There once was an Ugly Duckling

I've always seen it as an uplifting song. The lyrics actually say "There once was an ugly duckling, with feathers all stubby and brown". That's because cygnets do have brown feathers, it's not racism. In comparison to ducklings the cygnet looks less pretty and is shunned by them, but later when he turns into a swan he's admired by everyone. I feel that it's a song about not attacking others for their differences, because later you might feel a bit foolish when they appear better than you.

I was an autistic child, how was I supposed not to take it literally?

I always felt the ducklings were being very shallow.

There are quite a few songs, stories and things that I've interpreted negatively and in a way that others don't, like the song Happy Birthday Sweet 16, I've always found it creepy and then realsied that to me it sounds like a song about waiting for a girl to become 16 and therefore "legal" and theres this old guy perving over her. I'm told I'm wrong about that too. How come I interpret these things so differently to others and have felt uncomfortable with them since childhood when I didn't know what I was uncomfortable about

I was an autistic child, how was I supposed not to take it literally?

I always felt the ducklings were being very shallow.

There are quite a few songs, stories and things that I've interpreted negatively and in a way that others don't, like the song Happy Birthday Sweet 16, I've always found it creepy and then realsied that to me it sounds like a song about waiting for a girl to become 16 and therefore "legal" and theres this old guy perving over her. I'm told I'm wrong about that too. How come I interpret these things so differently to others and have felt uncomfortable with them since childhood when I didn't know what I was uncomfortable about

At the time when the song was popular it was quite common for girls to be married very young and for some of the icons of the day to engage quite legally in what we would term paedophilia by marrying girls as young as 13. Don't forget that a woman was considered "on the shelf", an unmarriageable left over by the time she was 21, today we would consider 21 young to be married, let alone 18 or under, but this was quite common and seen as desireable.

what you see with the sweet 16 isn't wrong, its just not how everyone sees it, not every guy is looking for a 16 year old and the ones that do are very creepy, but your a woman and you need to be carful of those types in your past and it can be impossible to know what a guy wants unless he shows you, so most people arnt thinking of that but I get why you do.

Maybe or maybe it just got called a twit?

I've always thought that its mother was a bit scatty and laid an egg in a duck's nest by mistake. I think it would probably need counselling to get over the trauma of its youth before it had the potential to be an advocate for others - perhaps it had some sessions with a wise owl?

Most of the nursery rhymes and stories like Brothers Grimm where horrible, I don't know why the Victorians decided to make them childrens stories, they were orignially sotries for adults.

Maybe, but I want to ask where the swans were when the cygnet was suffering?  I wasn't happy that the cygnet had to grow into a swan before it found acceptance and nor do I feel it's a song about late bloomers doing well later in life. I want to ask what this swan did in later life did it become an advocate for other bullied birds?

TheCatWoman said:

How come I interpret these things so differently to others

I only know what some mean because I remember asking what they meant when I was small.

I didn't like a lot of the children's stories and nursery rhymes. I thought they were weird or not very nice.

TheCatWoman said:

I was an autistic child, how was I supposed not to take it literally?

I think you are referring to Stuart's reply where he said:

Stuart333 said:

I think this is where you are not supposed to take it too literally.

I think that being upset by the cygnet being an outcast, and also being pleased that the swan it turns into teaches those pesky ducks a lesson, is both being literal - both seem clear from the lyrics.

But you can read more into it - as Stuart says, often people who are shunned early in life bloom later. Sometimes those of us who were bullied at school do well at something as adults and get praise from others.

Also, the swan is found by other swans and taken into their group, so he's no longer an outcast - a bit like us finding this community.