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How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

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Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#431

Post by dclowd9901 »

93po wrote: post #357
dclowd9901 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, it stands out among kids shows, which are typically a wasteland of formulaic stories that amount to nothing and require no introspective thinking. One thing I think that illustrates this is that my daughter will often have questions for me after watching Bluey. Like actual meaningful questions about life or how the world works. If she’s watching TOTS, she’s just sitting there mouth agape and maybe getting bored…

Again I think the premise here is that this sort of engagement with the world is better done, for example, as a conversation with an adult that can lead them to the same interesting questions and observations. I did this endlessly as a kid. I'd be sitting bored in a car and look at clouds and ask my parents how clouds worked. This wouldn't have happened if I was given a smart phone.

I don’t disagree, and we get that time and those interactions too in various other contexts. But when I need a break, I’m far more comfortable putting my kids in front of a show like Bluey than other shows because it engages their minds.

Parenting is a marathon, not a race. If it takes a village, parents need to be able to rely on the village from the time to time.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#432

Post by karmajunkie »

dgfitz wrote: post #417
karmajunkie wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, i fully recognize that at least one of my children is likely to enjoy baseball and vote for a Republican at least once in their life, despite my best efforts to show them the light. I will love them anyway.

Aww, don’t make baseball political. C’mon.

well, everything is political, but i wasn’t making it so. i just really hate baseball and have never encouraged my kids to play the sport because of that.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#433

Post by pylua »

sdiupIGPWEfh wrote: post #419
pylua wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also sets the bar very high for parents.

> It also sets the bar very high for parents. Every time I hear this framed as a complaint, I feel the tiniest bit guilty—just for a moment—for personally identifying with Bandit's level of playtime effort and enthusiasm. But I can also commiserate with the few episodes where he let's on just how exhausted he actually is.

It’s actually not a complaint more of an observation.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#435

Post by rglullis »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #428
rglullis wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never seen Daniel Tiger, but Peppa Pig makes the Dad the butt of the joke and portrays him as the overconfident idiot in pretty much every story, while all moms are always infallible. It's not something that kids might consciously notice, but it's grating and not what I'd exactly call a positive message.

Well that de-escalated quickly! One moment it's considered brave to even feature a single, intact heterosexual couple of married pigs in a cartoon, but when challenged on this being an insane take, utterly divorced from reality, we've fallen back to "sometimes the cartoon pig dad has humourous foibles as part of his character"?

Have you realized that you are talking about comments made by two different people?

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#436

Post by dragonwriter »

geraldwhen wrote: post #285
afavour wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The show unashamedly depicts an intact household with two loving, heterosexual parents. It's "stunning and brave" in the current culture. Eh? I'm trying to think of peer shows of Bluey... Peppa Pig and Daniel Tiger come to mind (Trash Truck anyone? Charming little show), heterosexual parents are by far and away the norm. The idea that it's "brave" to show them feels like a conservative talking point that's out of s…

[flagged]

So the argument is no longer that presenting an intact heterosexual nuclear family is worthy of positive note, but that instead presenting exclusively intact monoracial nuclear families is worthy of positive note?

With the former, I would agree, except that its so common that while it may be positive its hardly noteworthy; with the latter... just no.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#437

Post by dragonwriter »

skyyler wrote: post #364
theultdev wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He never said he was offended by those things. Just those things don't always need to be in all kid shows. You can support those ideals and not want pandering in your show. Crazy, I know.

Any inclusion is pandering to some people.

So is any exclusion.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#438

Post by rglullis »

ethanbond wrote: post #427
theultdev wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He never said he was offended by those things. Just those things don't always need to be in all kid shows. You can support those ideals and not want pandering in your show. Crazy, I know.

Isn’t the point of kids media to help prepare them for the real world?

Not at all? How much "preparing for the real world" was there in Hanna Barbera cartoons, or GI Joe, Thundercats, Looney Toons, etc?

One could argue that cartoons of an era are descriptive of current culture, but to take them as prescriptive seems a terribly misguided idea.

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#439

Post by ZeroGravitas »

rglullis wrote: post #435
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that de-escalated quickly! One moment it's considered brave to even feature a single, intact heterosexual couple of married pigs in a cartoon, but when challenged on this being an insane take, utterly divorced from reality, we've fallen back to "sometimes the cartoon pig dad has humourous foibles as part of his character"?

Have you realized that you are talking about comments made by two different people?

Yes.

I don't really know why you thought it was an appropriate direction to take the "there are no heterosexual couples depicted in modern children's TV! / Yes there are, are you mad?" thread though. Maybe you can enlighten us?

Re: How Australia’s ‘Bluey’ conquered children’s entertainment

#440

Post by rglullis »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #439
rglullis wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you realized that you are talking about comments made by two different people?

Yes. I don't really know why you thought it was an appropriate direction to take the "there are no heterosexual couples depicted in modern children's TV! / Yes there are, are you mad?" thread though. Maybe you can enlighten us?

My argument is less about the identity politics and the modern idea of "diversity" and more about how Bluey does not fall into the "stupid overconfident father / smart sassy mother" trope that is pretty much the rule in Western TV shows since maybe the Simpsons?
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