Tiger Who Came To Tea ‘could lead to rape and harassment’

IT MAY have delighted generations of children, but The Tiger Who Came To Tea reinforces gender inequality which causes violence against women and girls, a campaigner said yesterday.

Rachel Adamson, of Zero Tolerance, a charity working to end men’s violence against women, said Judith Kerr’s 1968 classic was ‘problematic’ because of its ‘old fashioned’ portrayal of women and family dynamics.

The book sees an uninvited tiger, pictured, join a young girl and her mother for tea before eating all the food in the house, drinking everything, running the taps dry and leaving. The girl’s father then comes home and takes her and her mother to a cafe. Miss Adamson did not call for the book to be banned but said it could be used to ‘raise a conversation’ in nurseries. She told BBC Radio Scotland: ‘We know that gender stereotypes are harmful and they reinforce gender inequality, and that gender inequality is the cause of violence against women and girls, such as domestic abuse, rape and sexual harassment.’