Your Views... The WORST kids' TV programmes

Once we’d got your best TV programmes - we asked you to name and shame the worst offenders for lazy stereotyping in kids’ TV. Some of your responses were actually a bit of a surprise…

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Here are your very worst programmes. The ones where your eyes are rolling so hard that they start to hurt. A pile of programmes that create and reinforce stereotypes of pretty, simpering girls and adventurous, macho boys or infinitely capable mothers and completely feckless dads. Bad behaviour and rude tones also get a look in here… Unfortunately you can find most of these lazy stereotypes in most kids’ programmes. But I couldn’t list every programme ever made, so I just picked the top mentions. Once again these are mostly programmes you can watch easily in the UK, though lots of these you can also find on YouTube, Netflix and Amazon. But don’t. I haven’t put in links as you should just avoid these.

Your worst kids’ TV programmes

Paw Patrol

Topping the bill of your worst programmes is the utterly ubiquitous Paw Patrol. Or ‘Sodding Paw Patrol’ as one of you calls it. My kids knew all about this programme before I had even heard of it, so I think it enters their brains by osmosis. Or maybe like a parasitic worm. Token girls - check. Girls only pink or purple - check. Young boy genius repeatedly saving the day for the female mayor who seems to be largely incompetent - check… And we wonder why kids don’t think women should be in leadership roles.

Peppa Pig

In a very close second place comes the fifteen-year-old and still going strong Peppa Pig. (Firstly can we just ask why George is not called Paul? Or Peter? Peppa Pig, Rebecca Rabbit, Pedro Pony, Danny Dog, and George Pig…? This makes me irritated every time I think about it. I should probably get out more.) Peppa and George fulfil all the stereotypes, pink and blue, dinosaurs for boys, dolls for girls. Mummy and Daddy Pig slot neatly into the roles of capable mummy and idiot daddy, but it seems what really gets your goats is how rude the pig children are. And how rude they are about Daddy Pig’s fat tummy in particular. Let me know if you’ve got any redeeming features for this one - I couldn’t think of any.

Ben & Holly

I almost can’t write anything about this. I hate it. Pink fairies, princesses, all twee and simpering. Elves are boys - obvs. Because they couldn’t just all be fairies? My personal low point is in the sports day one where Holly explains fairies (eg girls) can do lots of things, gymnastics, ballet and looking pretty. LOOKING PRETTY. Ben is doing a running race. Because boys do sports and girls do LOOKING PRETTY.

Shimmer & Shine, Butter Bean Cafe etc etc

I’ve put all these together because they are all essentially the same. Pink sparkles, hearts, giant eyelashes, fairies, magic, you know the stuff. There are millions of these programmes, with paper thin plots and strong focus on looks - mainly as far as I can tell, as vehicles for selling stuff to young girls. There are plenty of programmes where the pink and sparkle goes alongside adventure and relationships (see My Little Pony), can we just stop making this crap? Shimmer and Shite one of you called it. Yes.

Blaze

Blaze and the Monster Machines. Boy and his Truck compete with other (strangely driverless) trucks to save the day. I’ve got nothing on this as I couldn’t sustain interest in the spurious maths/engineering problems they shoehorn into the already snooze-inducing plots. There are some female trucks: of course they are pink and purple and have sparkles and eyelashes.) There is a girl in it sometimes, she is not the main character of course. Programme makers! 50% of the population is female. IT IS NOT HARD. Just make some of your characters female - you don’t have to change anything else about them.

And now for the controversial one…

Octonauts

Here’s the conversation that started about Octonauts:

This one is almost my worst - it’s so insidious. Yes, there are girls, but they don’t get to go out. They have to stay behind and fix what ever mess the feckless Kwazii has made this time. This is not an isolated problem. Almost every adventurous boy has a female fixer at home… Sound just a little bit familiar? This is the one that shows just how deep our prejudices run - so deep we hardly notice them.

Tell us what you think. What’s your worst? Or can you think of something that brings these programmes back from the brink?