Snowflake’s fluster forces university to rewrite history book

A UNIVERSITY has censored a book about the history of children’s literature after a student complained it was ‘homophobic’.

The student said a reference to how homosexuality was once considered a social problem left her feeling ‘sick to my stomach’.

After investigating her complaint, the Open University decided to ‘amend’ the paragraph.

In the textbook, distinguished academic Nicholas Tucker explains that in response to competition from television, 1970s children’s books ‘began to take on once controversial themes unknown to previous generations of readers’.

He adds: ‘Many of the social problems formerly unspoken about in front of children started appearing in the works of some children’s authors. Homosexuality, child abuse, incest, rape, drug-taking, alcoholism: it was all there in the older ranges of children’s literature during and after the 1970s.’

His essay features in a 1998 textbook entitled Children’s Literature, Approaches And Territories, which has been studied by thousands of undergraduates without objection.

The university confirmed it had received only a single complaint. Calling the passage ‘homophobic’, the student tweeted: ‘How dare you refer to homosexuality as a social problem. And how dare you list it with child abuse, incest, rape, drug-taking and alcoholism.’

The university will now direct students to a version of Mr Tucker’s chapter on its website in which the reference to homosexuality has been removed.

It said in a statement: ‘We agreed… that the wording in the text, which listed homosexuality as a “social problem” similar to child abuse or drug-taking, was inappropriate. We have contacted the author who is supportive of the action we propose.’

Mr Tucker, 81, said: ‘I am sorry if it offended anybody and I am happy for it to be amended. It was written around 1998, a very long time ago.’