8 ms·

As the father of two young daughters, I adore Bluey. Quite apart from how good the episodes are for adults, I really enjoy the following aspects: 1. It portray

by laingc 3y ago

As the father of two young daughters, I adore Bluey. Quite apart from how good the episodes are for adults, I really enjoy the following aspects: 1. It portrays wholesome and positive family relationships, particularly between father and daughters. The girls are also good to one another, with occasional conflict kindly and realistically resolved. 2. It tells simple stories without pushing political messages. Unfortunately, children’s television at large has become another victim of the culture wars, with heavy-handed social messages infecting what should be simple cartoons. Bluey is something I can trust. 3. I don’t have to expose my kids to American accents. They’ll have more than enough of that from regular programming when they grow up.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> children’s television at large has become another victim of the culture wars Out of curiosity, as a non-parent, do any galling examples come to mind?
- jimbob45 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - rokkamokka 3y ago
    LGBTQ is not a political message... It's a message of acceptance
    - klyrs 3y ago
      As long as acceptance is a political firebomb, I will continue to throw it. And good for Blue's Clues for doing the same.
    - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
      To be fair, there are subtler ways of communicating acceptance. The Bluey way would seem to be having a couple at the playground that the kids maybe ask about. Or maybe they don’t! They just coëxist peacefully because it’s no more remarkable than them having a different skin tone. Different framing from a drag show, which I can see someone preferring without being homophobic.
  - robby_w_g 3y ago
    > "This family has two mommies. They love each other so proudly and they all go marching in... the... big parade," sing the lyrics. Other terms featured include "trans," "non-binary" and "queer." > “Love is love is love you see, and everyone should love proudly,” Acknowledging LGBTQ people are capable of love is somehow an example of “culture war”. It’s incredible people can be so bothered by a simple, sweet message.
    - The_Colonel 3y ago
      Bluey is targeted towards pre-school children. I'm not really bothered if my 4-year-old daughter sees stuff like this, it's just that she won't really understand things like "non-binary". It seems like a topic more appropriate for older children - maybe from age 8 or later?
      - deleted 3y ago
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      - deleted 3y ago
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      - throwaway87651 3y ago
        My 5-year-old understands that her older sibling is non-binary, so perhaps it is an appropriate topic even at this young age.
      - Doxin 3y ago
        She might not understand it yet, but there's value in exposing young children to concepts you'd like them to understand later.
      - lukeck 3y ago
        At my kids’ childcare, by far the most popular educator is non-binary. They do a great job of listening to the kids, and talking to them without talking down to them. Come to think of it, the way they interact with the kids actually reminds me a fair bit of the parents in Bluey. Both my kids (3 and 5 but now at school) have said stuff like “Today we did x with Greg. He’s not exactly a boy and not exactly a girl.” Then they get on with their day. To them, it’s just another person that’s a bit different to them.
  - TehCorwiz 3y ago
    How is this different to when Mr. Rogers shared a wading pool with his Black mailman? Or Captain Kirk kissed Uhura? Both evoked the same conservative outrage we hear about today over things like this. Introducing and celebrating people different from ourselves is how we become more comfortable with them. It eliminates the other-ness of them. As these kids grow up they're going to become aware of a vocal minority of adults who are trying to convince people to marginalize these minority groups and in some cases even call for their extermination. Yes it's a culture war, but it's not being waged by LGBT people, it's being waged against them.
    - klyrs 3y ago
      > Yes it's a culture war, but it's not being waged by LGBT people, it's being waged against them. As is tradition. The road from conversion camp to concentration camp is short and steep.
awilfox 3y ago
> with heavy-handed social messages infecting what should be simple cartoons. I kinda giggled at this, because I just last night saw "Pass the Parcel", which to me was the one time they sent this up and they did it so well.
- robbomacrae 3y ago
  That's because its never heavy handed.. How about the episode with grandpa struggling with the new app centric lifestyle: Phones "Are you sure we're playing this right?". Subtly provocative and brilliantly done.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
test1235 3y ago
>2. It tells simple stories without pushing political messages. I did wonder if there'd be any outcry over the DIY episode which is about evolution. Certain cultures seem to have serious issues with that. It did also hint at afterlife, however.
- xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
  There is plenty of hinting at there being an afterlife throughout the show, but it's aspirational, not prescriptive. It would be nice, wouldn't it?
nozzlegear 3y ago
> 3. I don’t have to expose my kids to American accents. They’ll have more than enough of that from regular programming when they grow up. What’s the concern here? I understand American media dominates everything, so I’m guessing you don’t want your kids to pick up small bits of American accent when they’re still developing?
- tambour 3y ago
  I'm not the OP, but as a child growing up in an anglophone country but with a 'low-prestige' accent (think Indian English or Singaporean English), it was ingrained to me pretty early on that the only 'proper' ways to speak were RP or General American, and one of the reasons was because all the kid shows I watched had characters who talked almost exclusively in those accents. 'Exotic' accents were used mostly for comedic value. Having a greater variety of shows that model the diversity of the English language would probably have gone some way to dispelling that damaging self-belief? I really love the existence of shows like Derry Girls, because they make me less self-conscious of my 'exotic' accent.
  - nozzlegear 3y ago
    That's a really interesting perspective that I hadn't considered, thank you for answering! I have what anyone would call a General American accent, so your experience isn't one I'd ever been personally exposed to growing up. I remember a lot of older sitcoms and cartoons using "exotic" accents for comedic value though, like you said, and it's obvious that can be damaging to anyone's self-esteem.

by laingc 3y ago

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> children’s television at large has become another victim of the culture wars Out of curiosity, as a non-parent, do any galling examples come to mind?

jimbob45 3y ago
[flagged]
- rokkamokka 3y ago
  LGBTQ is not a political message... It's a message of acceptance
  - klyrs 3y ago
    As long as acceptance is a political firebomb, I will continue to throw it. And good for Blue's Clues for doing the same.
  - JumpCrisscross 3y ago
    To be fair, there are subtler ways of communicating acceptance. The Bluey way would seem to be having a couple at the playground that the kids maybe ask about. Or maybe they don’t! They just coëxist peacefully because it’s no more remarkable than them having a different skin tone. Different framing from a drag show, which I can see someone preferring without being homophobic.
- robby_w_g 3y ago
  > "This family has two mommies. They love each other so proudly and they all go marching in... the... big parade," sing the lyrics. Other terms featured include "trans," "non-binary" and "queer." > “Love is love is love you see, and everyone should love proudly,” Acknowledging LGBTQ people are capable of love is somehow an example of “culture war”. It’s incredible people can be so bothered by a simple, sweet message.
  - The_Colonel 3y ago
    Bluey is targeted towards pre-school children. I'm not really bothered if my 4-year-old daughter sees stuff like this, it's just that she won't really understand things like "non-binary". It seems like a topic more appropriate for older children - maybe from age 8 or later?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - throwaway87651 3y ago
      My 5-year-old understands that her older sibling is non-binary, so perhaps it is an appropriate topic even at this young age.
    - Doxin 3y ago
      She might not understand it yet, but there's value in exposing young children to concepts you'd like them to understand later.
    - lukeck 3y ago
      At my kids’ childcare, by far the most popular educator is non-binary. They do a great job of listening to the kids, and talking to them without talking down to them. Come to think of it, the way they interact with the kids actually reminds me a fair bit of the parents in Bluey. Both my kids (3 and 5 but now at school) have said stuff like “Today we did x with Greg. He’s not exactly a boy and not exactly a girl.” Then they get on with their day. To them, it’s just another person that’s a bit different to them.
- TehCorwiz 3y ago
  How is this different to when Mr. Rogers shared a wading pool with his Black mailman? Or Captain Kirk kissed Uhura? Both evoked the same conservative outrage we hear about today over things like this. Introducing and celebrating people different from ourselves is how we become more comfortable with them. It eliminates the other-ness of them. As these kids grow up they're going to become aware of a vocal minority of adults who are trying to convince people to marginalize these minority groups and in some cases even call for their extermination. Yes it's a culture war, but it's not being waged by LGBT people, it's being waged against them.
  - klyrs 3y ago
    > Yes it's a culture war, but it's not being waged by LGBT people, it's being waged against them. As is tradition. The road from conversion camp to concentration camp is short and steep.

awilfox 3y ago

> with heavy-handed social messages infecting what should be simple cartoons. I kinda giggled at this, because I just last night saw "Pass the Parcel", which to me was the one time they sent this up and they did it so well.

robbomacrae 3y ago
That's because its never heavy handed.. How about the episode with grandpa struggling with the new app centric lifestyle: Phones "Are you sure we're playing this right?". Subtly provocative and brilliantly done.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

test1235 3y ago

>2. It tells simple stories without pushing political messages. I did wonder if there'd be any outcry over the DIY episode which is about evolution. Certain cultures seem to have serious issues with that. It did also hint at afterlife, however.

xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
There is plenty of hinting at there being an afterlife throughout the show, but it's aspirational, not prescriptive. It would be nice, wouldn't it?

nozzlegear 3y ago

> 3. I don’t have to expose my kids to American accents. They’ll have more than enough of that from regular programming when they grow up. What’s the concern here? I understand American media dominates everything, so I’m guessing you don’t want your kids to pick up small bits of American accent when they’re still developing?

tambour 3y ago
I'm not the OP, but as a child growing up in an anglophone country but with a 'low-prestige' accent (think Indian English or Singaporean English), it was ingrained to me pretty early on that the only 'proper' ways to speak were RP or General American, and one of the reasons was because all the kid shows I watched had characters who talked almost exclusively in those accents. 'Exotic' accents were used mostly for comedic value. Having a greater variety of shows that model the diversity of the English language would probably have gone some way to dispelling that damaging self-belief? I really love the existence of shows like Derry Girls, because they make me less self-conscious of my 'exotic' accent.
- nozzlegear 3y ago
  That's a really interesting perspective that I hadn't considered, thank you for answering! I have what anyone would call a General American accent, so your experience isn't one I'd ever been personally exposed to growing up. I remember a lot of older sitcoms and cartoons using "exotic" accents for comedic value though, like you said, and it's obvious that can be damaging to anyone's self-esteem.