Lest we forget that everything happened only after AI came into our lives, being completely awake to wokeness isn’t just a Google Gemini thing. When PC meets PG – parental guidance, for those who need explaining in a mai-baap state – wokeness takes a new level. The latest one being favourite flying nanny, Mary Poppins. Nearly 60 years after the film’s release, British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) – their censor board – has bumped the movie’s rating from U – material ‘not likely to offend or harm’ – to PG. Why? Because the Julie Andrews-starring 1964 film, based on P L Travers’ 1930s-1980s book series, uses ‘Hottentot’ to describe Khoikhoi, one of Africa’s earliest indigenous peoples. To add insult to wokery, the film’s child stars blackened their faces with soot. BBFC said the term ‘Hottentot’ exposes children to discriminatory language and behaviour. Ergo, distressing.
The reclassification only affects the ‘cinematic’ version. Home entertainment versions will still be U. The logic being stay-at-home-types are more mature than cinema-goers. The 1979 film version of Star Trek also underwent a similar change – U to PG in warp speed – due to its ‘very mild language, mild violence, and threat’. What next? Hauling up 19th-century writer Mary Ann Evans for writing under the male pseudonym George Eliot?
