A recent study by a Canadian professor who studied Thomas and Friends discovered that the 25-year-old British children's TV series may be pushing a conservative political ideology off on kids, unbeknownst to their parents. In addition, the professor's research notes that of the 49 of the characters in the show, only eight are women, and all of them are relegated to supportive roles.
Wonderful.
Sullivan and Bridgette like Thomas, although I've always been really bugged at how much Diesel scares them both. Still, I've let them watch it almost everyday, wincing all the while. For Christmas, we bought Sully a bunch of Thomas the Train stuff, but now comes this, and I feel like taking it all back. I really wish I'd followed my gut instincts instead of dismissing my own mysterious angst.
It will be interesting to see if the creators, manufacturer and distributors feel the need to engage in damage control, because I really think once liberals find out about this, they're going to go all Diesel on the Thomas brand.
It will be interesting to see if the creators, manufacturer and distributors feel the need to engage in damage control, because I really think once liberals find out about this, they're going to go all Diesel on the Thomas brand.
One of my favorite bloggers is Jonathan Turley, one of our nation's leading experts in Constitutional Law, announced this on his blog today.
Finola Meredith has an excellent article, Thomas the not-so innocuous engine, in the Irish Times, and Kay Krhin has an editorial, Is Thomas the Train Sexist, on a blog via the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Here is a google search link to more than two dozen news articles about Thomas possibly being a capitalist and/or sexist pig.
What do you think? Before you decide, read Turley's post or another one of the news articles.
Finola Meredith has an excellent article, Thomas the not-so innocuous engine, in the Irish Times, and Kay Krhin has an editorial, Is Thomas the Train Sexist, on a blog via the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Here is a google search link to more than two dozen news articles about Thomas possibly being a capitalist and/or sexist pig.
What do you think? Before you decide, read Turley's post or another one of the news articles.
6 comments:
After reading your post and Turley's posts I can see what the fuss is about. We loved the Thomas trains but I remember thinking "what's up" with the cartoons because it did seem that anything that upset the social order as seen as a bad thing.
We are all over Thomas now and are on to Bakugan which totally baffles me. Hopefully we are not further messing up our young man's mind any further.
At the risk of mixing my images, I would suggest a heavy helping of lightening up.
A professor who misunderstands conservatism enough to believe that a political ideology rooted in individual property rights, rule of law and personal responsibility for one's own actions somehow "punishes individual initiative" is not someone who requires attention be paid to very many of their ideas.
@FRIAR - I understand your point, but you must watch Thomas to get a full grasp of just how creepy the show can be. I've ignored it for a long time. And, while I believe the conservative ideology is overdone, not the 41 to 8 male/female ratio. C'mon. Would YOU watch the same show w/ 41 female trains and 8 male trains and ALL of the male trains are relegated to supportive roles. Be honest, my friend. I like your comments. They're always edgy. I'll try to lighten up. Maybe. =) Those sexist pigs. hahahaha!
I have never seen Thomas, but I do remember some people claiming Teletubies promote a gay agenda. People believe what they want to believe.
Jen --
The "lighten up" was aimed more at the academics than at you or your post. I wasn't very clear about that; sorry.
I've only watched bits of Thomas shows; they never interested me enough to figure out if they were creepy or not (I'm not a parent).
I agree such a lop-sided ratio of male to female characters is unfortunate and not very well thought-out. I can't say for sure but I'm guessing my mom would have said something to me and my sister like, "Well, that's not really the way things are in the real world, is it?" and been sure we saw the difference.
Thomas the Tank Engine is from a series of 26 illustrated children's books ("The Railway Series") that began publication in 1945 and came out roughly annually. Wilbert Awdry, an Anglican vicar and rail enthusiast, told stories about railway engines to his young son, and these stories led to the books. Our family has a copy of the single-volume collection of all the stories.
Many of the stories are based on incidents involving real steam engines.
The stories come from a time when diesels were replacing steam engines, thus the tendency to paint diesels in a negative light.
Thomas made the leap to TV in 1984 in Britain and then came to the US in 1989 as part of the PBS series Shining Time Station. The stories, mostly drawn from the books, were narrated by far-right icons Ringo Starr, George Carlin, and Alec Baldwin. Over time, new stories were written and new characters were introduced to address some complaints about the lack of diversity.
As for upsetting the social order -- these are train engines, not people. They exist to serve humans. At the same time, consider that the dominant character in the series, Thomas, is also the "cheekiest" -- the most likely to get up to a bit of mischief.
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