A politically incorrect picture alphabet

July 31st, 2006 · No Comments

Chez JD is filled with various toddler toys, including a few alphabets. It is one of the requirements of bringing up a toddler these days. When I came across this link on Linkfilter it amused me - politically incorrect alphabet images. C is for Cigar. H is for Hitler.

My wife is a teacher of young children, and I’ve spent a fair time of late sitting on undersized chairs admiring the alphabet charts on classroom walls. Typically ‘A’ will stand for Apple, ‘B’ for Ball. It occurred to me that ‘I’ for Indian, one I remember from my childhood, has been replaced as it is no longer politically correct to refer to native/first/indigenous Americans as Indians.

Lacking any tact or decency, I therefore determined to create an alphabet using only subjects that, while they might have been unremarked a few decades ago, are now outside acceptable usage. But only just. And then it was my intention to illustrate these in a ‘modern’ style, something along the lines of Dick Bruna’s Miffy (OK, Miffy is 50, but still looks fresh). You can see those I’ve completed already on this page.