Guy Gibson's dog

[Spicy]

The PC brigade are at it again. Why on earth should the makers of the remake of The Dambusters feel it necessary to change the name of Guy Gibson's dog from ****** to Digger. His name was used as a code word for each time a dam was hit during the raid. If history was rewritten to avoid causing offence, how different world history look. A few examples, history book rewritten stating that the French won The Battle of Waterloo, Germany won The Battle Of Britain etc etc etc.

I honestly don't know why people feel the need to have a go at you because of this thread which is making a valid point. Why should they change history for the sake of political correctness. They shouldn't in my view.

 

[Norman Potting]

at least it wasn't called Mohamed.... then they'd be real trouble!

FYI, I was taught all about the World Wars in school, even watching the film Galipoli. That was the 90's.

My Spanish friend did tell me they were taught the Spanish Armada was sunk by bad weather and not the British though.

Straying ot my understanding is that, whilst the English fleet caused a lot of damage the weather finished a lot of them off as they could only get away by circumnavigating the British Isles due to the prevailing winds. Or something like that.

 

[life on mars 73]

What I'm saying that that Guy Gibson grew up in a world where it was deemed perfectly normal for educated Englishmen to speak of other races in a derogatory manner, in a way that would be shocking - criminal even - today. Back then, nobody thought anything of it. It's impossible to apply our contemporary notions of what's politically acceptable to a completely different world.

As others have already said, using such a word in the new film would be seen as highly inflammatory, and would probably detract from the main story.

 

[ewe2]

.....will smoking before the raid also be banned ?

 

[Brovion]

What I'm saying that that Guy Gibson grew up in a world where it was deemed perfectly normal for educated Englishmen to speak of other races in a derogatory manner, in a way that would be shocking - criminal even - today. Back then, nobody thought anything of it. It's impossible to apply our contemporary notions of what's politically acceptable to a completely different world.

As others have already said, using such a word in the new film would be seen as highly inflammatory, and would probably detract from the main story.

But WHY would it be seen as 'highly inflammatory' when, as you say, it is simply reflecting attitudes of the time? If it had been gratuitously added for shock value or in an attempt to show Gibson as a BNP-style racist then yes, I'd agree. However I would say that leaving it out would be more inflammatory as it would be seen as an attempt to pander to the sensibilities of a 21st century audience by pretending that words like that weren't used casually sixty years ago. You may as well go the whole hog and have Gibson talking in 21st century vernacular and saying "Yo! Listen up muvvafuggin Nazis! We're gonna blow your muvvafuggin damn up into the muvverfuggin sky!" Now that WOULD be offensive!

 

[cunning fergus]

Yes, but if, for example, you were writing a WW2 tale about SS officers, you wouldn't hesitate to put words such as "filthy Jewish swine" - or similar - into their mouths. Deeply offensive, of course, but it wouldn't make sense otherwise.

However, when we come to, say, Guy Gibson, who is a kind of national hero, embodying many of what we believe are fine British characteristics, we feel uncomfortable that he may well have been casually racist in a way that we just couldn't accept nowadays. The political orthodoxy of the time was that white people were naturally superior to all others, and that we British were clearly the finest of the lot. That was what was taught in schools - the political correctness, if you like, of the times.

So we airbrush out the bits that are embarrassing by today's standards. But let's not kid ourselves that 60 - 70 years ago, most people accepted unquestioningly that we British were a superior race, and it was our job to keep "lesser breeds" in their place.

If the British did believe they were superior, they were not alone in taking such a standpoint were they? History is littered with tribes, ethnic groups, religions and subsequently nation states applying exactly the same philosophical standpoint. Read what Geobbels had to say on the matter.

 

[Nigella's Cream Pie]

Censorship can be comical when it's half done:

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[public school boy]

To suggest that Guy Gibson was in any way racist by calling his dog ****** is an interesting idea In the those days racism had not really been thought of. One expects that if the dog had been white he might well have called said Fido, Michael Jackson
.

 

[shellsuit]

Middle class twit.

i dont know why you have a beef against anyone who is middle class....perhaps beef is the wrong word,chip should do the trick.whatever the reason you are clearly a twat of the first order! The fact of the matter is Guy Gibsons dog was called ****** and ****** was the codeword Gibson used to confirm the breach of the Möhne Dam,it was NOT used as a codeword for all the dams. The word ****** can hardly be considered racist in the context of the era it was being used but anyone sensible would know that,apart from the fact most american kids call each other ****** nowadays as a matter of course and slang would be a clue as to how much the meaning of the word has changed over the last 20 years.........but oh no up pop the PC brigade and spout nonsense........the producers and writers of the film should be ashamed at themselves for changing the name and should maybe have considered the fact just under half of the 133 aircrew involved in the misiion died.....i think i can leave it at that!

 

[BadFish]

I think it is absolutely outrageous that the PC brigade would dare to change a name because it might offend some people. Why would you do that? Clearly the whole mission and movie would not have worked unless that dog and the code word was ******! no other word would have worked and it is a crime that it should be changed to something that won't cause any offence to the films audience. PC gone mad i tell you, a disgrace to those who fought in the battle of Britain.

Do me a favour!

 

[skipper734]

Changing it to update modern sensibilities is laughable ...isn't it?


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