Pippi Longstocking

Content Warning: This section contains references to racial stereotypes contained within the novel.

Pippi Longstocking was originally published in 1945 in Sweden and in 1950 in the United States. At the time, racist jokes and stereotypical images existed in newsprint and in children’s media, particularly cartoons, because nonwhite or non-European peoples were believed to be exotic at best and animalistic at worst. Stereotyped images resulting from these beliefs perpetuated harmful, offensive, and inaccurate ideas about people of color. For example, Dr. Seuss remains one of the most celebrated children’s authors of all time, but many of his drawings from this time contain racist imagery, both in his stories and in his political cartoons (“6 Dr. Seuss Books Will Stop Being Published Because of Racist Imagery.” PBS, 2 Mar. 2021).

Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking contains similar instances of racist stereotyping; Pippi makes up racist stories and isn’t reprimanded for them, but she is reprimanded for lying. The first instance is her belief that her father has become a “cannibal king” (58). This particular story of Pippi’s was apparently inspired by the real-life story of a Swedish sailor named Carl Emil Pettersson, who regularly traveled between Sweden and his home in Papua New Guinea where his family lived in the early 1900s. Stereotypes of people in this region being cannibals were common during the early to mid-1900s. While some tribes did practice cannibalism until the 1950s in this region, the practice was outlawed. It is still practiced in some tribes today, usually as a funeral ritual rather than a form of murder. Regardless, the reference is without cultural context and inherently pejorative.

Similarly, Pippi’s stories of a Chinese man with long ears, Argentinians who are uneducated, and a servant who bit people’s ankles can be interpreted as offensive because despite their fantastical nature, they are demeaning or play on existing cultural stereotypes. Additionally, comments such as “A Chinese baby can’t be called Peter” speak to the datedness of some aspects of the story and to a world that had a provincial rather than global view (65). However, Karin Nyman, Lindgren’s daughter, “emphatically rejected the charge” that her mother’s books contain racism:

She [Astrid Lindgren] is not a racist. She is the opposite. […] The passage […] where the ‘black children throw themselves into the sand’ in front of Pippi and Tommy and Annika, is explicitly preceded by the explanation that they did so thinking, ‘for some incomprehensible reason,’ that white skin was to be revered. This passage is, of course, referring to ‘colonial racist stereotypes,’ but since it is immediately questioned by Pippi, who refuses to be knelt in front of, who makes a very strong point of the children being all alike, black and white, and enjoying the same games in the two books dealing with the South Seas, it is difficult to see the books as representatives of a dubious racist conception and thus harming reading children of to-day. But, of course, the old harm of colonial racism itself remains! (Flood, Alison. “Pippi Longstocking Books Charged With Racism.” The Guardian, 9 Nov. 2011).

Debates surrounding the nature of racism and other forms of prejudice in classic children’s literature call into question whether children’s books should be edited for the modern era, left in their original form, or removed from shelves entirely. A 2020 Puffin Modern Classics edition of Pippi Longstocking, for example, refers to Pippi’s father as an “island king” rather than a “cannibal king” (“Classic Rereads: Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, Translated by Susan Beard, Illustrated by Ingrid Vang Nyman.” Jean Little Library, 15 Jan. 2022).

Despite the flaws of Pippi Longstocking, it is at the same time a forward-thinking piece of literature. The book challenges norms that continue to hold back young girls but did so to a greater degree in the mid-20th century. Pippi is bold, brave, and strong in an era when girls were expected to be gentle, obedient, and quiet. Pippi lives her life her own way and does not acknowledge adult authority or conform to social norms. In particular, the book was published during a time when girls were expected to grow up to become housewives and mothers; while social norms have evolved, girls still absorb expectations regarding their appearance, obedience, and demeanor. Pippi has goals of becoming a pirate and continuing to explore the world. Her appearance leans into her personality as someone with a fun, adventurous spirit who doesn’t mind whether she fits in. The image of Pippi remains iconic to this day, and her stories have inspired countless translations and adaptations.