To think it would've killed the producers to make one of the principle Octonauts female?

[lookingforthecorkscrew]

There ARE two female Octonauts but they're v much secondary characters, and does make me a bit miffed*. Thought we'd come a bit further than this.

*obvs I don't stay awake all night being angry about this, it just irritates me

Sweetie is a baddie isn't she? I would actually quite welcome a female baddie who isn't a witch - the comic bad guys in kids TV are often the best characters, and nearly always male!

Slightly differently but I LOVE that the lead in the Legoland pirate show is a female currently :-)

Is she a baddie? Oh good! So the sweetie thing is ironic; thank Christ.

Sky is the most important and most oftenly used pup in Paw Patrol.

I often find myself feeling sorry for rubble who is often left out of most story lines entirely.

"The octonauts had been going for years so well before noise was being made about this sort of thing."

Really? Before the 1970s?

It appears feminism was unheard of in 2010!

Nemo
Lightning
Dusty....

I was going to say pj masks. Oh well.
How about my little pony. They are all girls and get up to all sorts.

at the new paw patrol pup.

They just don't get it do they?

Agree with PP. My Little Pony is great. They are nearly all female characters and are all very capable. It has a feminist following! It's on Netflix and one of those freeview kids channels.

Yeah my little pony is great. Lots of strong female characters. I was all "here we go again" when dd got into but it's actually very good and not at all like I assumed initially.

My eldest dd loves PJ Masks as well and the merchandising is already doing my head in.

They should have an episode where they kill off a couple of the boy characters, maybe by breathing apparatus failure or shark attack, then captain barnacles sisters can move in and take over.

Maybe Barnacles could retire and Dashi could get a promotion? DS was convinced Peso is a girl.

My little pony used to give dd nightmare when she was about 5. The big staring eyes seemed to be why.

I'm with you YANBU - it's so annoying that shows get made about animals or some fantasy scenario but the makers have more male than female characters. JUST EVEN it out! 50/50 like the world actually is more or less!
Paw Patrol - that's another one - Skye was the only female character FOREVER till Everest ( who doesn't even live with the rest of them!) was introduced. Surely you go - A show, aimed a pre-schoolers 6 Dogs, 3 girls 3 boys, make sense right?? Or did someone really go, well Rubble, kind of a builder - prob a bloke then. Marshall 'fire' yup that'll need to be a boy. They're fictional dogs for heavens' sake!The deputy mayor of the town is a bloody chicken! Drives me mad cos my girls LOVE Paw Patrol but are always asking why there aren't more girl dogs in it...

There's a girl boss on Odd Squad, it's for slightly older kids. Brilliant show but it is American.

I do think the older kids programmes are better for this. They have Hetty Feather and Tracey ans stuff (I know same author) and the fantasy stuff has a more even split.

This is why I like Bubble Guppies. 3 male and 3 female characters and they don't just perform the stereotypical roles either. All equally important so no main character. Why should there still be just one token female like Skye in Paw Patrol? I hate it.

Yes, i agree. I was quite disappointed when I realised Peso wasn't female.

My DD has decided that Zuma on paw patrol and Peso from Octonauts are both girls and wont be persuaded otherwise by other kids! she's evening up the score on her own...

YABU. Not every show has to be politically perfect. As long as there are choices who cares.

I have a girl and boy, so I get to see a whole range of shows, some where the girl is the lead, some where the boy is. Both seem to share some shows, prefer different ones.

I think too many people are just offended over nothing nowadays, especially when there is just so much choice

How many adventure shows are there for preschoolers/young children where the female characters outnumber the male ones ordinary? I can think of My Little Pony (if that counts as adventure) and not much else.
We mainly just watch the cbeebies, with the exception of Paw Patrol and although there is more choice now not everyone has an unlimited choice, as not everyone has Netflix/Prime/Sky etc.

I love Octonauts, it is a great program and in isolation I would have absolutely no problem with the three main characters and the majority of the team being male. But it's not in isolation - as pointed out in numerous examples on the thread it follows a pattern, and the pattern is what I object to.

Its not that great a leap to think that the culture we absorb as very young children will have an effect on what we believe boys and girls (or men and women) are capable of as we grow up. Nor is it a leap to think that the messages our children are bombarded with as they grow up (whether through TV, clothes, the playground, the toy shop, or the adults around them) will have an effect on how they think males and females should behave.

So yes, I care about these things.

Who is offended? Just because people care about something doesn't mean they are offended. Why do people jump to this conclusion? Very odd.

"I think too many people are just offended over nothing nowadays, especially when there is just so much choice"

Who's offended?