A little way up Mie's backside

There is a certain ironic humor in the subsidizing, by Minister of Culture, of a children's book [Dutch comic 'De avonturen van Lena Lena' by Harriët van Reek] which appears to contain the plot for a drama against which his colleague, the Minister of Justice, has been angrily fulminating. Am amusing story for children - it seems children, around four, never tire of hearing and seeing precisely that episode where a stick is poked "a little way up Mie's backside" - grew into a sinister myth in Oude Pekela [Dutch town]. Myths can be fatal. They fulfill a deeply felt need when the effects of economic, technological and social change undermine traditional certainties. Most of them deal with chaos and conflict and how these can be exorcised; often they are misused to legitimize power over one's fellow men. [...] The mythological inheritance has to be maintained, since otherwise the hard-won solidarity will be lost. [...]

[Dr. Gerrit Mik, (youth) psychiatrist and former member of parliament for the political party D66:] "A small child told me about a carnival with games, where there was a lion as well. 'Ah, a fantasy,' I thought. But later I heard from an older child who was very intelligent and who said, 'It was a gentleman wearing a lion suit, because there was a tear near the paws and could see his feet.' My goodness, I didn't know that people needed stimuli like that to turn them on."

source: Article 'A little way up Mie's backside' by Peter Hofstede; Translated from Dutch; Free Will Journal, no. 12; November/December 1988; Original title 'Ietsje in Mie's bil'; Haagse Post; 28 May 1988