AIBU to think there should be sex equality in children’s programmes?

[TestingTestingWonTooFree]

It pisses me off that there are so many male characters to female. For example:
PJ Masks - 2 boys: 1 girl
Go Jetters - 3 boys/1 male unicorn: 1 girl
Paw Patrol - 6(?) male dogs: 2 female dogs
Octonauts - 5 male : 3 female (assuming the vegetable is a girl)

Why are we reinforcing male as the default?

(Yes, I do have better things to worry about, no I don’t think it’s the greatest injustice in the world, yes, I think the absence of racial diversity and visible disability is also a problem).

Manga are equitable in some ways but be very careful of the content, some of that aimed at older children is sexual content laden!

I have three daughters (aged 4-8 now). They absolutely have noticed this and have asked about it regarding Paw Patrol.

The Magic School Bus (new version especially as it doesn't have Phoebe) is good for a mix of sexes and interests the children have.

TV tropes has a name for it “girl as character type”. When I was growing up (80s) most ensemble programs had a lead hero boy, a brainy boy, a funny boy (often overweight or a bit dim) and a girl. If there were two girls one would be a motherly type and the other a sporty Tom boy, like Anne and George in the Famous Five, but the boys outnumbered always the girls and a boy was always the lead. Now TV makers hide it a bit better but there are still very few programs with more girls than boys which aren’t considered exclusively “girls programs” , and even those with more varied and interesting female characters have a boy in the lead and the girl(s) are secondary characters. Children might not pick up on this on a surface level but they certainly internalise the message.

@RoseGoldEagle oh god that's made me a bit sad. It seems no matter how hard we try these ideas creep in. I remember a colleague telling me that she spent 4 years trying her best to ensure her DS didnt have gender ideas of boys are strong and girls are weak and silly, and then he was in school for 2 weeks and she said he came home and said they were playing a game in the yard where the boys had to rescue the girls from kidnappers because girls arent as strong as boys. It was all undone by Christmas.

I do wonder what my DD will just pick up outside of my sitting room, or if I am even giving her these gender ideas unconsciously.

Another programne DS likes is Carmen Sandiego - female lead character, support team of one girl and two boys, secret crime-busting organisation led by a woman with one female and one male agent, range of male and female villains, two criminals who have influenced the protagonist, one male and one female.

I don't remember them all being like this though.
Rainbows
Playdays
Magic garden
Power Rangers
Railway children
Queens Nose
watt on earth
To name but a few. Maybe just turn the telly off and have them play some imagination games in their room?

Second The Magic Schoolbus.

I can't think of many funny female characters. If the girl has a special skill it is often cleverness.

I was expecting it to be better than it is when I first started watching Children’s tv programmes but the likes of Paw Patrol really aren't much different than the 90s stereotypes I watched.

Powerpuff girls : 3 girls
Nella the princess knight: mostly girls
DC’s super hero girls
She-ra and the princess of power

I think the most 'feminist' of all the programmes/films my DDs watched when a bit younger was Barbie. Male characters were in a minority (not equal) but both sexes had a mixture of character types (good, evil, shy, strong, funny, clever etc) and Barbie didn't need a bloke to save the day.

I seem to remember Bing being about equal?

Skye in Paw Patrol is offensively pink. It would have been nice if they'd made her a different colour (blue/orange) and made one of the boy pups pink...

They could have

Im coming at this from an under 5 perspective as ds is 2 but there are a few that I think get it right from cbeebies:

Bitz and Bob

Sarah and duck.

Tellietubbies

Jojo and gran gran

That annoying show where the bossy child has a dinosaur.

Katie morag

Do you know?

Graces amazing machines.

YABU because you have picked out the ones that fit your narrative. Lots of examples on this thread that refute your OP.

"It is shit but I don't think the kids notice thank fully"

I have to disagree, they absorb this in the same way as everyone else does.

Read 'Delusions of Gender' by Cordelian Fine and 'Invisible Women' by Caroline Criado Perez.

When mine was smaller she liked Shimmer and Shine, two genies who made magic when needed. I don’t remember any boys in that. Or Masher and the bear, again just a little girl and her bear, no boys.

So I do think it’s unfair for @BubblyBarbara to say there are no programs made the other way round.

Ignore the tv, it’s up to us to teach our girls that they are as strong, as smart and as liable to succeed as boys!

Actually, for all the My Little Pony (Friendship is Magic) looks twee and very pink and pastel, it's a very good show. The main six ponies are a good mix of characteristics, both positive and negative, and motivations are rarely one-note.

Pinkie Pie, for example, is extremely annoying and pink and bouncy and they write off her contributions initially because she's such an airhead, but she often saves the day with her collection of random knowledge.

It also has excellent puns, most of which are for adults. I will admit to watching it when my children have wandered off to do something else.

@Jointhecircus

YANBU. I think anything with predominantly female characters is seen as ‘just for girls’.

Not TV, but I think it’s very telling that a female writer like JK Rowling chose to use a male main character as she wanted her books to appeal to both sexes. Also, she published under a gender neutral name.

She didn't choose Harry to be male. He just WAS male when she imagined him. As a writer myself, my characters come to me as they are, I don't decide what gender they are.

That she was encouraged to publish under her initials is not her fault either, though it was her choice.

If you want to pick on Rowling for something in Harry Potter to do with gender, I'd go for the fact she has a persistent distaste for feminine, girly characters. Cho, Umbridge, Fleur and Rita are all girly characters who get slated. Ginny is praised as "rarely weepy" like other girls. Hermione is touted as better than preening girls like Parvati and Lavender.

(it's true in her other books too - Rowling has a real thing against conventional girls with conventional female interests - all her heroines are Not Like Other Girls TM)

Super Hero Girls on Netflix is a good counterbalance - though I’ll be honest I’ll usually tune it out if I’m in the room when it’s on 😂

You are right though, it irks me no end that they gender stereotype characters in most tv shows.

@Teacher12345
Why don't you work in construction?

Grace/Katie’s amazing machines and Maddie (Do you know?) are both favourites of mine.

I have boys who don’t seem to be attracted to “girls programmes”. Left to their own devices they’d choose dinosaur-robot-transformer-fighters or whatever. I want them to watch shows where girls are as important and interesting as boys so that they have some balance. I think all the well intentioned talk and modelling at home seems to go out of the window once they go to school.

I've noticed this with my little girl and not just on telly. I was choosing some books for her the other day and I reckon over 80% were about boys or male characters in the shop I was in. Even the peppa ones were things like 'George gets a new dinosaur' and 'Grampy rabbit goes to space'! I wasn't very impressed. I do let my dd watch peppa pig even though lots of my mum friends dislike it. It's one of the only things with a sassy lead girl and I think that's more important than peppa sometimes being a bit cheeky! Some great recommendations on this thread - will have to check them out with dd to see if she likes them.

I honestly wouldn't want my son to be a teacher or nurse as the pay is awful

TBH I’m more concerned with the ginger-ist, spec-ist bias on Fireman Sam - why is ginger, specky Norman always the one to do something spectacularly stupid? Bad enough that he’s called Norman, poor kid.

Whilst the majority of children programmes do have white male leads and characters, they are many shows that have strong and diverse characters too.
It's shame that instead of moaning people just don't go and find them and show their is a market for such shows

I think Peppa Pig is sexist despite having Peppa as the lead character. She wears read (closet to pink), George wears blue.

George likes typically male things such as dinosaurs, Peppa despises them. When Peppa plays football they say it it's a girls game.

Also when they have club houses the girls get a house with curtains and it's very feminine and the boys get a castle.

Those are just a few examples I can think of. I spend far too much watching that blasted pig and dreaming of bacon sandwiches.