Which CBeebies White Men Would You Sack To Make Room For Diversity?

TeddyBare, as someone else said - its not that the boys don't want strong females or lead characters, its their parents.

I know someone's who's DS (14MO) isn't allowed to watch Peppa Pig because its a girls program. I queered whether its a girls program and was told the girl is the main character and the boy is just the little brother.
I asked if her daughters weren't allowed to watch programs with a male lead and there was a bit of a tumble weed moment. It was explained that after 2 girls, her husband didn't want him to grow up as a girlie girl.

Email is sent to Ms Benbow - thanks to all the people I stole ideas off for my long complaint!

Mr Tumble was a clown name thing (after all, Justin on the same show is "Justin" rather than Mr anything). And come to think of it, I can't remember anyone on Cbeebies pre-Mr Tumble being "Mr" anything (they all seemed to be first names) so I wonder if thete's an element of some commissioning editors thinking "This Mr Tumble seems awfully popular with children; it must be the 'Mr' that does it..."

I completely agree with Dilys- It is good to see men in caring roles. Presumably this is part of the social ambit the BBC is aiming for. Still don't see why they all have to be "Mr.". It occurred to me that maybe it's to echo clown's names (eg Mr Tumble)

I miss Jane and The Dragon on Milkshake.

I would distinguish between the male presenters and real world people on CBeebies, like Mr Bloom (and perhaps Mr Maker) where there is a real value in showing young men in a caring role, and the cartoon/puppet story portrayals of gender which is bloody awful.

Professor Nina please :)

Nothing wrong with equal if all the staff are treated equally! If he were calling his female teachers by their first name and his male teachers Mr. SoandSo there would be a problem though.

Granny Murray?

Equal is good, IMO. I send DS to a school where all staff are known by their first name.

What irritates me is the way so many men on cbeebies are 'Mr'.

Mr Tumble, Mr Bloom, Mr Maker.

All the women are known by their first names. Except Aunty Mabel, which isn't the same anyway.

Even when the male character is silly it's sort of saying...

Men are to be respected, they are senior.
Women are your friends, they are junior (or equal, I suppose, to your two or three year old).

I think about Nina. She could have been Dr Nina, but no, just a Nina. Nothing important.

God, I am so dense! I skimmed past the thread title thinking that the dance group Diversity were being given presenting roles in CBeebies and idly wondering why it was in the Feminism topic.

Also hohlee the underrepresentation of women on CBeebies isn't a perception, it is a fact. And there is no credible reason for it unless you think that the country's population consists of about 70:30 men:women. I am finding your posts quite rude with the implication that we are imagining it.

I only have sons btw.

Benbow! Thank you. I thought it was wrong and couldn't work it out.

I am a tv producer. I trained as a scientist and make engineering based programmes. Not that it should make a difference what i do, as others rightly point out. I just want my daughter to see better role models. My intention is to get more female presenters in the type of tv I make but it's an uphill struggle to which the broadcasters pay lip service in public and do little proactive work behind the scenes.

I hate the gender stereotyping in kids tv.

For info: the controller of cbeebies is Kay Benbow and most BBC emails are first [email protected]

I think the problem I have with your approach, hohlee, is it's all a bit "I'm alright Jack".

The children of the people on this thread have parents who are aware of this issue and work to counteract it where possible. Every time a little girl on this thread says "at school the boys say girls aren't allowed to play football" they will get a parental response explaining that actually they can.

However not all parents are concerned about this stuff, and many agree with the attitudes. What about those children.

Plus peer pressure is very powerful. My DD1 didn't bother at all about pink or sparkles until she started nursery, aged 2, and after a couple of weeks she objected to a blue top on the basis that it was "for boys". And no matter how carefully I explained to her that all the colours are for everyone, she wasn't having it! 2 year olds are like that....

Now she will wear blue but thinks football is for boys.

And so it goes on.

So yes I think it does matter that the prevailing ideas about what boys and girls do, what they look like, what they care about etc are not reinforced in the television aimed at them. It's just a little part of a bigger picture which adds up and points girls in one direction and boys in another.

Yes I think this is a real problem with Cbeebies. Somewhere elsewhere compared it to Milkshake, where there are loads of really prominent, good girl characters - Peppa Pig, Iggam Oggum, The Little Princess, Holly, Fifi, Angelina Ballerina.. also the majority of presenters are female. Whereas on Cbeebies there is Rosie and Teal and all the other females are mum figures. (I really like Teal tho)

I really Luke tinga tales. Strong females there too

I like Apney and teal. Lots of female/ genderless characters.
Hate zingzillas too

Did you mean that to sound quite that patronising?

As far as I can see that is a failing on the other parents part then. I hope you find a solution to the problem that you percieve.

My little daughter no longer watches Cbeebies, so that's sorted. Other people's daughters might not have the option of doing something else. Should I just dump other people's kids in it just because they're not mine?

I don't feel like I would, we would still be showing her the same as our boys. Maybe you should just limit the TV that is watched and educate them from life experiences? Surely then they would be able to view, what you percieve as a damaging programme, without being manipulated?

I think if you had girls you would view this rather differently.

I guess you could view it like that. I think you will find if you read the post properly that the boys have a very equal view on life. I think maybe the world is not as conspiring against your children as much as maybe is perceived.
I tend to lead by example, therefore that is why I asked about any roles you may take.