How do you feel reading this headline? Did you take offence when you heard Carol Thatcher daughter of Margaret Thatcher was reported to have commented, (in a private conversation on the set of the BBC’s The One Show), that tennis player Jo Wilfried Tsonga reminded her of the golliwog motif seen on the Robertson jam jars back in the late 80’s?Honestly, not sure how I feel about this one… as I didn’t immediately feel offended by what she had said. (Sorry I don’t normally sit on the fence). Don’t get me wrong, I do not think the word ‘golliwog’ is one which should be used in society today, but in her defence, she wasn’t using the terms to verbally abuse someone, she was using it to help describe an image she was thinking of, plus she was under the impression her conversation was a ‘private’ one.
The visual of discussion was created by author Florence Kate Upton in 1895, who was inspired to write about a black doll she had named ‘golliwog’. So wasn’t Thatcher just mentioning an image which had been in the public arena during her childhood? I hate to say it (as I hate anything which sounds remotely racist), but I think so. I don’t know enough about Carol Thatcher to say that I think she is a racist, I just think she was extremely stupid to have said what she did, in a crowded BBC green room, where other reporters, celebrities and staff were present, able to hear her every word.
Hmmm… I can feel a heated debate on this topic coming on this weekend.
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