Putting Children's TV to the Bechdel test

Tilly and Friends passes. Three out of the six characters are female, including the lead. Unfortunately Pru, the chicken, is vain and obsessed with her appearance but this is used humorously rather than as something to aspire to. The male characters are all quite caring and gentle rather than going out and having adventures while the girls make tea, in fact the most actiony of the characters is Doodle, the female crocodile.

Rastamouse fails every episode I've seen - Scratchy never gets to talk to the rare female minor characters.

Two Octonauts episodes pass out of 50 or so, when Tweak's friend Sandy the turtle turns up. The Penguin Race special actually has Dashi and Tweak conversing, but about Hugo...

Alphablocks passes - A and I are female.
Balamory passes easily.
Bob the Builder, Postman Pat, Roary the racing car - may pass sometimes.
Andy's Wild Adventures, fail as Kip only talks to Andy.

queenoffarking Mary Poppins definitely passes, plus the mum is a suffragette.

Peppa pig and Ben & holly - same makers - deffo episodes that pass AND have funnyness for grown-ups which is a plus. Today we had the Mutiny on the Bunty episode which is a personal fave

other than that... hmm... we are generally off cbeebies and into disney jr and dear lord it's awful

Rastamouse- pass. Yippee! Bechdel test Has it's limitations, but is an interesting tool. The Tweenies pass, but the girl characters were so awful it is the only show I've actually banned.

Speverend you obviously watch more Dora than me!

I was just about to say the opposite about Dora the Explorer. Among the recurring characters, Isa, Mum and Grandma are the only female characters and only Isa gets a name. Arguably Backpack is a named female (within the Dora naming conventions), but she seldom interacts directly with Dora. The quest objectives sometimes come from named females in which case the episode passes, but the majority (that I've seen, at least) fail.

Little Princess - pass
Dora the Explorer - probably pass depending on who she meets along the way
Green Balloon Club - pass

Po (red) and Lala (yellow) are the female Teletubbies btw.

I find cbeebies massively sexist. Everything's Rosie is appalling, as is Driver Dans story train and Zingzillas. I don't remember kids tv being this bad when I was small

Ben and holly pass

Mickey mouse pass

The winx club pass

Kid detectives pass

Handy manny fail

Oso fail

Tracy Beaker, although disliked on MN, passes.

One of the million reasons I hate ZIngzillas is because it replaced Space Pirates, which wouldn't have passed the Bechdel Test but showed decent female characters. The girl crewmember wasn't just one of the smartest characters, but she was active and scruffy as well. The singing rat who led the band was a girl. And they showed quite a few female musicians and singers - and now there's ZingfuckingZillas which has girly wussy squeaky females who are usually in the way or having to be looked after, and very few female musicians.

Yes, I'll accept Woolley and tig and nina but thinking of this from a positive role model perspective and not linking this to a bechdel test;

I can cook- its another woman..doing the cooking.
Me too! - a woman looking after the kids

Big Barn Farm: pass (Petal is so self-centred, she would never talk about anyone but herself. Her mum, Mrs snuffles, is similarly besotted by Petal)

Show Me, Show Me: I think it passes, if you accept that Pui's ventriloquising is interaction with female characters like Momo and Miss Mouse.

Numberjacks: BIG pass! Three may be annoying, but she's dynamic, and she does adance plots. the "older" numbers are more expository, and since every other is female, that's all covered.

64 zoo Lane: pass

Good discussion idea!

Oh ok x post there.

Abney and Teal only fails because there is only one male character and one female character and all the rest are indeterminate (oh no, sorry, I forgot Toby Dog, he must be male..And then of course, there was the slightly odd episode where Bop had babies, which means she must be female)

. But Teal is the active, adventurous character, whereas Abney is the careful, home loving one who cooks and knits....

Ah but what are they talking about? Its hard to tell but I suspect its Pingu himself a lot of the time which would make it a fail?

If I don't know what they are talking about because it's not real language, I'm giving it benefit of the doubt if it's two named females talking.

Lazytown? Are there any girls in the gang apart from Stephanie?

Velma and daphne rarely talk, that was supposed to be.

Good point, ladyIs - I was thinking that velma and ds

Queen, I think the seal is male, the baby sibling is female. There was a female friend in Pingu and the Snowboards. So where mum and sister are featured, it's a pass - otherwise mostly a fail.

Christ, this shit is In My Brain. I used to Know Things.

Scooby Doo passes every time the main villain is female because Velma always does the exposition. Daphne and Velma don't talk to each other much, but there's normally a decent size cast of guest stars for them to talk to.

Maisy Mouse - I think this passes as both Maisy and Tallulah are female, though whether they engage in conversation is debatable

Thomas - big fat fail.

Pingu - erm. Not entirely sure what gender all the characters are or what they 'talk' to each other about but Pingu is deffo a boy penguin.

I have a toddler. Can you tell?

I also have a 9yr old DD and I don't let her watch any TV aimed at children her age as I find it all utterly narsty and depressing. So I have no idea about TV for bigger kids. She does like films though, I shall pay close attention next time we watch something. The last thing I can think of was Mary Poppins which I think passes.

My friends Tigger and Pooh - maybe 50:50? Darby must talk to Kanga and the hedgehog character sometimes...

Duchesse
Tweak and dashi so two
Suspect it still fails though. Can't think of any times those two talk to each other

Rory the racing car -fail - though Cici and the female mechanic maybe talk occasionally?