Thomas and friends

[wokeupwithasmile]

I only have one child and he is 7 months old, so I have never watched T&F before. However on Friday morning we were having breakfast and I turned on the TV. T&F was on, and what I saw was a bit disappointing really. I thought it was a nice thing for DC when he was older - given that I see it everywhere and I hear that children like it, but I am not sure about it anymore!
Thomas female train friend, don't remember the name, was scolded in front of the other engines for not having carefully planned the laundry and so whatever clothes they needed were not washed and dry. In order to fix this she went to talk to the 'laundry lady', who was female too.

Is T&F always full of such stereotypical crap?

They're cartoon trains so don't worry too much.

If you watch it again you'll see that the engines all get told of for different things. I have to endure it regularly and struggle to find it sexist tbh.

Don't worry about it - it's a cartoon about trains, all of whom are scolded at regular intervals.

If it makes you feel better, Annie and Clarabel are very feisty, and keep Thomas on the right track (see what I did there )

AFAIR there was only one female engine in the original stories, Daisy, who was a bit of a diva and had long eyelashes. Apart from the aforesaid Annie and Clarabel, the only positive female model I can think of was the Fat Controller's formidable mother. ("My mother says you are all Really Useful Engines. And my mother is always right.")

However... trains doing laundry? What madness is this?

How do trains wear clothes?

It is dominated by male characters, broadly.

Annie and Clarabel were the only female characters who regularly appeared in the original books AFAIR. Daisy was added to make things more even...

The diesel engines were thugs. None of them came out of it well. They were all bell ends in one way or another. Especially Gordon. Actually, especially Thomas, always going off and doing something ridiculous and causing chaos. James was not that bad in a spivvy sort of way, and Toby was just about acceptable.

I remember this one, the issue is not gender related. There is a football match and the engines are excited because the Sodor team are playing. Emily the engine loves football and while the engines are choosing jobs she starts daydreaming so the other engines take all the jobs and she is left with the laundry. It turns out that the laundry in question is the team kit
that they need to play in. So she had to get her job finished before the match starts. It's more a lesson of concentrating and doing what you're supposed to be doing rather than stereotyping female characters .

What about poor old Salty? Those smug, spineless A-holes bullied and ostracised that poor cheerful bastard.

Of it's time. Literature is a rich tapestry. There are more female trains in the actual sets - Belle is a very large and impressive blue train. Nothing says that Cranky or Butch can't be female trains.
The world is a sexist and stereotyped place. Offset the reality with your own role modelling.

DD loves Thomas and I have had the similar thoughts, the characters are definitely male-dominated. However, I've never seen an episode where the female characters (and there are a few in the newer series, unlike the originals I used watch as a child) are treated any differently to the male characters. It is always full of lots of goody-two-shoes type behaviour though, which I find irritating.

I despised the episode where James was painted pink and he actually felt ashamed because it was seen as a girls' colour!!!

He even hid in the tunnel at one point, afraid to come out!

I think that was the fist time I wanted to slap it up a children's writer!!

FIRST!!

But yeah, fist also works!! :D

You can analyse Thomas endlessly

Bob the Builder offers a slightly different perspective with Wendy.

Thank you all for your replies. Hum, I will have to watch a few more myself then before deciding, but I really thought it was more of a Peppa Pig style of cartoon!