To think that Angelina Ballerina is really quite unpleasant?

[padboz]

My girls love it. I hate it. It appears to represent a 'look at me' attitude that I find unpleasant. The way females treat each other in it is dreadful - the twins represent the most awful 'other women are bitches' attitude. I'm not keen on Angelina being white, better at everything and having an upper middle class accent whereas her friend is brown, northern, subservient and generally not important.

It appears to be about demanding attention, being the star all the time and not thinking about anything other than yourself and how great you are (or should be). Angelina's birthday is particularly awful if you have read it - Alice gets crapped on from a great height in it and we are all meant to cheer.

You are now

[padboz]

erm - that last bit got cut and pasted from an email somehow...

[Tamarto]

They are mice, they don't really talk, live in houses and dance.

I dislike it as i find it un-watchable, but i wouldn't look too deeply into it.

[jumpingbeans]

Why does everything have to have a racist twist, ffs, it's little mice, being balarina's aimed at little girls, who would not have a clue what you are on about, my dgd's love it, and quite often when playing want to be "alice" so they don't think of her as not being important.

[ComeOVeneer]

I think you are reading far too much into it tbh. It certainly wasn't written from that perspective.

[motherinferior]

I went to the ballet. I think I still have PTSD.

[ComeOVeneer]

PTSD?

[misshardbroom]

hadn't read anything into it regarding race, class or egotism. I do, however, find it irritating and twittery, and best avoided.

[Liffey]

Is she white? Are her friends all brown? This all sailed over my head, and my dd loves her.

My cousin has an Alice a Flora and a William though, which made me chuckle. I'm amazed nobody else in our family made the connection... Must be just me with my head stuck in an Angelina Ballerina book 3 nights out of every 7 then.

[lalalonglegs]

Never noticed the white/brown thing but treatment of Alice is shocking - I loathe it.

[Othersideofthechannel]

post traumatic stress disorder

[padboz]

lalalonglegs - I think that bit bothers me most. In angelinas birthday they have a bike race - which angelina 'loves to do' - she crashes and breaks her bike - angelina gets cross with alice for 'making her race' and shouts at her. Alice then has to work for weeks to buy angelina a new bike and is not thanked at all...

Alice is subservient, miss lily and her mother what they are but every other female is bitchy and catty.

But I don't know if I'm just uptight ... thats the point of this topic!

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

Why do people think that if they don't notice these things they aren't there?
That's the whole point about stereotyping - it works unconsciously and slips in beneath your radar so you're not aware of it but still affects the way people end up viewing themselves and each other.

YANBU Padboz.

[ComeOVeneer]

Believe me, the author is not xenaphobic!

[padboz]

I take it you know her CoV?

[ComeOVeneer]

Yes, I have known her for years.

[padboz]

right then this stops being a general thing and becomes personal. I suppose my problem with it is the parochial feel of the thing and its attitudes.

Her mother is a seamstress and 'loves to cook'.
Her father is a journalist.
Alice 'rarely is the one to come up with the solution to a problem'.
Mrs Hodgepodge is a crabby old lady.
The twins are 'spoiled and manipulative'

And angelina's friendship with alice isn't equal.

On the other hand it makes my girls happy and I have given your friend a lot of money, so hey.

[Quadrophenia]

as a mum of twin girls its another example of twin girls being seen as manipulative that happens alot

[DartmoorMama]

It is a horrid programme really bitchy and nasty, Annoyingly my dd loves it but I don't think little girls look far beyond the ballet.

Another one thats horrible is Tweenies, the two girls on that Bella and something or other are horrible and very bitchy, I don't know why programs are made with characters like that.

[padboz]

Angelina's mother 'loves to cook' (good)
Alice 'loves her food' (bad)

I'm getting this from the website btw

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

YANBU Padboz. I have always felt so sorry for poor downtrodden Alice. The story where she gives up her place at gym school because she doesn't want to leave Angelina behind, makes me grind my teeth with rage. Would Angelina have given up a place at ballet school for Alice's sake? I think not.

[SheikYerbouti]

DS1 used to love Angelina#

All they do on it is moan

[padboz]

could you have a word CoV Can Alice go postal in the next book? I'll end up with it in my house regardless, but I'd like to see her tooled up and shouting a bit.