Half-naked Winnie-the-Pooh no longer candidate for being public face of children's playground

Councillors in Poland have blocked a plan to have Winnie-the-Pooh used as the public face of a children's playground because the British bear is of "dubious sexuality" and "inappropriately dressed" for children because he is "half naked".

Officials in the small town of Tuszyn, in central Poland, were meeting to decide upon a new patron for a children’s playground when Winnie-the-Pooh was brought up. But the suggestion was quickly rounded on by more conservative members. Councillor Ryszard Cichy, 46, said: "The problem with that bear is it doesn’t have a complete wardrobe.



"It is half naked which is wholly inappropriate for children." He then suggested a Polish fictional bear, saying: "Ours is dressed from head to toe, unlike Pooh who is only dressed from the waist up." The meeting, which was recorded by one of the councillors, then turned on Winnie-the-Pooh’s sexuality. One official was heard saying: "It doesn’t wear underpants because it doesn’t have a sex. It’s a hermaphrodite."

Councillor Hanna Jachimska then began criticising the Winnie-the-Pooh author Alan Alexander Milne. She said: "This is very disturbing but can you imagine! The author was over 60 and cut his [Pooh's] testicles off with a razor blade because he had a problem with his identity." The councillors have yet to make a formal decision about which bear will be the patron of the children’s playground. But Winnie-the-Pooh is not a candidate, they said.