What’s Roald Dahl’s Problem With Women?

From Perspectives on Pop Culture - February 4, 2023

It’s old news that Roald Dahl is…well, “problematic” is the polite euphemism to use, I suppose.

The more accurate phrase would be “so wildly anti-semitic that his own family apologized for it 30 years after his death”. For all that, his work has survived as some of the most popular children’s literature through criticism and multiple attempts at banning certain books in various countries over the years.

To be perfectly honest, the title of this post was misleading. Roald Dahl didn’t have a problem with women. He has a lot of very lovely female characters, from Matilda and Miss Honey to the caring Grandmamma of The Witches, and even a few misguided and maybe overindulgent mothers (and fathers) in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Charlie’s mother seems kind and caring throughout the book and her son is the hero of the story, the rest of the parents have raised a variety of greedy, cruel monsters but they do love their children.

So Roald Dahl didn’t have a problem with women. Roald Dahl had a problem with feminists.

What’s Roald Dahl’s Problem With Women?