Is Mary Poppins racist? That's what the British Film Classification Council seems to think, having just changed the guidelines for the great 1964 classic from “for all” to “accompanied children.” And what is the reason why the children need to be supervised while they marvel at the fantastic exploits of the nanny played by Julie Andrews? The word “Hottentot,” which is uttered twice during the course of the film, most notably by the admiral when he stands in front of the two little protagonists with his face smeared with soot. This term appears to be outdated and offensive and even has “the potential to expose children to discriminatory language or behavior that they may find distressing or repeat without realizing its potential to offend.” If this word had been clearly condemned, they tell the Council, they would have been more lenient in their classification. But since this wasn't the case, poor Mary Poppins drew the ire of modern-day guardians of political correctness.
“Although Mary Poppins has historical context,” they said, “the use of discriminatory language is not condemned and ultimately goes beyond our guidelines for acceptable language at the “for all” level. Therefore, we classified the film as 'accompanied children' due to the discriminatory language.” The term “Hottentots” was coined by Dutch settlers to refer to the Khoikhoi population of southern Africa and was then extended to all Africans, but according to the Oxford Dictionary it is now “generally considered archaic and offensive”. And it doesn't matter that even in the film the character of the admiral who uses it is clearly characterized as a ridiculous character with outdated behavior: that's enough to trigger a yellow card for the entire film. The reclassification was enacted to coincide with the expected reprogramming of “Mary Poppins” in theaters to mark its 60th anniversary: But even with a little sugar, the pill really isn't going down well this time.