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?!

Yes, and that is a different book to the Gruffalo, which is the one I was talking about.

Exactly. Don't Diss the Octonauts.

They really aren't, so many main characters are female, lots have been mentioned on this thread, that none of your replies have acknowledged.

There are also statistics around male and female leads, percentage of time on screen, speaking parts - the topic has been discussed at length for the past 20 plus years. You have hand picked the more male dominated serieses.

If you want to inspire your child on female role models move away from the fiction and look to non fiction Goodnight stories for rebel girls, or Fantastically Great Women Who Saved The Planet.

A lot of children's books are written by women, talk to your child about that. There are lots of compilations for all ages of real women.

The fact someone somewhere thought bluey was male is easily corrected and no real consequence for anything. You are in a spiral of aspect seeing, change your mindset and look for what you want its all out there.

I pretty much grew up on Biggles. This is directly responsible for my STEM career (I'm not kidding, it was in a slightly roundabout way, but would never have happened without that obsession). I never cared whether the characters were male or female to be honest. I spent a very large amount of time daydreaming about flying Spitfires and it bothered me not the slightest that women didn't!

Where I'm going is that I think you can over-think this, and throw some interesting babies (Treasure Island, I'd say) out with the bathwater. I'm not at all against having books with leading female characters, but I suspect peer pressure is more of an issue. I was very lucky as home educated so able to study maths and science without any pressure that it was for boys. (And be mildly obsessed with what were, even at the time, a rather outdated series of books without being teased to death for it.)

I did have a crush on Ginger though. Probably my first crush. My second was Sandy Arbuthnot. I was a very strange child.

@2mummies1baby usually though if you read The Gruffalo you end up reading it's sequel.

Bluey is on girls and boys stuff. As she should be. My son loves it. He knows she’s a girl, but he’s allowed to enjoy it!

We’ve always sang 5 little monkeys with alternating girl and boy monkeys, and Miss Polly with a female doctor.

Something I’ll keep my eye out for, though! We haven’t really watched Octonaughts but I didn’t know there was no girls. I was aware Paw Patrol don’t have many but thankfully we’re not too interested in that yet!

The research and discussions over the last 20 years clearly show that females are still underrepresented AND stereotypes. Cbeebies is on the better end of this but it's not equal. Some of us have been banging on about it for much longer than that.
Things have improved since the 1980s but default is still male and female characters are softer, kinder, into the way they dress,
<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=cbeebeies+characters+fwmale+to+male&oq=cbeebeies+characters+fwmale+to+male&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKAB0gEJMTAwODZqMGo0qAIAsAIA&client=ms-android-xiaomi-rvo3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=zephyrmicrosites.bournemouth.ac.uk/merj/files/2022/07/11.1-Sinclair.pdf&vssid=zephyr-w-microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/merj/files/2022/07/11.1-Sinclair.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cbeebies researxhs is one of many bits of research on it <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=cbeebeies+characters+fwmale+to+male&oq=cbeebeies+characters+fwmale+to+male&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKAB0gEJMTAwODZqMGo0qAIAsAIA&client=ms-android-xiaomi-rvo3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=zephyrmicrosites.bournemouth.ac.uk/merj/files/2022/07/11.1-Sinclair.pdf&vssid=zephyr-w-microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/merj/files/2022/07/11.1-Sinclair.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cbeebies research
.

Pressed too soon!

Yes I’ve noticed this. I’m not sure if it’s correlated but our 2.5yr old says ‘he’ for everyone regardless of sex. Trying to explain the difference between he and she is more complicated than I thought it would be.

Is that the case any more?

Already in my late 60s when Gdd1 was born, I first took her at maybe 18 months (7 years ago now) to a ‘rhyme time’ at the local library. I wasn’t familiar with all the songs but when ‘Miss Polly Had A Dolly’ started, I thought oh, good - I know this one…. gaily started singing about the doctor with his bag and his…. when it dawned that it was now HER!

Luckily they didn’t turf me out and tell me never to darken their doors again.

Right, so that's one female character out of six in total- you're right, what am I complaining about?! Silly me!

It very much depends on what research criterion is used. I'm all for powerful women and girls being represented but I think the steps forward should be acknowledged rather than pretending the issue is now today bigger than it is. Over exaggeration just reduces the cause.

seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/2020-tv-historic-screen-time-speaking-time-for-female-characters/

@2mummies1baby or you could read one of the other Julia Donaldson books with female characters. There's loads.

Interesting seeing people denying it in the comments. Because yes ‘he’ is normally the default and I never realized it so much until I had children. Majority of characters male, the odd token ‘she’. Tv too. Once you’ve noticed it it’s hard to miss it!

@2mummies1baby what I meant though do children really read The Gruffalo and think "oh no there's no females in this book"?
To them it's just a mouse, a fox, a snake and an owl.
(I may be wrong - I haven't done research)

I must live in a parallel universe because I have never noticed this in books, tv or films.
There's plenty of both males and females. Maybe it depends on what you watch and read 🤔

I have always changed pronouns as i read/sing if I think it’s at all sexist. Particularly in Richard Scarry books which are gorgeous but ridiculously old fashioned in that way.

@Gunpowder I think some Richard Scarry books have been slightly updated.
But the one bit in "What Do People Do All Day" where the mummy pig ends up in the bunk beds with the children while the husband snores happily away in his bed is the most realistic parenting scene in a children's book ever 😂😂

These aren’t great role models though.

Little Miss Muffet = frightened away by a spider

Little Bo Peep = so airheaded she lost her sheep, and whatever you do don’t make it worse woman, just leave them alone

Cinderella = woman, you can’t succeed unless you’re all dolled up and get yourself a rich man

Red Riding Hood = dead unless a man with a big tool comes to your aid

Snow White = dead unless a man kisses you

Goldilocks = fussy picky women never happy unless they’re being treated like a child

@Needmorelego - I think you are massively missing the point. I don't think it's acceptable to have a children's book with five characters, all of whom are male. You are free to disagree. I think children do pick up on it and internalise that 'male = default'.

If you’re looking for some lovely books with female heroes to read to your kids, I can recommend Sam Gayton. Give The Last Zoo and The Snow Merchant a try, also World Weavers. Better for somewhat older kids, with heroic, real, flaws-and-all girls taking center stage. Love them !!

Off the top of my head: male Disney/Pixar protagonists:

Mickey
Donald
Goofy
Mowgli
Baloo
Robin Hood
Wart/Arthur
Buzz Lightyear
Woody
Lightning McQueen
Mike
Sully
Nemo/Nemo's dad
Big Hero 6 robot
Pinocchio
Bambi
Peter Pan
Pooh
Remy
Simba
Wall-E
Hercules
Aladdin
Bolt
Wreck-it Ralph
Tarzan
Mr Incredible
Stitch

I did caveat with recently which I would describe in the last quarter century. And also that I gave my head a wobble. I'd also argue that Anna and Elsa had more depth and character development in their pinkie fingers than that list excepting wall-e, Tarzan, Aladdin and Hercules. Also most of them are animals.

@2mummies1baby yes we will have to agree to disagree.
Like I said - I've not done research (other than being a volunteer reader at my daughter's primary so I've read lots of children's books).
🙂

My kids are 5 and nearly 2 and I used to teach little children and I don't 'get' any of this. Plenty of female characters all around. Can't get worked up about Bluey being on boys' underwear/ clothes. My son loves Bluey and obviously knows she's a girl, why shouldn't he have clothes / underwear with them on as an option? Seem to be trying hard to find something to get annoyed about op.