The "ghastly sexism" of Cbeebies - Viv Groskop, Guardian

[HairyToe]

www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2203876,00.html

Interesting - so what does everyone else think?

Just wait till your dc are old enough for cbbc and watch the sexism fly into your living room. My dd adored basil brush and it's appallling: pretty girl walks into a room and there's wolf whistling, eyes rolling - such a bad role model for boys and teaches girls that being pretty is their main aim in life.
I am trying to cut down how much she sees it but am doing it slowly so she won't notice.

oh yes you're right about basil brush!

!

Has Basil Brush aways been like that?

basil brush has always been a nob.

I don't have much of an issue with the cbeebies characters except for the Tweenies but I hate that anyway
(likewise bobbienogs / toddworld / and that red puppy thing)

but in the sections with the presenters when they do dress up with the children, the girls are always nurses and princesses and the boys always builders and policemen.

I used to really like wathcing Tweenies with my kids.

Is it just out of date now? Ok, fizz was girly but bella's personality could have been boy or girl

Completely disagree. I think CBeebies is fine - Nina is a scientist for goodness sake, and Judy in the Tweenies is far more sensible and handy than Max.

I think it's just crap since they put all that old rubbish on at the weekend. Monster cafe, WTF?

lol at "basil brush has always been a nob".

Damn right. And Mr Roy, but I digress...

I was thinking recently that CBeebies is male-dominated, can't read the article at the moment, will have a look later.

bring back Marmalade Atkins (okay it is too old for cbeebies but it was great)

Other than that - I am not overly concerned about cbeebies gender stereo typing - and the male presenters are a reet drippy bunch (maybe not sid so much) and I love Pui. My ds loves Mr Maker and dd loves In the night garden - she will be presented with lots of gender stereotyping throughout her life and I will do my best to counter it but we cannot pretend that society is not unequal and unfair

I got my many of my female role models from literature/ music and I ensure that there will be plenty of empowering reading/ listening for my dd and ds to enjoy

I'm quite enjoying the different dynamic of having Sid and Andy together, rather than a male/female pairing all the time.

Why spend a whole tree ranting about cbeebies and ignore the advertising on Nickjr.

Ad 1 6 year old boy plays with toy drill
Ad 2 3 girls go all jodie marsh about having a pair of shoes that contains a ring that contain glittering pink lipstick
Ad 3 2 girls spend hours with spooky pretend baby. They look all faux resigned as weird creature does a pretend poo in her nappy and then needs rocking back to sleep

witches aside : i would love to see a toy baby that was breast fed and ate finger food!

I agree Cbeebies is terribly sexist and it does mater, because that age is when we fix our ideas about gender roles. But I think this writer got a bit muddled and the article was a wasted opportunity. There is a lot of far more sexist stuff on Cbeebies than Charlie and Lola and ITNG. Upsy Daisy is pointless and vacuous, but no more so than Iggle Piggle (and I always assumed there was a female tombliboo! - and Mrs Pontipine doesn't stay at home and do the dishes!). Lola is very interesting - she has realistically "girl" preferences but actually is never, ever held back or held down by beng female. The pink thing is a total red herring. There is nothing sexist about pink. It's over-used and it's a shame that girl's hardly seem to wear anything else, but you could be a rocket scientist, prime minister or business leader and still wear pink or love pink milk and it wouldn't mean a thing or hild you back in any way. It's a shame she focused on that when it's entirely irrelevant.

Andy Pandy, Muffin the Mule and many others though, including most of those male lead Bob/Sam/Finlay type shows, are deeply sexist. Alarmingly women are often not just in a secondary role, but are shown as being irritating, obsessed with appearance and/or mainly concerned with finding a man. I hate that.

I think Peppa Pig is brilliant too but it's not on CBeebies (is it?)

Having said that, I saw a Bob Wild West special recently where they met a totally no-prisoners cowgirl - that was good.

Why is Andy Pandy sexist? Muffin the mule is one of the most dreadful revivals ever full stop. Whimsical puppetry turned into cheap, dull cartoon. blech.

girl's??? OMG, shoot me now pedants

girls obviously

Andy Pandy and Teddy go out and have adventures. Looby Loo makes the biscuits and calls them in when something needs fixing. It drives me up the wall.

In Muffin the Mule, the femal mouse character does the cooking for everyone. The female sheep characters is vacuous and obsessed with appearance, not getting muddy, etc. Ad nauseam.

I'm fairly content that everyone is vacuous in Muffin the Mule, male or female.

Don't accept the criticism of Andy Pandy, though. Looby Lou lives on her own, is as clever as Andy, and is jolly good at making Teddy clean up after himself.

Well there we have it! It's Looby Lou's job to make Teddy tidy up?

(God I revile and loathe Teddy)

When he makes a mess of her house it chuffing well is. Why should she tidy up after him?

Hmmm interesting conundrum. I wouldn't let the f*cker in in the first place. I switch it off now because the sexism riles me so much, but I'm going to watch again to see if LL can be rehabilitated as a feminist icon after all.

I tend to think the whole sexism thing is overplayed.

SOmeone tell me more about the tweenies

Shame the article didn't comment on the overall crapness of Cbeebies.

Night Garden about the only decent thing on. How much do those crappy studio based programmes cost to make?

Perhaps if overall quality rose, then the whole thing would be more watchable.

Tweenis.......omg...just noise and more noise

tweenies used to have gripping storylines.

Or did I just think that when in house with two small children?