Things my children like that I don't (TV, books etc)

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Peppa Pig.

The annoying, gender essentialist, agist, lazy pandering to every stereotype tripe is the first thing I ban if we ever decide that censorship is the right way to go. Also I can't help thinking that if Mummy and Daddy Pig ever thought about how they interact with Peppa and George, they might be less bratty and more thoughtful individuals. And while past performance is no guarantee of future performance, if I hear 'Edmund is a clever clogs' again, I'm likely to scream. Being clever is not to be denigrated!


Other than that, I'm not too keen on programmes that have a set bad guy who's never redeemed. Dora the Explorer has Swiper, who is always sent away even if he turns up in answer to 'there's enough for everyone'; there's the random jet in Little Einsteins, which I otherwise rather enjoy. They just turn up everywhere. This article is quite a nice justification, which made me feel better about the trope, but I still don't like it.


Bookwise, I am not a big fan of the pink glitter sensation. The way that publishers assume that if it's aimed at girls, a book just needs to be pink with glitter on the outside, and does not need literary merit in anyway. Rainbow Magic Fairies is a prime example.
The exception is Holly Webb, who some of you know from Sheila and her Dog Society. THat's why she has more shelfspace at our local library than Brian Jacques and Roald Dahl combined. She's got all the themes, magic,puppies, pink sparkles, but actually respects about her readers too.

Comments

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

I do like Peppa quite a lot, and find it much more enjoyable than most young kids' TV, so I'm going to try to defend it.

(I do have quite a comprehensive knowledge of the series due to repeated exposure, so feel free to ignore if this is more detailed than you can be bothered with.)

Gender essentialist:
OK, agreed, as far as the kids are concerned (especially in "Best Friend" where Peppa and Suzy play "girls' games" like fairies and hospitals, and George and Richard play "boys' games" like trains and dinosaurs, until they're finally united in the gender-neutral activity of jumping in muddy puddles). But the adults do quite well. All the firefighters are female, Dr Hamster the vet is female (and her husband phones her to say she's late home for her tea), and Miss Rabbit includes train driver and rescue helicopter pilot among her many careers. Mummy Pig doesn't go out to work, but I think she works from home (she often "does important work on her computer", although I guess that could be household admin). We see Daddy Pig hoovering and cooking, and Mummy Pig is better than him at DIY. And there's a delightful subversion in "The Children's Fete" where Peppa is running a lucky dip, and Mr Bull (a very masculine working-class blokey bloke) wins a dolly, and Mrs Cat wins a digger, and Peppa says "Oh. Would you like to swap?" and they both reply indignantly "No!" and Mr Bull rocks his dolly and Mrs Cat makes brrm-brrm motions with her digger.
I've seen Daddy Pig criticised as a Homer Simpson-style incompetent dad (I'm not sure if that counts as gender essentialist or not), but I think he only is some of the time. He claims to be "a bit of an expert" at lots of things, and I think about two-thirds of the time he's comedically wrong (DIY, map-reading, foreign languages) but sometimes he's impressively right (diving, drumming, ballet).

Ageist:
Not sure where you're coming from here. Daddy Pig likes to laze around and do nothing, and Grandpa Pig comes in being all energetic and active. Madame Gazelle is an elderly rock guitarist, and Grampy Rabbit is practically an action hero. And the Queen likes to jump in muddy puddles.
Granny and Grandpa Pig are true to stereotype when they get a computer and are clueless with it, but I think they have it figured out by the end of the episode.

Clever clogs:
I don't think it's meant in a derogatory way? About half the time it's Edmund himself announcing "I'm a clever-clogs" followed by a triumphant trumpeting noise. And the phonics and numeracy worksheets in the Peppa magazine have advanced "Clever Clogs questions".
I can see it's one of those phrases that can be insult or compliment depending on context and tone. My gran used to call me clever-clogs in a praising way.

Parental interaction and brattiness:
I'm really interested to know which bits you mean here. My parents' parenting style is more authoritarian than mine, and I know which bits of the Pigs' parenting they disapprove of: the bits where they fail to enforce consequences, like in "The Cycle Ride" where Peppa insists she's big enough to ride her own bike and not go in a child seat, and then she gets tired, and they let her go home on the back of the tandem and Daddy Pig rides Peppa's bike.
But I think you're more liberal than them and perhaps than me, so I'm guessing it's not those bits. Is it where they sometimes laugh at the children's mistakes?
I remember hearing criticism that Peppa was "naughty", when Bethany was a preschooler. At the time I thought that I'd be delighted if only Bethany were as mature, obedient, and willing to share as Peppa!
I still think Peppa is a better role model than Numberjack 3, and definitely than Vanellope, who are some of her main rivals for the job in our house.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm definitely thinking of Daddy Pig ruining the pancakes/pasta, knocking a wall down when he went to put up a picture, the football club barbecue fire where he had to be rescued yet again by Mummy Pig. Mostly, though, it's the children. Peppa doesn't like dinosaurs or sciency things, she likes princesses and arty things. They have the tree houses divided into boy and girl. The girls wanted dolls and the boys wanted, er, I can't remember what the boys wanted, but it was more varied.

Clever clogs has always come across in context as derogatory. He often gets the same eyeroll as Grampy Rabbit, another thing that I find upsetting. Like when Doctor Brown Bear asks does he have to fix Grampy Rabbit's voice, I get really sad because it's so mean and rude.

The agism is related to the parenting, I think. There's a definite us+them feel I'm picking up, but it could just be me - I'll bow to your superior experience on this one.

Again, the parenting thing is a thing that Colin and I were talking about last time the kids were watching, so it could well have been that we just saw a particularly egregious episode, but I don't remember which one it was. There was a thing that could have been avoided where everyone got upset because the children weren't listened to.
I try not to say 'bad parenting' when I mean 'different parenting' - every family is differnet and different things work for different people. But I often get the feeling that the Pig parents don't really recognise the Pig children as fully formed individuals with valid ideas and experiences of their own. And that bothers me. But again, I can't point to the specific episode because I've been having a rubbish day on very little sleep and I don't have the energy for citations, so my argument is pretty ropy.

And that's the thing. When they've been watching Peppa Pig, my children get meaner. They get more inclined to say 'No boys allowed' or 'I can't do that, that's for girls'. So I try to encourage alternatives.

[nevboo.livejournal.com]

I concur about peppa pig and wish the childminder had never introduced Alice to it.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Thank you for saying that.

[rmc28]

I can't stand Peppa Pig, but Tony quite likes it, so Nico only gets to watch it with him.