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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Or is this children's programme about a man with the world's largest PENIS rather off

79 replies

Yetano · 07/01/2021 01:59

Hope this link works. It's a new Danish show for little kids called Dilletmand or 'penis man'.
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/john-dillermand-denmark-launches-childrens-tv-show-man-giant-penis?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

OP posts:
MustardMitt · 07/01/2021 10:53

I find it alarming that some people don’t see the problem with this.

Penises, by their very nature, move on their own and change shape. “Look Little Johnny, my willy is standing up all on its own! Isn’t that funny! I wonder if it can take a sweety out of your hand just like that funny cartoon you watch!”

Hmm

Out of control penises as a funny cartoon concept for 4 year olds - who is in charge of danish tv and why aren’t they investigating the developer of this programme.

GreenlandTheMovie · 07/01/2021 10:55

@duckinatruckwithmuck

Totally inappropriate. The penis thing doesn’t stick out (😂) as weird to me too much- Denmark’s USP is all about how relaxed they are about their bodies/lives and how happy they are as a result, blah, blah, blah, etc. My biggest bugbear is they’re using someone ethnic/exotic looking WITH A STRANGE DISABILITY/DISORDER and who is portrayed as a bit stupid. Denmark has a long standing racism problem and this feeds the narrative that anyone non-white/Danish is a freak/thick.

I’ve just flicked through a few of the episodes on YouTube and the other people the character interacts with are visibly light skinned. I believe it’s a deliberate attempt to show people from immigrant backgrounds in a negative light. The penis is just a red herring.

You've probably hit the nail on the head.
MustardMitt · 07/01/2021 10:55

And it’s ridiculous to say that children need a safe way to discuss sexual assault (or whatever it was up thread). They don’t. Don’t go with strangers and these areas are private - like the NSPCC campaign I think? - are what we should be doing. Not showing a programme with a wayward willy and even though it’s funny then having to explain that actually, if a man does this in real life it’s very very bad. How is that less confusing?!

Onjnmoeiejducwoapy · 07/01/2021 11:29

So potentially damaging and like a ready-made tool for child abusers

Seasaltyhair · 07/01/2021 11:43

SeaSaltyhair. Yes mine probably would have giggled at a truck swallowing vagina too. It’s childish silly humour, like giggling at words like bottom and fart

There is a big difference between bottom and fart and a truck swallowing vagina and an lengthy out of control penis.

As I said, read Bettelheim. He’s better informed than the Daily Mail. Your thinly veiled insults are unnecessary. My safeguarding knowledge is good, thanks

No it’s clearly not.

MoltenLasagne · 07/01/2021 11:49

I read about this in The Guardian yesterday. Apparently when Dillermand gets told off because his penis does something naughty like stealing an ice cream, he says "It wasn't me, it was my penis." Fantastic lesson for small children.

TopBants · 07/01/2021 11:49

That's weird. Is Danish children's TV in the grip of a Jimmy Saville? Anyone remember the expose of that kid's programme from the eighties, was it The Magic Roundabout, and some song was entirely composed of sexual double entendre?

Was it about twangers and playing with them? On Rainbows?

www.dailymotion.com/video/x1atuz

TopBants · 07/01/2021 11:51

Hang on, YouTube link:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=CgbcQIT7BMc

grumpygiraffe · 07/01/2021 11:53

Have any of you slagging off this programme actually watched it?

NotBadConsidering · 07/01/2021 11:54

Some quotes from the article:

Erla Heinesen Højsted, a clinical psychologist who works with families and children, said she believed the show’s opponents may be overthinking things. “John Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking – and kids do find genitals funny,” she said.

Generally little kids find bottoms and farts funny. I don’t think it’s true that children find genitals funny, and if they do it isn’t adult genitals they find amusing. Any child who advises they’re being exposed to adult genitals regularly would raise a red flag.

“The show depicts a man who is impulsive and not always in control, who makes mistakes – like kids do, but crucially, Dillermand always makes it right. He takes responsibility for his actions. When a woman in the show tells him that he should keep his penis in his pants, for instance, he listens. Which is nice. He is accountable.”

So kids aren’t even being taught that men should control their penises in the first place, only that if they “lose control” they’d better be sorry afterwards. I mean, seriously? How is an adult man making mistakes with his penis (I seriously can’t believe I have to type that about a kids cartoon) teaching kids to take responsibility for their mistakes too?

It’s just fucked up. Fucked up beyond belief. It’s teaching kids that adult penises are fun and interactive and if they misbehave and make mistakes it’s ok as long as the person with the penis is accountable. Which is just wrong on every single level of safeguarding from abuse.

As a society we’ve become so determined to be “sex positive” and not seen as prudes that we’ve decided to throw all safeguarding measures out the window at any opportunity.

This is grooming in plain sight.

Angliski · 07/01/2021 11:58

I bet kiddies think this is hilarious though.

Juniperandrage · 07/01/2021 12:10

@CherryRoulade

Harmless? Normalising "amusing" and imaginative tales of men exposing their genitalia to children

Yes. Actually, read ‘The Uses of Enchantment by Bettelheim’.
About as harmful as children singing Ring a Ring of Roses or children hearing about Hansel and Gretel. Less harmful probably than watching Tom and Jerry.

Bettelheim was a fraud. He made his "relevant" academic credentials up. Also that book is unreconstructed Freudian nonsense.

(which is not to say that stories are not an important part of children's development, but this is a terrible use of that argument)

NotBadConsidering · 07/01/2021 12:14

@Angliski

I bet kiddies think this is hilarious though.
Which is why the adults in the room need to take charge.
TopBants · 07/01/2021 12:25

@Angliski

I bet kiddies think this is hilarious though.
Kids find lots of stuff hilarious- you hardly need to scrape the barrel to this extent to find a show concept that will amuse kids.
Jetatyeovilaerodrome · 07/01/2021 13:03

Teachibng kids that an adult man with a wayward willy isn't 'a bad man'....he just can't help it.

What could possibly go wrong?!

Yetano · 07/01/2021 13:25

Clearly the child was asking for their ice cream to be stolen. What did they expect, parading it around like that?
Poor Dillermand couldn't help it!

OP posts:
ArabellaScott · 07/01/2021 14:43

Presenting male genitalia as terrifyingly harmful, scary and entirely abusive is far, far more damaging.

There is, of course, a middle ground between showing a cartoon penis that does 'naughty' things that the man can't control, and the strawman you've made here of presenting genitalia as 'terrifying'.

This would be the middle ground most sensible parents woudl tread - bodies are normal, everybody has bodies. Children are taught about bodies in an age-appropriate, non-judgemental way. I recommend 'my body is me' as a good starting place for younger children.

Boundaries, however, are also very important. Hence the many campaigns taught in schools and by families since time immememorial. Check out the NSPCC's 'pants' campaign, for example. Children need to know about bodily consent. They need to know what is and isn't appropriate, safe, healthy and good. This is very basic. Any parent or teacher will understand that children need healthy boundaries, not just for safety but for their own dignity and peace of mind.

This TV show is not about 'bodies'. This is about 'actions'.

This is specifically about the actions of a penis. The man is not in control of his penis, the penis does bad things.

If you can't see how this is terribly dangerous then I just don't know what to say.

FourTeaFallOut · 07/01/2021 14:49

That Rainbow episode wasn't broadcast, it was a joke.

user127819 · 07/01/2021 15:02

@Godimabitch

Sounds like a rather efficient way to destigmatise genitals. It's just a body part, and I bet it's funny.
Is that really a good thing though? We need to teach children that certain areas of their body are different to other areas, and as a result, those areas should not be shown in public, and should not be touched by other people. How are children supposed to know that somebody touching their penis is wrong but somebody touching their shoulder is okay if we've stripped all special meaning and differentiation from those body parts?

I don't really like the way the word "stigma" has become an exclusively bad word nowadays. There is a stigma against a grown man exposing himself in a park, and that's a good thing! There should be a stigma about some things.

ArabellaScott · 07/01/2021 15:16

Again, this show is not just about 'body parts', it's about a penis that 'does bad things' and gets the man who owns it into trouble. This is very, very different than, say, a programme exploring bodies and their functions.

greeneyedlulu · 07/01/2021 15:25

[quote Campervan69]It was in the Daily mail and this comment caught my eye. .. legal dog rape brothels??? So I googled it and yup it was true!!!

www.thedodo.com/denmark-stop-animal-brothels-a-621737227.html[/quote]
god lord!! my afternoon just took a weird turn.... I think that's enough internet for today!

HPLikecraft · 07/01/2021 16:12

Hey kids, come and play Dillerman with Uncle Kevin, it's great fun! My penis is out of control too! Hmm

And imagine the merchandise.Shock

LakieLady · 07/01/2021 16:16

@maras2

Seems more appropriate for Viz. Shock
He'd make a good mate for Buster Gonad, of the unfeasibly large testicles.
HPLikecraft · 07/01/2021 17:02

I tried to watch a bit of footage, and at the beginning of the video, it said: "Warning adult content" !!
I mentioned the programme to DH earlier, in a 'guess what I've seen on the internet' way and described it a little, and he motioned furiously at DD (11) in a way that suggested it was an unsuitable topic to discuss within her earshot.

A children's programme for 4-8 year olds that - to (some) British minds - contains adult content and can't even be described to an eleven year old!

Campervan69 · 07/01/2021 18:09

@KatieGGGG this petition presented to the government of Denmark successfully would suggest that it was legal until 2015.

www.change.org/p/helle-thorning-schmidt-make-bestiality-illegal-and-close-your-animal-brothels-denmark

Or is this children's programme about a man with the world's largest PENIS rather off