Seriously people? A slave collar is offensive. Period.
I don't get this 'offensive' thing, to be honest. It's like these 'trigger warnings' they have nowadays in some schools and universities, where they give you a warning that the offensive content in, say, a book, might trigger some past trauma or something like that. If you're so easily offended, then don't buy it for your children. Buy them, I don't know ... what CAN you buy children nowadays?
I sometimes worry that this is a vicious circle ... the more we emphasize this kind of thing, the more 'sensitive' people will get. as to the collar, come on. Once the Ottomans came over to Malta and carried off half of the population of our sister island, women, children, slaves, all of them. Taken as slaves, all of them. Am I offended by slave collars? No, it's history. It's our history. It's imporrtant to learn about this kind of thing, through play, too.
African Americans would almost have you believe that they're the only people who suffered injustice in the past.
It's history. Teach your children some, give them some context. We're turning them into idiots.
The dancing bear in the old sets, what, did it make us rush out in the street and bait animals? No it didn't. Cause we had context, and we had common sense, many of us at least. Something which unfortunately kids these days don't have much of. And all because of the way they're being raised.
And the others have a point too. Why did she buy him a pirate ship, anyway? Does she know anything about pirates, besides that Johnny Depp movie?
Now let's ban all medieval themes, all religious themes, the zoo stuff, the circus stuff ... hey, even the wildlife stuff, at least the sets that have humans in them.
