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There once was an Ugly Duckling

TheCatWoman

It's feathers all dirty and brown.. and in so many words the other birds said quack get out of town,

But when spring comes and the "ugly duckling" becomes a swan all of a sudden all the other birds want to be friends.

This childrens song has always upset me, even from a small child, almost reducing me to tears at times. I felt so sorry fo the cygnet who was outcast and rejected for being ugly and brown. As an adult this song still upsets me, I don't just feel sorry for the cygnet but outraged and the implicit racism of being "ugly and brown" rather than beautiful and white as it later becomes. But at the way the other birds stop bullying it and want to be friends, I almost feel this is reflection of so many peoples struggles about being different and how others are encouraged through this song that it's OK to bully others who don't look the same as you or come across the same as you. It's only when the cygnet becomes a beautiful white swan that it's socially acceptable, what does that imply about those of us who are "ugly and brown"? Do we have to become white, do we have to transform ourselves entirely to be acceptable? To me this is a metaphor for not just racism, but for anyone who's different.

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  • 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.

  • in reply to Lotus

    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

  • in reply to TheCatWoman
    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.

  • in reply to Stuart333

    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.

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