To be angry about sexism on kids TV

[Antoniacaenis]

Feeling very sad that DD (3) has just told be that the pink pig on her plaster must be George and not Peppa because it's in an astronaut costume.😡.

I am angry about what has made her think like this and In part I think it's the TV she watches, nearly always CBeebies and I thought these were ok. But when I think about it - where are the strong characters in lead roles? I guess I'm thinking about the cartoons mainly. Where are the girl characters in Peter Rabbit, Mike the Knight, and even DDs favourite Octonauts? In supporting roles... the fun , active main characters are nearly always male. I was liking Go Jetters until I realised that the only female character ( out of 5) never does anything except drive the car and worry she is not good enough ( non of the other characters have confidence issues and need constant reassurance from the team.

When the main character is female we get Kate and bloody Mim Mim. I know there is the likes of Katie Morag to balance things a bit but AIBU to be getting angry about this subtle conditioning?

Can anyone tell me about any good fun cartoons on other channels that don't follow this crappy pattern?

[SomedayMyPrinceWillCome]

I once saw an episode of Scooby -Doo, a female character would only drink "diet water" so she wouldn't get fat and she actually said that if she got fat her boyfriend would dump her

[MerchantofVenice]

V interested to read about My Little Pony. My dd loves it and I've always thought 'urghh, yuck' simply based on the pink/purple aesthetic of the whole thing. Now I feel I should pay more attention to the actual plot...

[AfunaMbatata]

The my little pony Equestrian girls films are all on Netflix btw in case anyone wants to watch them. You have to watch them in order though, really enjoyable.

[MerchantofVenice]

The tokenism of having one female character in things like Paw Patrol REALLY annoys me.

[jelliebelly]

Peppa pig rocks - dd and ds both loved it and pretty much viewed it as gender neutral in a weird way. My little pony on the other hand peddles so much pink glitter shit merchandise that many girls don't see past that.

[AngelaTwerkel]

I envy your life OP.

Why? Because you lack the imagination/empathy to consider she has other things going on than wondering why children's TV shows are sexist? If I've got the wrong end of the stick please let me know.

I agree OP. We need stronger female leads - for both boys and girls. But that's a good tip about MLP, I've avoided it because I imagined it would be terrible, but I'll give it a go now I think.

[CadnoDrwg]

Doc McStuffins is great, although Disney so you either have to pre-vet You Tube content or buy DVD/subscription TV.

A little girl is the lead character. The mum is a working doctor and the dad is SAHP.

My youngest loves it.

[OMGtwins]

Glad you posted this OP and everyone's suggestions have been really great to see.

We have boy girl twins and the difference in choices for them purely cos of their gender is rubbish for our girl. Paw Patrol does annoy me particularly, Skye and Everest are proper token and why does Ryder's character have to be a boy?!?!

Our girl asked about the lack of girl trucks in Blaze and girl pups in Paw Patrol and I had to explain sexism to her (in child friendly way) at 3. Sad times...

[Kpo58]

It always annoys me that in the Floogals there is a male and female Floogal and a younger male one, but when they say their names, the female on is always last. Just why?!

I dislike how in Peppa Pig, the male elephant is always called a cleverclogs. I have never seen that would used as anything apart from an insult in real life. So why are they insulting him for actually knowing things and answering questions, rather than not wanting answering questions he knows the answer to like so many kids did when I was at school?

[mummy2oneandtwo]

I think there are variations of the same issues for both genders too.

My boys love peppa pig but you can not find any 'boy' clothes with her on, it's George for the boys and Peppa for the girls, drives me crazy.

They watch Disney Jr too and you have Doc McStuffins and Sofia the First, both strong lead females....but again anything with those characters on is very 'girly' and over the top pink.

I just wish things could be more balanced for everyone!

[HurryUpAndWait]

Peppa Pig is a girl / sow. The lead character.

[SnugglySnerd]

I was thinking this exact same thing yesterday specifically about Peter Rabbit whose 2 sisters are expected to stay at home and clean/cook/sew/wear pretty dresses while he goes out having adventures.

[Pansiesandredrosesandmarigolds]

Another vote for Sarah and Duck. Charlie and Lola is good too, or Katie Morag.

[uhhuhh]

Paw Patrol fucks me off. I mean obviously it does but also in terms of sexism. There are six main dogs & only one is a girl. Why?! They are dogs surely three could be girls? Also why is Skye pink? And why does she have eyelashes? DD has a Paw Patrol sticker book & on Skye's page it says she likes going for pedicures. I mean for fuck's sake

[53rdWay]

Paw Patrol is awful for this. Some of the more peripheral characters are women, but why on earth do all the pups bar Skye (and Everest whenever she's in it) have to be boys? And of course Skye has to be the pinkest thing that ever pinked. She even has pink eyes FFS.

[WarwickDavisAsPlates]

Yeah my little pony is great, DD loves it, also power puff girls (DDs favourite character is MoJo Jojo though)

We have just started watching Miraclulous, it's about a teenager in Paris who is also a super hero. We've only seen about 2 episodes though.

[RoboticSealpup]

My little pony on the other hand peddles so much pink glitter shit merchandise

The play houses are actually really good quality. DD has three of them and we she comes up with all sorts of creative scenarios playing with them...

But the fact that the graphics and the plot have been heavily invested in is the main selling point for me. Lauren Faust (of Powerpuff girls fame) who developed the new format, has done an incredible job making the characters both cute, funny and expressive. And it's cool that they have a prominent woman animator at the helm.

I was obsessed with MLP when I was little (...can you tell?) but looking back, the cartoons and comic books of previous generations were absolutely awful. No plot, bad drawing, ugly ponies that looked like dinosaurs.

[CheshireSplat]

Paw patrol added a second girl (bitch whilst correct doesn't sound right in this context!)with Everest in season 2.

[museumum]

Everest is a distinct improvement on Skye in paw patrol. I try to make sure we watch the Everest episodes a lot.
We also try hard to find tweak and dashy octonaut toys but they're just not as prevalent.

[TheMasterNotMargarita]

My DD loves MLP but I cannot stand it, although I dont mind the equestria girls so much.
I may have to do a 180, I never thought about it like that at all.

[CheshireSplat]

I know this doesn't address the wider issues, but OP could your DD be saying the astronaut must've George because there's an episode where George dreams he's an astronaut? So that's the reason, not because because she thinks women can't be astronauts?

Cbeebies invented Lily in Peter Rabbit - she's a strong female lead. I think we have to blame Beatrice Potter for the Peter Rabbit sexism.

We love Do You Know in our house.

[slightlyglittermaned]

Have been trying to find better cartoons for my DS. He's addicted to Team Umizoomi at the moment - again, one girl, two boys.

He also likes The Clangers, which isn't perfect (daddy Clanger likes inventing, mummy Clanger likes gardening) but the sex ratio is rather better: main characters are Tiny, Mother, and Granny Clanger plus Soup Dragon & Iron Chicken, vs Major & Small Clanger, & the baby Soup Dragon & baby Iron Chicken.

Might try to find a Doc McStuffins DVD.

[GabsIsntthathardtospell]

Peppa pig is unbelievably sexist! It insidiously reinforces gender stereotypes in every episode. I used to think it was harmless, then I actually paid attention to a few episodes and it's all "daddy has a study (he's clearly an architect), mummy's scared of spiders"
😡 I have now banned it. DD is only 2, so watched very little TV anyway, but now doesn't watch any, I'm just not prepared to pump her full of all that shit.

[fizzicles]

Yey for My Little Pony! I have bored so many friends explaining how wonderfully feminist it is. Although – if your child is easily traumatised, the first couple of episodes on netflix are a bit scary. We had to skip those first time round cos DD was too scared. (I say first time, because I think we're now on her 3rd run through of the 5 seasons on Netflix.)

So looking forward to taking DD to watch the film when it comes out!

[RoboticSealpup]

DD and I watched an excellent MLP episode the other day. It was basically Top Gun, but with Rainbow Dash as maverick.

The instructor is a tough (female) army officer-type who shouts at the trainees and wears aviators.