Wendy Tuohy: Turn down the heat on Prince George’s childhood
THE internet is buzzing after pictures emerged showing Prince George playing with a toy gun. But constant scrutiny of this little boy needs to stop, writes Wendy Tuohy.
Wendy Tuohy
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PRINCE George being silenced by the little hand of his cousin on the balcony of Buckingham Palace had the internet buzzing at the weekend.
Just a week ago, the mad suggestion that he would likely “grow up to be gay” was the talk of the web.
Today, it’s his choice of toy that has the online world gorging on analysis of the four-year-old.
He and his mother are being pilloried for images of George waving a plastic toy pistol at a little friend who is similarly packing toy heat on the sidelines of a charity polo match.
Earlier photos show him opening what seems to be a plastic toy set including the plastic guns, a toy “walkie-talkie” and toy knife.
The images are among a multitude taken of George and his little sister, three year-old Princess Charlotte and their mother, the Duchess of Cambridge, as they relaxed on the grass. There are pictures of the children running, jumping and playing, and of them nestling into their mum in what was no doubt a long day.
The image of a baby royal branching symbols of lethal force is jarring, especially for Australians still struggling to digest the gun massacre of an entire family by a grandfather in Western Australia last month.
In the States, the valid point is being made that black children must be trained not to play with anything that could be mistaken for a gun, that could lead to them being shot by police. After all, in 2017, of 1,129 people killed by police bullets, 27 per cent were black, despite African-Americans comprising only 13 per cent of the population.
In the UK, tweeters noted it was sad to see George waving a toy gun when England is in the grip of escalating violent crime.
I agree it is very unfortunate to see symbols of deadly weapons in the hands of children, but no one is shaming mothers and young children in general for going through the nigh on inevitable “gun stage”.
The best thing to do is make nothing of that dreaded period when kids receive toy weapons in various guises (and who knows who gave George the toy set that has landed him in global headlines again). It passes quickly, they break, they’re thrown out and not replaced.
Kids who are strictly banned from holding any type of gun toy — whether that is a nerf gun, water pistol, cap guns, potato or rubber band guns — only consider them to be even more special and coveted.
The key point here is that this little child’s early years cannot be used as the platform for causes which should be discussed and argued in the adult world.
He has the same right to enjoy childhood as any other child, and the same entitlement not to have his every tiny move interpreted for hidden meaning.
Lots of us would prefer if childhood could play out completely free of any symbol of force or destruction.
But the scrutiny of this boy in recent weeks has reached a dangerous fever pitch. It makes you wonder if everyone has forgotten the way such potentially harmful intrusion played out for his late grandmother. Time to wind it back.
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