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Original poster

Sexism on CBBC

114 replies

sunshineandbooks · 15/10/2011 08:29

I supervise my DC's TV viewing quite carefully because I worry about media portrayal of women and the way in which society is presented in general. I hate advertising so we tend to stick to CBeebies/CBBC/laptop. I turned on CBBC this morning, thinking state-subsidised broadcaster, high ethical standards, etc. So imagine my horror when their Young Dracula programme was introduced with the presenter promising "not to scream like a girl" Hmm

Have just emailed a complaint.

OP posts:
StewieGriffinsMom · 15/10/2011 22:03

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pictish · 15/10/2011 22:01

Good God...
Too much time on your hands OP.

Original poster
sunshineandbooks · 15/10/2011 21:56

THe complaint I emailed went along the lines of:

Dear BBC,

As an introduction to this morning's 'Young Dracula', the presenter promised "not to scream like a girl". I appreciate this is a popular phrase used among young people and doesn't necessarily mean the presenter is saying that girls are somehow inferior/more readily scared than boys. I am not saying he is sexist, but his language use is, even if he is unaware of it.

Language such as this helps create a backdrop where language continues to portray girls and women as lesser/weaker/sillier than men and boys. This contributes to a society where women's status is devalued. It's subtle but important and a well-documented phenomenon.

As a broadcaster to young, impressionable minds, I feel you have a duty to help eradicate this and am disappointed to see such phrasing used on the channel. It would be considered unacceptable for a broadcaster to say "scream like a black man", so why is sexism any different? I hope to see better in the future.

Yours faithfully...

OP posts:
StewieGriffinsMom · 15/10/2011 17:24

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Tyr · 15/10/2011 17:14

"dry up" I haven't heard that since I was a kid. Are you from N.Ireland?

GrumpyInRepose · 15/10/2011 17:10

dry up Tyr. Complaining about people complaining Hmm that's us told, then.

sadly dd 2.3 can already tell me which toys are for girls and which are boys. I realise that's not cbeebies fault, but kids tv as a whole.

PamBeesly · 15/10/2011 16:50

How annoying OP, I think you were right to email and complain.

DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 15/10/2011 15:45

Loves the silencing tactics used by certain posters

Rollon2012 · 15/10/2011 15:29

Don't you think complaining is a bit excessive?

Tyr · 15/10/2011 15:20

No whining noises coming from me Makiko but I?m sure the sources will be back soon enough. They are probably trawling the web as we speak, looking for T-shirts, ads, FB sites etc to be offended by. Alternatively, they?ve already found their daily fix and are writing the inevitable complaints.
Like religious fundamentalists who see "sin" everywhere, they can?t afford to let their vigilance drop for a minute.

Makiko · 15/10/2011 14:29

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Tyr · 15/10/2011 14:13

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StewieGriffinsMom · 15/10/2011 12:45

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DontCallMeFrothyDragon · 15/10/2011 09:23

I've gone off the entire BBC empire of late. The sexism isn't contained to their children's TV shows, either. The whole TV empire, at least, is corrupt.

I think there should be an opt-out option, where if you didn't want the Beeb flooding your TV with their misogyny, you could refuse a TV license, and they'd cut off the broadcast to your house. Or something like that.

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