Positive, non-sexist books and videos for toddler girl?

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It's gradually dawning on me how sexist some TV programmes and books for the very young are - stuff like the Tweenies and Bob the Builder are really beginning to irritate me.

As we've cancelled our Sky subscription I'm relying on videos/DVDs from now on, which will allow me to be more selective (not that DD watches much TV but we've got a new baby on the way and I know I'll start resorting to it more when b/fing etc).

So - book and video/TV recommendations for an 18mo please, full of subversive girl power!

wasnt she?

i dont remember her being at school at all

and talking of complete disregard for school, theres always pippi longstocking (who makes dd1 nervous, as does horrid henry, as she is top school swot)

Nope - it struck me vividly at the time - it went something like:

(or might even have been sixth form!)

She wasn't at school much in the books but there were odd refs to how hideous uniform was - not being jodhs. Susan Pyke was in the 6th form I think. (She would be.)

(I wanted to be Jill, desperately!)

Do you have old books or new ones, Enid? Only you know they changed Black Boy's name to something innocuous?

old

all mine from when I was lickle

Susan Pyke!

Rapide was my first love

Teddy Robinson books are good - Deborah owns him.

Ramona books too - Ramona and her mother etc. She's a fiesty one!

However, I'm with Twig and Jools - it just seems rather over analytical to me and anyway, it doesn't matter what you do, girls will generally be girls and boys will generally be boys. I got my boys (4 and 2) a dolls house for christmas complete with all the rooms and a family and they NEVER go near it (except to sit on it or throw people off the roof!) - trains win everytime.

(Final Jill post, honest)

Can anyone confirm or deny that Ruby Ferguson was really Enid Blyton?

that would rock my world

gdg and to call the old git with grey hair 'nanny'

PMSL! Oh yes!

Panic not, Enid - just found this:

Have to say I thought she was far too witty to have been Mrs B but I read it somewhere else once.

have you seeon my thread I started just ofr you Jan

Yep, just replied!

Janh- I don't know! I got it from the teenagers thread. I like it!

Jools, you spoon! I think this thread is well sick but if you think it's mince you can stop lookin at it innit? Do yer have to get embroiled in it if you think it mings? I think not.

LOL at Scummymummy!

I do agree ..even my own dp who has endured me for 15 years will still say things to me like ' gender stereotypes....do you think?' or 'is it really the case???' Yes it is and many of us are too blind to see it. You dont have to be a psychologist to see its every where. We have to buck against it as much as possible and right from the start.

Scummymummy...how old are your children?

They're 6, Miranda. Non-id twin boys. How about you?

Oh, scummy, I remember now - "face of concern I think not"! (I take that as a variation on "go and tell someone who gives a sh*t!")

Mine are 12,10,8 and 2

Twelve year old ds has just managed to get me rejected from email account and then deny having been near PC

Life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Dammit (am I still allowed to say that on MumsbowdlerisedNet?), I had lots of good suggestions and I think most of them have wiped themselves from my brain. Oh yes, there's a lovely one called Smile Crocodile Smile by An Vombrout (the genius behind 64 Zoo Lane) which is beautiful to look at, simple story, mix of genders and the bright idea comes from a female (rabbit).

Bear in the Big Blue House is lovely IMO; there's a great episode all about how wonderful Girls are, and they can do anything and don't have to wear soppy ribbons if they don't want to, and another about how boys can be afraid if they like. Most of the characters are male but little female OJo (is that her name?) is so glorious, and the male characters are quite vulnerable.

Thanks MI Did a bit of googling and found out the Bear in the Big Blue House episode you're talking about is called "You go, Ojo!", but it's not available on DVD/video

Quentin Blake - you see I've been thinking about this - also has some fabulous middle-aged women, like Fantastic Daisy Artichoke and Mrs Armitage (whom I'm secretly convinced is a vicar's wife). VG role models for moi, let alone the Inferiorettes.

On the same topic of middle-aged females there are some rather delightful books about cows. Click Clack Moo is a bit old for your daughter, although splendid about the effects of organised labour (it's actually incredibly funny), and my friend Deborah Fajerman has a lovely one called 'How to speak Moo', plus another called 'Baa for Beginners'.

but Miranda - how may women do you know who have anything in common with Snow White or Cinderella? they're the ones that I really object to - the clear moral is be a drudge, be a good girl, look pretty and hold tight, all will be well cos a man will come to your rescue. blueergh. The other issue (as I said before) is just one of making an effort to get a balance. I know there's a lot more that will influence them than books but I do think they sow certain seeds. And none of that is incompatible with realising full well that men and women are different and there are some traits more common in one gender than the other. I don't stop dd from reading anything but I do take the piss out of the fairy stories (mum bought them for her) and she generally prefers dh's stupid versions or Roald Dahl's

I just came across Bad Becky by Gervase Phinn (was looking for something else!)

No reviews on amazon yet so I don't know what it's like.