dahl Picture Books went on sale on Wednesday 27 August 2014 and the remainder of the range will still be available to consumers at $4.99 each.
 
"ALDI Australia would like to inform all of our customers that we take the concerns of the community seriously."
 
But customers have taken to social media, demanding the children's book be returned for sale, with some calling for a boycott of the chain on its Facebook page
 
Professor Kay Margretts of Melbourne University said many great writers used language considered to be obscene in their careers.
 
"This book is a parody on fairy tales - it's about comedy and funny words. If we look back over history some of the great writers did these types of things - Shakespeare did this kind of thing," she said.
 
"It's one little word, in a book, but it's just part of literature, it's part of the richness we're exposed to in literature. Yes, I think it's inappropriate censorship."
 
While many Facebook users agree the removal of the book is censorship, linguist Roley Sussex said Dahl's choice of words should not be so quickly excused.
 
"Slut's got two main meanings - it comes from about 1402. One is dirty and unkempt woman, and the other is a woman of low morals.
 
"I'm afraid it's always been derogatory and it's only now that we're coming to realise, in the context of other discriminatory language, how bad it is," he said.
 
The book remains off ALDI shelves and ALDI has not yet responded to the criticism on Facebook.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-29/shoppers-urge-boycott-of-aldi-for-pulling-roald-dahl-book/5706696

 

 

 

Another example of a small number of people scaring a company into unnecessary censorship. So stupid.

 

 

Kind of surprised the word "slut" isn't censored on here.

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And that will probably go as well as certain people boycotting Nestle due to animal cruelty and killing babies, which isn't very well at all, last I heard the impact was like a peashooter fired at a tank......

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Won't somebody please think of the children?

 

 

lol, it doesn't bother me personally but every other curse word on here is censored, see:

 

###### ###### ###### ###### 

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And that will probably go as well as certain people boycotting Nestle due to animal cruelty and killing babies, which isn't very well at all, last I heard the impact was like a peashooter fired at a tank......

 

 

Except boycotting Nestle because they were tearing down the Borneo rain forest forced Nestle to partner with the Forest Trust and audit their supply lines. It was a worthy goal which seems to have had a positive outcome. This is just a few uptight, repressed types who think the word slut in a book is evidence that society is decaying at an alarming rate. Not really comparable.

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Revolting Rhymes was initially published in 1982. Do these people complaining really want to admit that they are that slow on the uptake?

As the article says, next up should be Shakespeare then.

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They'll have to ban most of the internet because words they don't like can appear on most of the internet at any moment or they'll have to make their own internet that has every edit even if a single letter gets changed reviewed.

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Revolting Rhymes was initially published in 1982. Do these people complaining really want to admit that they are that slow on the uptake?

As the article says, next up should be Shakespeare then.

 

I got that book for my little girl a few years ago.. Laughed her head off! :p

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Kind of surprised the word "slut" isn't censored on here.

 

 

It's not that much of a surprise given the amount of misogyny that's expressed in these forums on a daily basis.

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Really? Where?

 

Usually if you disagree with whatever new trendy scandal is in the media you are immediately labeled racist, misogynist, etc. better to ignore them than letting them rant over nothing 

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Except boycotting Nestle because they were tearing down the Borneo rain forest forced Nestle to partner with the Forest Trust and audit their supply lines. It was a worthy goal which seems to have had a positive outcome. This is just a few uptight, repressed types who think the word slut in a book is evidence that society is decaying at an alarming rate. Not really comparable.

My point was that boycotts rarely work...

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^ Then you should have chosen a boycott that failed. You're not illustrating your point very well if your example is the exact opposite of your point.

 

I reject your assertion boycotts don't work, anyway. There are examples of boycotts working: fruit of the loom reopening a factory in Honduras, Anti-Apartheid Boycotts, The Montgomery Bus Boycott, etc.

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