to think that Cbeebies is sexist

[noonki]

I have 3 DS's and get so annoyed at the portrayal of girls and women on Cbeebies.
The main things that rile me are

No. 1 - the token girls (upsa-daisy from In the Night Garden and Wendy in Bob the Builder for example)

No. 2 - The overload of leading males (Fireman sam, tommy zoom, bob the buider, pingu, sportacus, tellytubbies and the list can go on and on)

No. 3 - the amount of pink and frillyness worn by the girls (eg - The tweenies, upsadaisy, etc)

There are a few exceptions but only a few - check out the Cbeebies character page and just do a quick comparision...

does anyone else agree or am just feeling lost in my house of boys?

They've been very successful in getting boy viewers. It's a hard market to crack apparently. They've done this, I guess, by having lots of programmes to appeal to boys and 3 male presenters.

Ahem. My nearly 4 year old constantly scrutinises gender roles - he'd just convinced himself that 'girls can't drive' (I can't), when CM passed her test, thereby confusing him...

Apparently 'Daddies can't cook' - dh is actually perfectly capable & cooks regularly.

Also 'daddy works in an office' whereas 'mummy plays with children at school' - I bloody wish, I'm the main breadwinner.

He takes this sort of thing in from everywhere. Including TV - his current response to various adverts is 'Ugh, girly'. It is an influence & it'd be good to see more female protagonists - Fifi Flowertot doesn't count!

(& don't get me started on the pukesomeness of the female Tweenies - there's the bossy big sister one, & the useless hair flicking one. Very positive role models).

too Machiavellian you read too much into whimsy telly. riles you that much?switch off i am not with these conspiratorial gender stereotypes ahhh we are under attack from men

What?????

You are the adult you act as an appropriate adult not some numnut on the telly

ps i love nina and neurons

Yes - My DS1 was very surprised (on moving to Juniors) to find that men can be teachers, but it has nothing to do with TV, just what he sees around him. Actually there is a male teacher in Me Too isn't there?

Blimey, have the past 40 years of women's lib been wiped out, or something? I thought we could take it as read that gender stereotypes DO influence children... there has been so much research on this, it is as established a fact as a very established fact indeed.

Of course they don't remember this when they are choosing their GSCE options of whatever, they just absorb it so it never occurs to 99 per cent of girls that plumbing might be more rewarding than, say, becoming a beautician.

I thought Cbeebees is quite balanced, but then I don't really get into it much.

My dd's 4.10 fave programme is Big Cook Little Cook - why, I can't imagine. But she raced down from bed this morning so as not to miss it. Both are men and not particularly good looking.

Yes, Big Cook Little Cook fires a big flaming arrow though any claims that beebies perpetuates the myth that only mummies cook.

but blueshoes the majority of famous chefs are men

Noonki - I was agreeing with you earlier by the way.

Thinking back to my own childhood - I grew up overseas with very little telly. It came as a huge shock to me in my teens to learn that females couldn't achieve (as easily) as men. Also that we would (or may) face prejudice and discrimination.

I don't know the impact of tv as opposed to parental influence but surely it is something worth keeping an eye on.

what has changed is preponderance of regional accents, rather than bbc clipped.

Nina (neuron) is scottish
Shrek is scotish

Oh God this is beyond belief

Hi Yama -

I didn't watch much as a kid either but as a kid was a total tomboy,

I guess I haven't had to do much with all the pinkness etc of the last decade or so and my main insight into is through tv and I find it a big bleugh making

I am all for strong role models etc at home but worry that my boys who, though have girls that are friends, come from a very male family, get this skewed view of the world (or perhaps just a mirror of it) that I find quite sad -

I don't let them watch much tv but worry coz so many kids do

Big Cook Little Cook don't actually cook as such, though...

What they do is: a frog wanders into their caff. After 10 minutes faffing about & reading a crap version of a trad fairy tale, they decide that what Mr Frog would love to eat is - nice! - a soggy pepper full of couscous, arranged to look a bit like, er, a frog.

oh i am sure all the tv watching kiddies wont worry too much about what worries you nooki

Sorry - think this is all bolloks! I grew up in 70s where female role models pr[abaly include Octavia the Ostrich and Mary from Mary Mungo and Midge. This has not affected the rest of my life! Little children do not make the same distinctions about sex /roles. My dd loves dancing and isn't much interested in weapons but who knows....

Lol at not particularly good looking!

Wannabe - like I said I don't really have an opinion on whether cbeebies is sexist or not, my oldest 2 have moved onto Ben 10 and the like and the youngest is still too young for cbeebies really so I've not really watched much for a while. But I do think that gender steroetypes do affect them if they are exposed to it often enough. Its not like talking diggers that they get just from cbeebies and other early childhood influences, the gender stereotyping carries on throughtout life quite often, cbeebies or whatever is just a starting point.

My oldest 2 do have ideas about what are girls things and boys things and what girls and boys can and cant do that comes not just from tv but friends, books, magazines, toys... its everywhere you go and very hard to overcome. So if there are sexist stereotypes being portrayed to them at such a young age then I think it does matter.

at Raven's very accurate summary of Big Cook, Little Cook. I have noticed that their customers never come back again...

I have the same worries Noonki. I know I provide a very strong female role model for my dd but what happens when she encounters sexism? I guess she'll be ready for it.

In the meantime, I will censor what she reads/watches and correct anyone who automatically says "he" when referring to stereotypically male jobs/roles and vice versa.

What about when our boys encouter sexism?

It is shocking how sexist some primary school teachers are. Ie. the whole curriculum is very orientated towards girls. There are very few men in primary schools.

Nowadays I don't think women have any problems. Women do better academically than men at very academic level.

dearie me censoring/changing gender you will get an ulcer. is the mere mention of men so bad

guess what a man got majority of us up the nelly uff.not so bad in my book

Yes the lack of male teachers in primary schools worries me. Ds1 is in an infant school of 300 children with not 1 male teacher. Once a week they have sports coaches come in and one of them is male but thats it.
DD has just moved up to the junior school which is about twice the size and the only male staff members are the head, the SENCO and the caretaker afaia.

Sexism, gender stereotyping, inequality etc bothers me from whatever angle it comes from.

wannaBe, I find your reply totally pointless and I am slightly at a loss as to why you bothered. In fact the same could be said about several of the replies on here. There really isn't much point in having a "discussion forum" if legitimate musings are instantly put down with feeble attempts at humour.

Wannabe (what?) I had only read as far as your first post when I was moved to reply. It will be interesting to see what else you came up with...

Pineneedles well tbh I don't really think it's something that is worthy of a serious discussion.

These are 3, at best 5 year olds fgs. And it's a television channel. one which, if you don't like its content, or the message it puts across, you are free to switch off. It's not rocket science.

I think if anything people should question the merchandising aspect of television over the sexist aspect. A 3 year old isn't going to grasp the concept of men bein higher up in the pecking order to women, but he is very well going to grasp the concept of "I watch fireman sam on the telly, oh look here's a fireman sam toy in the shop, I want I want I want and I will scream until I get."

The "buy buy buy" message is far greater, and far more powerful than the sexist message.

and far more immediate.

he will want his programme-related merchandise now. Whereas by the time he reaches the age where he will realize that in some industries men and women are not equal (and that can apply to women being more prevalent than men in some industries as well i.e. childcare), what he watched on cbeebies will be a dim and distant memory, if he even remembers at all.