Not enough gender stereotypes in Bluey

[teezletangler]

This article is making the rounds online:

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/04/15/bluey-cartoon-diverse-characters-disabled-queer-gender-diverse-dogs[[https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/04/15/bluey-cartoon-diverse-characters-disabled-queer-gender-diverse-dogs/ /
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The spectacularly inane original article is here: https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/can-bluey-show-be-more-representative/100042084

"Australian children's show Bluey has been criticised for not having "disabled, queer, poor, gender diverse, dogs of colour and single-parent dog families"

For those not familiar, Bluey is a very popular Australian cartoon series about a dog family. Leaving aside the likely intelligence level of someone who can write with a straight face that a show needs more "dogs of colour", the "gender diverse" call-out really struck me. The wonderful thing about this show IMO is that there are no gender stereotypes. No gendered clothing (dogs don't wear clothes!), no silly eyelashes on the female characters. My 5 yo had to point out to me that Bluey is a girl I had stupidly assumed it was a boy.

So the call for "gender diverse" dogs doesn't make any sense. There is basically no gender in this show. Then it struck me. These people on the so-called progressive left are actually offended by lack of gender. They have no interest in getting rid of gender stereotypes; they want more of them. Why?? I can only assume it is because they need the boring, generic folk to be heavily steeped in gender stereotypes so we can identify who the cool / woke / right on people are who reject them; and if they aren't able to do that, then we can't identify them as special. And of course if there are no gender stereotypes, then they have no way of explaining trans ideology and the whole thing falls apart. To me this comment really crystallizes everything that is wrong with this movement.

My kids watched paw patrol.

I told them Zuma (orange, hovercraft) was a girl.

They rolled their eyes at me, so I challenged them to prove otherwise.

in real life stuff, who the hell knows or cares if lassie, or flipper, or benjie, or gentle ben are male or female? TBH, only feminists in the past, because as we all know, if no sex is given, we assume male (my favourite being one about a duck laying an egg.. still called 'He').

I told them Zuma (orange, hovercraft) was a girl.

I used to do this with loads of things. Animals, characters. If they don't say, I assume it's a girl. I also used to change he to she in children's books when it didn't make a difference. Very Hungry Caterpillar? Girl. Dinosaurs in natural history books? All girls.

I agree that no eyelashes and pink fur is a move forward. Anyone can do anything is surely a good message. And 'dogs of colour'? Are they all white dogs? Or German Shepherds? Or is it the accents because that's not an indication? You could argue the voice actors I suppose...

I just had a look at the picture and mum and dad are different so surely they're a mixed heritage dog family. Aren't they?

@MrsTerryPratchett yes they're clearly mixed race!

Have just given my headache rolling my eyes.

🦡🌈🤍

I wish there was a like button, because I'm 100% with you Mrs TP. These are clearly people looking for a problem where there isn't one except those they are projecting from their own prejudices.

Dogs of colour? I just Googled the show and it came up a picture containing orange, blue, yellow and B&W dogs (one like a dalmatian, the other like a border collie). Pretty diverse set of dogs there.

Perhaps they could have had a dog with a disability as a main character, and perhaps they could have a same sex couple, and a single parent family. Some cartoons do these days.

As for all the other complaints, I cannot see how you could portray relative wealth in a show about cartoon dogs, in order to show a poor family. There seems to be dogs of many different colours and breeds, so complaints about lack of colour seem churlish. As for "gender-diverse", I can't understand what they're looking at?? I see a wide range of characters, of all different kinds - some male, some female. It's actually really refreshing to see a main character that is a girl, that isn't pink with the cartoon eyelashes already mentioned (Sky from Paw Patrol for example!).

As so often, I hope the original article was satirical, or just a spoof. But they’re usually deadly, and brainlessly, serious.

It would be easy enough for them to have a disabled dog - three legged, vision impaired, deaf. But the others... without imposing human gender stereotypes? Well, sure, you could have a gay or bi dog, many are all too happy to display their diverse sexuality but it's a kids show....

As to 'colour' - did the person who wrote the piece mean there should be more breeds from around the world (if there aren't already) rather than mostly an Aussie breed?

I don't know this show, it sounds like they're doing well on 'diversity' on the axis where many kids shows and books fall down flat with their anthropomorphised animals - sex.

@MrsTerryPratchett

I just had a look at the picture and mum and dad are different so surely they're a mixed heritage dog family. Aren't they?

Pedantically, no, not on account of their colour. They're Australian Cattle dogs, which come in two main coat colours, 'red' and 'blue' (actually mixed brown&white and black&white hairs). It's just hair colour. But if you dig deeper, the whole family is 'mixed race' - this breed was created by crossing English drovers' dogs with dingoes which are arguably either a subspecies of Canis familiaris or a separate species.

One of the puppies has ADHD.

@DarcyLewis

One of the puppies has ADHD.

Cousin Muffin? She’s our favourite- we love the sleepover episode and frequently shout “I’m coming for you flamingo” at random intervals!

Aw I LOVE Bluey! It’s one of the few programmes my kids enjoy that I also enjoy. I take the point about disabilities and single parents but they do so well on other fronts - it’s rare to see both kids in a tv family be girls - and this is completely irrelevant to the storylines, as someone else said above, it’s hard to notice that. There is a very positive relationship between the parents where they are both responsible for childcare and the dad is seen being very active and playing with the kids a lot which I don’t know if I’ve seen before to such an extent. I also think they may have an episode about what it’s like to be the child in a military family too.
It’s such a positive, kind spirited show generally.

Are there any cats in it?

#whataboutthecats

Isn’t Indie’s mum a single parent?

We love Bluey. It could be more diverse with disability but both Bingo and Bluey are girls.

There’s loads of different dog breeds if that shows diversity in ethnicity. I’m a POC and never seen an issue!

Love this show. It’s quite like how we parent tbh.

But at the end of the day... it’s dogs...

@Artesia - no it’s a little boy, he talks about how hard he finds it to sit still and follow instructions etc

I can’t think of any gay couples on it though tbf

Jack is a Jack Russell Terrier puppy with ADHD, there's a whole episode about it.
Winton's parents are divorced.
Rusty's dad is in the Army and away a lot.
Snickers is a Sausage Dog with little arms and legs, so he often can't do things as fast as his friends.
Pompom is a tiny Pomeranian who doesn't let her size stop her from doing anything.

I haven't counted the sex ratio of the characters, but I feel like there are more girls than boys, which is really refreshing. I don't know how you would add the gender diversity and dogs of colour (???) into it without it being tokenistic.

Also there's an episode called "Mums and Dads" where Indy and Rusty are playing mums and dads. They get into an argument about who gets to stay home and look after the baby, and who gets to go to work. Rusty says "Mums stay home and look after the baby!" Indy comes back with "No, Dads stay home and mow the lawn!" In the end after Indy can't trust anyone else to watch the baby while she works, she and Rusty get back together and decide it's the weekend so they don't have to work. Nice little episode about stereotypes.

#whataboutthecats

You beat me to it.

Snickers is a Sausage Dog with little arms and legs, so he often can't do things as fast as his friends.

I've read that the short legs of dachshunds and basset hounds is caused by the same type of mutation as dwarfism in humans. Dachshunds can still easily outrun a person and were bred as hunting dogs, their main physical limitation is inability to steal from tables IME.

They have no interest in getting rid of gender stereotypes; they want more of them. Why?? I can only assume it is because they need the boring, generic folk to be heavily steeped in gender stereotypes so we can identify who the cool / woke / right on people are who reject them; and if they aren't able to do that, then we can't identify them as special.

Totally - I think this is very true and at the heart of why "transgender" as a concept is nonsense. Transsexual (where the person understands they can't literally change sex) does make more sense and I have some sympathy for that, but you can't be "transgender" unless you embrace the sexes being firmly attached to stereotyped "genders", and everyone who isn't "trans" going along with that - which of course they don't, and haven't for millennia.

This is why all kinds of transgenderist books, allies, educational materials etc. go on about "strict gender categories" that some people have a special need to depart from, making them special. They don't want to recognise that gender stereotypes are pretty loose, lots of things don't belong in either stereotype, there are multiple sanctioned ways of stepping outside them, and almost everyone breaks with the strictest definition of them to a greater or lesser degree.

It's like when that non-binary poet caused a furore by going on about not being able to get a haircut because hair salons are so gendered, so masculine or feminine. Except they're not. The person was pushing this idea that there are feminine pink perfumed hairdressers for women and masculine manly barbers for men, so they were left out (being too delicate to just endure something not specially made for them). But it's a total lie – most hairdressers are unisex and I've never seen a pink one. It's also an area where gay men often work and break with gender stereotypes. So a terrible example. But a classic approach by genderists - to basically lie that only special trans people break with a strict binary divide, and all the boring cis normals live in an ultra-gendered world. It's one of many aspects of this that makes me really angry, as I've been GNC all my life.

This is why I have an issue with "transgender" and "gender identity" being some kind of special category. They are not. People need protection from being attacked, victimised, persecuted, sacked etc om the basis of their gender expression, but not belonging to a strict stereotype is not some kind of extra special condition beyond that.

@YetAnotherSpartacus

#whataboutthecats

You beat me to it.

There is not enough talking about CATS AND I FIND IT TRIGGERING.

On #caturday as well!

I'm just going to leave my name here...