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My siblings and I were brought up on a diet of Little Black Sambo, Tin Tin, Asterix, Babar the Elephant, Mark Twain, Janet & John, Topsy & Tim amongst many other items of children's reading. Strange to say, these did not turn us into avowedly sexist or racist people. My son thoroughly enjoyed Tin Tin, Asterix, Babar, Topsy & Tim (by then rather self-consciously multi-cultural). He too was able to identify the content of the books as being stereotypical but not necessarrilly desirable.
So, some books at different times will be considered to be more or less offensive to some groups. I don't think that constitutes a valid argument for banning or restricting them - if we do restrict access, where shall we stop? I am currently reading a modern history of Australia and have consequently read numerous quotations of quite appalling racism directed both towards Aborigines and most other non-white peoples. Shall we now trawl through the reserve stocks of every library to eliminate such terrible writings? How about all the examples of grotesque stereotyping and overt hostility directed towards people with red hair? (If you think it doesn't exist, you've never been on the receiving end of it!). Shall we ban all writings that claim the superiority of Sharia law over UK secular law?
Yes, sometimes people write stuff that is disgustingly offensive, to me. Their freedom to do so is the price I willingly pay for my own freedoms. Anybody restricting access to certain writings "because they might offend me" is doing me a great disservice.
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