Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

New CBeebies show has pissed me right off

107 replies

RednaxelasPony · 04/02/2019 22:15

Moon and Me.

One female character, who happens to be a tiny little dolly? Give me a break.

Upsy Daisy the token female was bad enough on Night Garden but this is a total joke!

It's 2019 for fuck's sake, can we not just have 50/50 male and female characters for our toddler's bedtime TV shows? Would it really be so hard for the writers to do that?

Feel like I want to actually complain to the BBC

OP posts:

Report

deydododatdodontdeydo · 05/02/2019 13:20

How can anyone tell what sex those characters on Moon and Me are?!

You could read the link someone posted on page 1.
//www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/joinin/moon-and-me-meet-the-characters

PoffleWaffle · 05/02/2019 13:25

From that link more characters are female.

PBo83 · 05/02/2019 14:18

@purpleme12

"... And my girl loves Tom and Jerry
All the Tom and Jerry clothes for kids are in the boys section none in the girls!"

Well, wander 10 yards to the boys section then? In terms of sizing/fit, children's clothes are pretty unisex.

Naturally, shops like to categorise into boys/girls as it makes the layout more user-friendly. It just so happens that boys will 'typically' like certain things more than girls and vice-versa. This will be done on market-research and commercial sense rather than some misogynistic campaign to force your daughter into wearing pink.

purpleme12 · 05/02/2019 14:20

Erm actually I did wander over to the boys section! There's no need to have that tone with me

PBo83 · 05/02/2019 14:24

@purpleme12

Cool, problem solved then. The tone of your initial post (including the "!") indicated that you were somehow annoyed by this.

purpleme12 · 05/02/2019 14:27

Yes I was joining in the discussion. I actually wouldn't have known about the t-shirts unless I'd seen them on a sale rail with boys and girls clothes on as I just wouldn't have thought to look at the boys section. So that's the only reason I knew they were there.

Then you your tone seemed to come across like you thought I was a bit stupid or something which I didn't appreciate

ignatiusjreilly · 05/02/2019 14:34

PBo83 surely you understand that children are highly influenced by whether something is designated "boys" or "girls"? I'm constantly having to counter this message with my own children.

SleepingStandingUp · 05/02/2019 14:40

Well, wander 10 yards to the boys section then? In terms of sizing/fit, children's clothes are pretty unisex.

The problem is DS wants Shimmer and Shine, or Skye etc but doesn't want it to be in pink with frills.

purpleme12 · 05/02/2019 14:46

I have found that the boys t-shirt is actually a different fit anyway. I've kept it cos she loves Tom and Jerry and it's not too bad but it's definitely a different fit/not as good fit as her others

SleepingStandingUp · 05/02/2019 14:59

Surely most kittle girls and boys are the same shape on top any way?

NeurotrashWarrior · 05/02/2019 15:05

The problem is DS wants Shimmer and Shine, or Skye etc but doesn't want it to be in pink with frills.

This is a massive problem imo for boys clothes

It's still very easy for girls to wear boys clothes, harder vice versa due to overly pink frilliness. A boy could wear it of course but they can pick up on it very early.

My ds loves shimmer and shine

MrsTerryPratcett · 05/02/2019 15:24

The problem is also the removal of female characters on clothing. If you are in the girls' section, you get all the Toy Story characters. Or all the Star Wars characters. Wander over to the boys' and you only get the male characters.

Because girls will wear male characters and boys won't wear female.

DD is past all this and chooses clothes with slogans like strong girls make a strong world or I run like a girl, try to keep up on them. Better than I hate maths but still a bit

MountainWitch · 05/02/2019 16:00

Yes little children have similar shapes, but girls' tops tend to be tighter in the arms and more fitted through the torso. They tend to have decorative grills and tucks at the neckline and sleeve. Shorts are shorter and there are fewer pockets on everything. They aren't the same at all. Girls' clothes tend to have prey animals and boys' predator animals (there was a great infographic on this a while ago)

The worst children's programme for sex equality has to be dinotrucks on Netflix. It's horrendous.

MountainWitch · 05/02/2019 16:01

Decorative frills not grills

Nquartz · 05/02/2019 16:17

This is very pertinent, playing Guess Who with DD & out of 24 people only 5 are women

AlphaJuno · 05/02/2019 18:22

I've watched it and thought it was a sweet little show. They're fantasy characters! There were male and female characters, but they're not even people, they're toys. On the whole, I think females are represented well on CBeebies. There's caties amazing machines, Maddie on 'do you know', Bitz on 'Bitz and Bobs', a female presenter and 2 female 'captains' on Swashbuckle, another show with a female lead in a band and most of the others and presenters are 50/50. I've even noticed how much it had moved on since my eldest was little (he's 12, but I currently have a 9 month old).

RednaxelasPony · 05/02/2019 22:28

Ta for the correction on the Moon and Me characters apparently being female! Definitely extremely creepy above all else.

Yes CBeebies is generally much better than other channels for equal representation. That's part of why I was so hacked off with it.

Abney and Teal is great, characters just being themselves. "Girl" not being one of them. Excellent point.

Go Jetters - one female, and every episode she says "seatbelts!" Why not alternate who says each part of the countdown every episode? Why does the female have to tell the males to put their bloody seatbelts on? Boils my piss. This unconscious bias has got to stop.

Thank you for enlightening and challenging replies.

OP posts:

PoffleWaffle · 05/02/2019 23:29

I assume the reason the female go jetter says seat belts is because she's the pilot.

Drogosnextwife · 05/02/2019 23:44

Those characters are creepy! What happened to Abney and teal? I loved that. Also Katie morag is amazing, my mum used to read me the books when I was little , and topsy and Tim.

NeurotrashWarrior · 06/02/2019 07:36

And not many female pilots! 👩‍✈️

GrungeSponge · 06/02/2019 10:22

I hate Peter Rabbit and Lily's magic vagina, sorry pocket! Lily as the only Female character is in the caring/caretaking role and doing all the wife work!

SleepingStandingUp · 06/02/2019 10:28

Tbf Peter Rabbit is old and they've largely kept the characters traditional so I forgive them because I love a rabbit bad boy 😂 😂

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

PaddysDad · 06/05/2019 11:55

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

AssassinatedBeauty · 06/05/2019 12:10

You revived a 3 month old thread to tell women off? Ok then.

ByGrabtharsHammarWhatASaving · 06/05/2019 12:30

Thank god you got here in time!

New CBeebies show has pissed me right off

Flip

1 2 3 4 5

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.