To find it deflating that majority of children's song/book characters are "he"?

[Radradrad]

To name some examples:
Five Little Monkeys (fell off and bumped HIS head. Every monkey in that song is male).

Miss Polly Had a Dolly (male doctor, though being a female doctor myself I always sing over it with "she") 😂 actually more accurate since the majority of GP's are women.

Don't get me started on dinosaurs in books and songs, no wonder the dinosaurs went extinct as it seems there wasn't a single female dinosaur?

And then shows like Hey Duggee, which I actually do like, but there are 6 main characters and only two are female. Why?! And I downright refuse to have Octonauts on as none of the main characters are female.

Omg one more thing, the fact EVERYONE thinks Bluey is a boy when she is a girl! Just because she isnt pink/wearing a dress. Asda even have her on boys underwear!

Is it just me?!

You are not being unreasonable, OP- it makes me so angry, too. Women make up 50% of the population, and yet you would never realise it from kids TV shows and books! Even otherwise great shows, like Octonauts, and great authors, like Julia Donaldson, fall foul of this- not one character in the Gruffalo is female! My wife and I change the pronouns when reading to our daughter to make sure there is an appropriate gender balance, but we shouldn't have to. It always amazes me more people aren't angry about this.

I always found the slightly incompetent male lead character constantly having to be bailed out by his incredibly intelligent and competent female sidekick as annoying (looking at you Andy 😠)

Skye was my son's favourite because she had a helicopter.

All the books I can think of have female characters talking but it seems it's because I'm thinking of older books like the Babysitters Club, Mystery Club and Jacqueline Wilson's books.

I don't really remember the younger books. Do the animals in Dear Zoo count if they don't talk? Or do they?

I get your overall point, but I see no problem with Bluey on boy's garments (under- or otherwise). In fact, I would like more of that - female characters on things marketed for males, as well as male characters on things for females.

Why, with Peppa Pig for example, is Peppa on all the stuff "for girls" and George on all the stuff "for boys"? Ridiculous! Boys and girls should be encouraged to like and look up to fictional and real characters of both sexes!

I find a pretty good split, more so with newer books. Dear zoo is male heavy for example but there's no shortage of female or non specific.

Books aimed at older dc also have a fairly good split, and some amazing ones with female protagonists. There's plenty of sexist literature out there but if you're aware of the issue it's easy enough to avoid.

Anyone who watches Bluey knows she's a girl. They talk about being sisters all the time!

@2mummies1baby The Gruffalo's Child is a girl.
She is the Gruffalo's daughter.

I wasn't talking about the Gruffalo's Child. I was talking about The Gruffalo. They are separate books.

No reason for the owl, fox, and snake all to be male.

"I sent him back" repeated 10x.

Yes, they count. Why are they all "him"? There's zero reason for it. They're animals. Repetition is used to great effect in those sort of baby books - but the default shouldn't be "him".

@hoarahloux do children really notice though?
They see it as a mouse, a fox, an owl and a snake (and a gruffalo 😂).
Do they associate the characters as being "male"? At that age do they really think that deep?
(I actually don't know.....)

Surprised at how many people are suggesting 'just change the pronouns' given the usual sentiment around changing pronouns on MN.

My Dad who never actually watched Bluey properly thinks she’s a boy, but in fairness he was confused because she looks like Bandit and Bingo looks like Chilli. I sort of get it.

but… why shouldn’t bluey be on boys clothes? She’s on girls clothes too? My DS is obsessed and wanted a girls bluey dress the other day.

tbh I occasionally find it frustrating you can’t get more “girly” characters on boys clothing - DS would be over the moon with some Merida pants!

also OP, you should read how to grow a dragon/how to grow a unicorn. Main character is a girl and they are so much fun! DS5 loves them

But it's the reader who says that, not the animals. It wasn't clear from my post but it was in reference to the comment that of the top 100 children's books only 53 had speaking females. I've just checked and Dear Zoo didn't make the top 100 so it doesn't count either way.

Not surprised what kind of a line is "I wrote to the zoo to send me a pet"

Of course they do. They're taught from birth about he, she, him, her. Mummy is a girl, daddy is a boy. If every character in a story is "him", what does that teach them about "her"? Where does she fit in? It's exactly the same as Paw Patrol with its 6 male characters and 2 female characters.

I don't understand your point. We're not talking about gender equality in books or about talking animal characters. The reader says "him" for every single animal when their gender is irrelevant. Why can half of those lines not say "I sent her back".

You're mentioning "female characters talking" but that isn't what this thread is about.

It really depends on what you watch. We have/have had a lot of My Little Pony, Sofia the First, and Peppa Pig at our house.

Re: Octonauts, it’s never really bothered me that six of the eight are male. It’s a physically demanding job with living in close quarters, very little time off, and almost no chance to see family, and in real life, those kinds of jobs tend to attract more men than women.

Like I said, it was in reference to a post which specified how many books had speaking females from the top 100 books. I should have made it clearer but didn't think to quote and as Dear Zoo isn't even in the top 100 it was a moot point.

It drove me mad in baby / toddler books that the crocodiles, lions, tigers etc are always 'he', and the giraffes, elephants etc are 'she'. It's the same in a lot of dinosaur books, the carnivores are 'he' and the herbivores are 'she'.

Never thought about it when my children were little people..over 20 years ago ! They are amazing people including a daughter ,who are fully functioning adults without any male dominated opinions.

My little boy was devastated he couldn’t get underwear with peppa pig on

Yes, they really do. You can look on YouTube where there’s a video a primary teacher made of her young class, where she’s told the children they’re getting visitors that day, and told them to draw a picture of a doctor, fire fighter, fighter pilot (or something like that). The vast majority of the class drew them all as men. When the visitors turned up, they were all people of those professions and they were all women. The children were gobsmacked. Gender roles are ingrained from a really early age

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qv8VZVP5csA

I go to a lovely playgroup where the doctor in miss olly takes off her hat, there's a bag of wool for the little girl down the lane etc. It's great to see it thought about.

For my DSs I would like to see boys shown in more caring roles and often I think it's a shame that girls feature most heavily in children's tv! I guess it's just what you like watching... We like bluey and peppa which feature girls in the main roles. Plus DS1 loves frozen.