Hi all, this is something that's been bothering me for a while and I'd love to explore it more with you lovely ladies... I'm not sure if this is quite the right place, but I'd love to hear some feminist perspectives on this issue. Please redirect me elsewhere if you think that's more appropriate.
I find that I get quite irritated by the female presenters and female characters on Cbeebies programmes. I feel that they are almost always extremely smiley, very 'nice' and with no other discernible character attributes. The number of enormous female toothy smiles is overwhelming- Nina and her neurons, Miss Hoolie and the other Balamory ladies, the woman who presents Swashbuckle, all the female presenters... I'm startign to see their enormous grins as sinister! The only woman I can think of with a bit of personality is the presenter, Katie, who's allowed to be a bit quirky. Male characters and presenters seem to be afforded a bit more room to display other character traits.
I'm interested in/concerned by this representation of women. What effect might it be having on our little boys and girls? Are we teaching girls to be nice and smiley at the cost of other things? Are we teaching boys to expect the same from women? Or have I just watched too much CBeebies?!
I'm really looking forward to discussing this a bit further and perhaps you can help me to identify more eloquently quite why this bothers me so much. Thanks for reading!