Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1494347
13 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 MARCH 2023 OPINION THERE'S a moment in the mov- ie 'Shadowlands', where C.S Lewis (played by Anthony Hop- kins) is confronted by a fellow Oxford don over the fact that he could write such successful, critically acclaimed children's novels... despite not having had any children of his own. "How do you pull it off?" his colleague demanded to know: to which Lewis replied... well, much in the same way as I would have, in his place (because – as a similarly 'childless' adult - I get faced with the same sort of comment, all the time): "My brother was a child, once; and as unlikely as it may seem... so was I!" In any case: I was reminded of that scene this week, while read- ing through various online dis- cussions about the whole 'Zigu- zajg' controversy. Not, mind you, because I myself was on the receiving end of any such re- mark, on this occasion (let's just say that I have learnt, through experience, never to wade into any public discussions about 'other people's children'. Trust me, nothing good can possibly come of it, in the end...) But rather, because a discus- sion that was all along supposed to be 'about children' – and in particular, about 'how children may-or-may-not be affected, by a play nobody has actually even seen, yet' - seems to have spec- tacularly overlooked the only perspective that truly matters, in this kind of debate. That is to say: the perspec- tive of the 'eight-to-10-year old children', that the play 'Gender Boss' is all along trying to target (and which, by definition, will always be alien, to adult minds that have meanwhile been sad- dled with all the weighty re- sponsibilities of parenthood...) But tell you what: let's start with the comment that sparked the whole controversy off in the first place. When Julie Zahra took to Facebook to complain about the play... her very first words were: "Many concerned parents have contacted me about a rep- resentation called Gender Boss that ŻiguŻajg is organising for 8-10 year olds from 16th March and to which schools have been invited." Interestingly enough, the same line was taken later by Shad- ow Education Minister Justin Schembri: who started off by urging us to 'let children be children'... only to add: "Before launching attacks, let's under- stand the play is aimed at eight to 10-year-olds. All other argu- ments are valid but this is too young an age, and we have a du- ty to speak out in the name of parents." Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the ensuing debate reflected precisely the sort of 'concern', that could only ever be felt by adults aged around 30 to 40 (and which – by the same defi- nition, cited above – will no doubt be utterly 'alien', to the mind of anyone aged around eight or nine). In Zahra's own words: "If it ['gender fluidity'] means what we think it means, which soci- ologists, anthropologists, sexol- ogists, psychologists and other experts were consulted for ad- vice before their subject reaches these children with open minds in the way it is being promot- ed?" "While we are in favour of free expression, creativity, arts, gender and personal liberty, we are also in favour of everything taking place in the right time and place and, when it comes to sensitive subjects, through consultation with experts. If it is designed wrongly, it can have an opposite effect on children of such a young age." Now: just to avoid any uneces- sary misunderstandings... I can, of course, fully understand how certain parents – having been children themselves, at a time when 'gender' was considered anything but 'fluid' – would be legitimately concerned, by what they evidently consider an at- tempt at 'liberal indoctrination'. After all: they're the ones who will have to deal with any awk- ward situations – or, even worse, questions - that may arise, as a consequence of their children being encouraged to think that (to quote ZiguZajg's own web- site): 'they may transform into anything: ANYTHING!" Then again, however, there are a few small problems with Zah- ra's approach to those other- wise legitimate concerns. One is that all the questions she raises, above, hinge on precisely HOW the play 'Gender Boss' intends to actually impart its message, to such a young audience. And given that Zahra herself admits that she hadn't even read the script, before the posting that comment... on what basis, ex- actly, is she already complain- ing about the play's 'production values'? To put that another way: I would certainly expect a play like 'Gender Boss' to involve consultation with 'sociologists, sexologists, psychologists' (but not necessarily 'anthropolo- gists').... if it intended to take a LITERAL approach to the issue of 'gender fluidity'. But from a few inquiries I made into the actual production itself: it seems the idea is to couch those concepts in the language of 'fantasy' [Note: I haven't read the script either; but I'm told that it centres more on 'fairies' – in the 'Tinkerbell' sense of the word, I hasten to add - than on actual representations of 'gen- der fluidity among children'...] And if that's the case: well, people like Julie Zahra can set their minds at rest, from now. Because I can assure you all – from my own experience, as someone who 'was a child, once' - there is absolutely no way of telling how that play's message will actually get interpreted... by all those 'young minds' that it may-or-may-not have been in- tended to 'indoctrinate'. Which brings us right back to C.S. Lewis, and his celebrat- ed 'Chronicles of Narnia'. As it happens, I myself was around nine or 10, when I first read 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'; and I loved that book so much, I eagerly lapped up all its sequels, in quick suc- cession: 'Prince Caspian'; 'The Horse And His Boy'; 'The Voy- age of the Dawn Treader'; 'The Last Battle', etc., etc. Naturally, I won't bore you with what that experience ac- tually meant to me, at that age: suffice it to say that I could al- most 'smell the mothballs', as I followed Lucy through that magical wardrobe, and into a land full of wonder, enchant- ment, and – most promising of all, at that age - 'talking ani- mals'... ... but never once, in my wild- est dreams, did it even remotely occur to me that C.S. Lewis may have had an ulterior motive, in weaving such fantastical tales for my benefit. In fact, it was only several years later – on re-reading those books for the gazillionth time – that I realised that the 'Narnia Chronicles' were, in fact, nothing but a thin- ly-veiled 'attempt at indoctrina- tion', all along... Catholic indoc- trination, to be precise. And as such, the 'message' they were intended to impart, was actually no different from all the other attempts at Catho- lic indoctrination to which my entire generation was exposed, on a daily basis, at roughly the same age. With the small differ- ence that: while all those other attempts only ever succeeded in 'boring me to tears'... C.S. Lew- is's books had the clean oppo- site effect. In every sense of the word, please note: not only did those books instantly transport me to a 'fantasy world', far far away from the mundane realities of daily existence... but in so doing, they actually succeeded in dis- tancing me even further, from the very religious 'orthodoxy' that they had tried to impress upon me in the first place. (To the extent that, when I belated- ly discovered their true nature, as 'Christian allegories'... I felt almost 'cheated': if not actually 'betrayed'). At the same time, however: that later reaction only came about as a result of re-reading the same books, through the eyes of an older (but not much wiser) adult. It does nothing to alter the profound impact that C.S. Lewis had undeniably had on me, as a child... and for which I honestly feel myself to be a 'better person', as an adult (even if, ironically, in ways that are al- most diametrically opposed, to what the author himself had all along intended). So even without having read the script of 'Gender Boss' - and depending, of course, on how that play actually goes about weaving its own 'fantastical' brand of literary didacticism - I can almost safely predict, from now, that... Forget it, guys! Any reference to 'gender fluidity', that the pro- ducers of Gender Boss intended to impress upon those young, vulnerable minds... you can rest assured that it will simply fly over the heads of its eight- to-ten-year-old audience, as surely – and effectively – as C.S. Lewis's original intentions flew over my own head, as a young child reading the 'Chronicles of Narnia'. But if, on the other hand, the production turns out to be even remotely comparable, to all the fantasy novels (and films; and cartoons; and even comput- er games, if it comes to it) that influenced me so much at the same age... who knows? It might succeed in achieving something infinitely more profound, and meaningful, than its original in- tention. It might actually fire up the imaginations of its young au- dience... and - just like Lucy's wardrobe, all those years ago – open up a magical portal of its own: leading to any number of 'fantasy worlds, full of wonder and enchantment'... none of which, I need hardly add, will have anything even remotely to do with 'gender fluidity', at all. But that can only ever real- istically happen, in practice, if critics of this play follow their own (very good, for a change) advice... and 'let children be children'. Children will be children... if you let them Raphael Vassallo