What, do you want a list of people that tigers have killed?
I am all in favor of cute & cuddly tigers in fantasy. I am a big fan of Bill Watterson's Hobbes and A. A. Milne's Tigger. I have read & enjoyed the characters Tiger Melinda in Tim Susman’s “Common and Precious” and Devlin Miski in Kyell Gold’s “Out of Position”. And I still object to portraying real tigers as cute, innocent victims in today’s world. Even if they are – innocent and victims, at least.
Surely, it’s an opinion piece. (Whoops, did I forget to list ‘opinion’ as one of the tags? My bad.) It is my opinion that humans should not anthropomorphize tigers as cute, furry, helpless victims of man’s ruthlessness and greed. I am aware that not everyone shares this opinion. The news item was the hook to hang this opinion on; to make my opinion topical.
It should be possible to both have sympathy for the tigers’ plight, to approve of using anthropomorphism to spread awareness of their plight and support for their preservation, and to feel that presenting the tigers falsely as cute and cuddly, helpless victims is the wrong way to go about it. I concede that it is unlikely that anyone will be misled by “Save the Tiger – Spare Me” into believing that tigers are really cute & cuddly, and that this approach would still probably be more effective than to anthropomorphize them as self-sufficient, tough tiger equivalents of Crocodile Dundee or Indiana Jones, admitting their need for humans’ help in their survival on a partnership basis – one predator to another, rather than as nothing more than helpless victims. But I don’t pretend to like it.
Is this furry self-depreciation? Well, so be it. I still feel that it is WRONG.
What, do you want a list of people that tigers have killed?
I am all in favor of cute & cuddly tigers in fantasy. I am a big fan of Bill Watterson's Hobbes and A. A. Milne's Tigger. I have read & enjoyed the characters Tiger Melinda in Tim Susman’s “Common and Precious” and Devlin Miski in Kyell Gold’s “Out of Position”. And I still object to portraying real tigers as cute, innocent victims in today’s world. Even if they are – innocent and victims, at least.
Surely, it’s an opinion piece. (Whoops, did I forget to list ‘opinion’ as one of the tags? My bad.) It is my opinion that humans should not anthropomorphize tigers as cute, furry, helpless victims of man’s ruthlessness and greed. I am aware that not everyone shares this opinion. The news item was the hook to hang this opinion on; to make my opinion topical.
It should be possible to both have sympathy for the tigers’ plight, to approve of using anthropomorphism to spread awareness of their plight and support for their preservation, and to feel that presenting the tigers falsely as cute and cuddly, helpless victims is the wrong way to go about it. I concede that it is unlikely that anyone will be misled by “Save the Tiger – Spare Me” into believing that tigers are really cute & cuddly, and that this approach would still probably be more effective than to anthropomorphize them as self-sufficient, tough tiger equivalents of Crocodile Dundee or Indiana Jones, admitting their need for humans’ help in their survival on a partnership basis – one predator to another, rather than as nothing more than helpless victims. But I don’t pretend to like it.
Is this furry self-depreciation? Well, so be it. I still feel that it is WRONG.
Fred Patten